AVON OAKS Girard ballroom to celebrate 100 years with anniversary event

The Girard Historical Society is sponsoring the site's centennial party.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Avon Oaks Ballroom on the city's North Side started as a picnic grove and has a long, rich history.
At one time, Avon Park attracted as many as 30,000 visitors during special events to take in the 3,000-seat casino, exotic animals at its zoo, roller coaster and racing on its track; and, of course, they came to dance.
It was a summer resort known as a "trolley park" that spread over nearly 100 acres with Squaw Creek attracting boaters and swimmers.
The ballroom still attracts dancers four nights a week.
Although it's not the attraction it once was, the ballroom will celebrate its 100th anniversary from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday. The event is sponsored by the Girard Historical Society. Tickets are $8 each and can be obtained from Avon Park enthusiast Frank Macek, (330) 545-2454. The event will feature the Bob Kravos Band from Cleveland and Fred Astaire Dancers, who will put on exhibitions of period dances.
"It's still a vibrant part of the community," said the 66-year-old Macek, who grew up in the area along U.S. Route 422, just up the road from the old Ohio Leather Works.
Macek, of Oak Street, talked about the history of the park and ballroom.
The area along the banks of Squaw Creek was once known as kind of a lovers' lane where young men took their girls to sit in the shade of the tall oak trees.
In 1897, the area was turned into Squaw Creek Park. In 1903, promoter Joseph Wess became manager.
First ballroom
Wess changed the name to Avon Park and started to build. A year after becoming manager, he had the ballroom constructed.
Macek noted that the ballroom was originally on the second floor with a dining area on the first floor.
The park, which became well known throughout the country, had rides, casino and zoo with an aviary housing more birds than the St. Louis Exposition.
Wess brought in top entertainers and vaudeville acts.
"He left no stone unturned," Macek said of Wess, noting $100,000 was put into the park, including the ballroom.
The park was open daily and was indeed a summer resort, competing with Idora Park in Youngstown.
"There was nothing else around here," Macek explained. They came from everywhere," he said, calling attention to visitors from Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
But the heyday of the park came to an end in 1908 when Wess skipped town because of financial woes. He hadn't paid the musicians, and their union threatened to fine its members $25 if they played one note for Wess.
In 1911, the park was sold to the Avon Park Land Co. It reopened in 1920 with one of the investors, William H. Barr of Lisbon, operating it.
The roller skating rink known as "Avonia" opened in 1905 in the park. The ballroom was closed in 1949 by the state fire marshal.
The property was bought after World War II by John Pierko and John Rodomsky, both of McKinley Heights, and Charles Zubyk, who would become judge of the Niles Municipal Court.
Zubyk dropped out of the partnership, and Pierko and Rodomsky reopened the ballroom in 1951. The next year, Pierko continued to operate the hall and Rodomsky went on to develop Squaw Creek Estates.
Pierko sold the ballroom to Albert and Donna Revella in 1965. Mrs. Revella continues to operate it with the help of her family.
Macek said he watched Idora Park and its ballroom and the Elms Ballroom fade away.
"To me, it's important," Macek said of the Avon Oaks Ballroom. "It'd just hate to see it go."
yovich@vindy.com