“Mothballing Toolkit for Vacant Dance Halls” is now available

When dance halls will be vacant or infrequently used for some period of time, we can take steps to keep them secure, stable, and weathertight while they are not being used. A guide to doing that — a process called “mothballing” — was produced over the past two years with help from owners of the following halls:

Appelt’s Hill Dance Hall (Hallettsville, Texas)
Freyburg Hall (Freyburg, Texas)
Grapetown Rifle Club (Grapetown, Texas)
Hye Hall (Hye, Texas)
Mixville Sunrise Hall (Austin County)
Peters Hacienda Schuetzen Verein Hall (Peters Community, Texas
Saints Peter and Paul Hall (Plum, Texas)
Sons of Herrmann Lodge No. 301 (Deanville, Texas)

Since this project began, some of these halls have undertaken renovations and have been or are on their way to being put back into frequent, productive use.

TDHP wants to thank the following funders, who made this guide possible: the Texas Preservation Trust Fund, The Summerlee Foundation, the Fondren Fund for Texas/National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Texas Historical Foundation, and TDHP co-founder Steph McDougal. The guide was produced by historic preservation architect Ann Benson McGlone.

You can find a link to the Mothballing Toolkit as a downloadable PDF on our Resources page.