The former Hobart House, remodeled and with a new hardwood floor in its dance hall, was now to re-open as the Community Building. It was thus "Hobart's oldest and newest hall," since the third floor had been a dance hall half a century earlier, before being partitioned into hotel rooms. The building's basement, also newly remodeled and painted, was expected to be used for a soft drink and ice cream parlor. All in all, the old building seemed prepared as the site of much sociable fun for the town.
Speaking of sociable fun, the M.E. Church on Fourth Street had just seen a lively celebration, as Bertha Messick hosted a joint birthday party honoring her daughter, Dalia, and a boy names James Hawke (poor little overshadowed thing!). Some 34 children and unnumbered adults crowded into the church basement for three hours.
Community Hall's first dance took place on Wednesday, April 23, and thereafter the hall was opened to the public every Saturday night. A mid-May notice read: "You who enjoy dancing on a fine floor to good music, are assured a pleasant and enjoyable evening in Community hall every Saturday. Admission: Gentlemen, 50 cents. Ladies, 25 cents."
The day after the hall's first dance, the News reported that an "epidemic" of typhoid fever "raging" in Hammond had taken the life of an uncle of Hobart's Charles Nitchman. Early in May, the Gazette noted that an "epidemic of scarlet fever" was apparently underway in Valparaiso. A month later, measles, chicken pox and whooping cough were reported in Hobart.
Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 9 May 1919.
♦ "Community Hall Will Be Formally Opened to the Public on April 23rd." Hobart News 17 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Grand Opening of Community Hall, Hobart, Ind., Wednesday Evening, April 23rd, 1919." Hobart Gazette 18 April 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919; 15 May 1919; 12 June 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 18 Apr. 1919.
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