It may not have been unusual for town’s the size of Crete to have a ballroom, or an Opera house for gathering and dances in the early and middle of the last century. It may have been uncommon, however, to have a heated swimming pool. Crete had both.

This is the third in a four week series of the buildings and businesses that have made Main St. in Crete since the town’s founding. The Crete News will venture into its archives and look to local sources to portray a time-line of what made and currently makes Main St. in the City of Crete.

In an archived Crete News article  from 1967, Adolph Rozanek, then owner of the building, recalls the opening of the ballroom on the second floor in 1929.

He said he bought the 1877 building, then located on the northwest corner of 13th and Main and spanning over three lots to the north, in 1929 and refurnished the second floor opera house as The Cinderella  Ballroom.

“We laid the floor diagonally so the dancers would have the same friction in all directions. It made a good floor,” Rozanek said. “I didn’t allow smoking on the floor; that would have ruined it.”

The maple dance floor had 3,500 square feet and dances were held every Wednesday and Friday when “only bands with established reputations will be booked.”

Rozanek said in the 1967 interview that several local bands including Jim Koci and Jim Sinkule played at the Cinderella Ballroom. (Both are mentioned in the Musicians Hall of Fame article in this issue.)

Through the Great Depression, the ballroom struggled and when Rozanek closed it, there wasn’t much more done than closing the doors. Signs were still hanging, but the era of big dances was over.

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At the north end of Main St. stood the Fairmont Creamery, on the east side. The facility itself was an important industry in Crete when it operated from 1889 to 1960. The 50th anniversary in 1939 was a particularly special occasion and events were held around town.

In a 1993 article about the creamery and its employees, it was written that a powerhouse worker from the 1903s and 1940s named Monti Littler would let children blow the noon whistle.

In 1921, efforts were made to construct a swimming pool across the street from the creamery, where the Crete Fire Station now sits.

The building costs were about $5,000 and newspaper reports said the dimensions were 76 feet by 140 feet. The pool was filled with warm water from a four-inch stream from the creamery condensers. It entered the pool through a fountain, seen in the photo on page one.

Thelma Grasz, of Crete, said in the 125th Anniversary special of The Crete News that the pool smelled like buttermilk. The pool remained open until the 1940s.

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The first floor of the Opera House, on the corner was later home to First Federal Bank. In the summer of 1979 the whole building was razes to build a new bank structure. Many longtime Crete residents will remember the opera house wasn’t the only building lost.

In September 1979, after the demolition of the opera building, the wall of the Behrens photography studio to the north, which had been adjacent to the demolished building, collapsed.

Norm Behrens owned the studio while Arnold Foster operated a plumbing and heating business out of the next building to the north. A 1979 article stated that Behrens was able to salvage little from the studio while Foster was able to move equipment out of his space.