Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
MailNewsletters♡Donate Now
Sign up
*Password must be at least 8 characters and contain one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one symbol.
Already have an account?
By submitting, you consent that you are at least 18 years of age and to receive information about MPR's or APMG entities' programs and offerings. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about MPR, APMG entities, and its sponsors. You may opt-out at any time clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email communication. View our Privacy Policy.
Sign in to your profile
Forgot Password?
New to MPR News?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Reset Password

Enter the username on file and we'll send you a code to reset your password.

Still require assistance or not sure what your User Name is?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Email Verification

A verification code has been emailed to

Still awaiting the code?
NewsCut
Bob Collins

The music stops at the Withrow Ballroom

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Log inCreate a free Account

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!

For nearly 90 years, the Withrow Ballroom in Withrow, Minn., has kept the music going but that all comes to an end after the Rockin' Hollywoods play their last notes on Saturday. The place is going up for sale, the Stillwater Gazette reports.

It's believed to be the oldest ballroom in the state, tracing its ancestry to 1928, when Ben and Anna Zahler built the place. They sold it to their son and for several decades it served as a popular polka venue as one Zahler generation sold it to the next.

Rock took over in the '60s as the German immigrant farmers began to be outnumbered.

“When we first bought the place, it was just a white, rectangular box in the middle of a corn field,” Pete Babcock, who bought the ballroom in 1986 and sold it a dozen years later, tells the paper. “Do you know that at the time Washington County had more horses per capita than anywhere in the country? So we decided to add the gazebo and fix the place up to look like a Kentucky horse farm.”

Babcock said during his time owning the place more than 1,000 weddings were held at the venue.

“It makes you think about the tens of thousands of people came to the Withrow ballroom on a Friday or Saturday night,” Babcock said. “The number of people whose grandparents met at a polka dance or the hundreds of people who got married there.”

Babcock said he doesn’t want to think about what will happen if the Withrow Ballroom comes down to make way for some kind of new development.

“My heart and soul went into it, and to see it go is breaking my heart,” Babcock said. “Besides my kids, the Withrow Ballroom is my legacy and some of the best years of my life.”

The ballroom went into foreclosure in 2009 when a Stillwater nursery owner rescued it.

Steve Ghizoni, frontman of the Rockin' Hollywoods, who practically called the place home, said he wouldn't be surprised to see the ballroom torn down.

The property will be auctioned off on November 11.