Balch's Beach
Some 300 people visited Balch's Beach on the north end of Middle Pond at Lake Congamond between June 17 and 18, 1929. The amusement center held its grand opening on July 1. (Balch's Beach stretched across Point Grove Road to North Pond.)
Balch's Beach featured a concession stand, live entertainment, a dancing pavilion, row boats and canoes, a water slide, fishing, and a speed boat that provided lake tours. It also had a picnic grove, a bathhouse, a merry-go-round, and about a 1,500 foot beach. Cottages, campsites, another bathhouse, and a ballroom were later added. (A powerful searchlight was installed atop the bathhouse in 1931. The light mimicked daylight and illuminated the water for night swimming.)
The Balch's Beach Ballroom officially opened on July 31, 1929, with Dick Newcomb's Orchestra. It became the Ritz Ballroom in 1930.
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Problems plagued Balch's Beach from the start. On August 14, 1929, C. P. Kibbe, Inc. of Springfield, filed a $6,000 suit against Balch's Beach for the remaining balance due for labor and materials in constructing the new dance hall and other buildings. (It appears that the plaintiff filed a separate $10,000 breach of contract suit against Balch's Beach owner Clayton L. Balch.)
The original owner, Benjamin Babb, held a $5,000 first mortgage. Clayton L. Balch was the director, presumably until William P. Marcoullier of Westfield operated it under a trust agreement circa 1930-1. (However, Thompsonville Bottling Works filed a $500 attachment in an action of contract against Clayton/Balch's Beach in 1933.)
Clayton Balch ran into financial problems in 1930, thanks in part to the Great Depression. The inventory and fixtures of the store he owned in Southwick Center with his brother was sold at a mortgagee's auction.
The Ritz Ballroom became one of the area's best ballrooms after being enlarged, redecorated, and renamed Crystal Ballroom in 1933. The renovations included the addition of a large veranda and an open-air beer garden. Guests could dance under the crystal ball until 4:00 a.m. to some of the most well-known orchestras of the time. The ballroom hosted its "Battle of Music," a popular event featuring dueling orchestras. They also held shag contests. (Dancing was free each night between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.)
Balch's Beach became a popular tourist destination. Several companies and organizations held events there.
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| Balch's Ballroom circa 1929 |
International Beauties, a group of the most beautiful women in the world, went to Balch's Beach in August 1929.
The Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company's union and United Radio and Electrical Workers of America held their third outing on August 15, 1936, at Balch's Beach for 1,500 members and their families. The event included various competitions, including a fat man's race and a pie-eating contest.
Approximately 400 members and guests of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union Local 128 held their first annual outing at Balch's Beach on August 6, 1938. (Frank Adamski attended the event. He dove off the water wheel into shallow water and broke his neck. He died two days later. See Congamonster's Victims.)
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| Balch's Beach |
The pleasure destination had its share of problems, something Joseph Owsiany of Southwick experienced firsthand. On June 16, 1934, Osiany drove his automobile to Balch's Beach for an evening of dancing in the Crystal Ballroom. When he went to leave, his vehicle's motor failed to function as intended. It did not take long to trace the problem: someone had poured sand into the oil intake, which ruined the engine during ignition.
Owsiany contacted the police. He told them that Oliver Mayhew might know something about it, as the two had fallen out. (Mayhew lived on Point Grove Road.)
Police searched for Mayhew only to find out he had left town. A tip led authorities to Canaan, Connecticut, where they arrested Mayhew and charged him with malicious destruction of property.
Police also looked for Iverson Warner, who lived on Congamond Road in Southwick. He was no stranger to law enforcement. On Monday, police arrested him in Southwick and charged him with the same offense. (Warner, who had several run-ins with the law, has shown up on the Southwick Time Machine before.)
Mayhew appeared before a judge on Tuesday morning and admitted to pouring sand into the oil intake of Owsiany's car; Warner pleaded not guilty, and the judge issued a continuance. On Thursday, the judge handed Mayhew a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay restitution of $60 for damaging Owsiany's car, stipulating that the payment be made on or before October 13 or go to jail. (The judge dismissed Warner for lack of prosecution.)
William Marcoullier, who had been running Balch's Beach, purchased it for $9,000 at a foreclosure auction on March 11, 1935. There were only two other bidders: Babb, his attorney bidding on his behalf, and an unidentified man. The sale satisfied Babb's mortgage and paid the trustees $4,000 on their second mortgage, giving Marcoullier ownership of the property free of any claims against it. (The Battistonis, who had invested in Balch's Beach and held the second mortgage on it, filed the equity suit against Clayton Balch.)
In July, Marcoullier brought roller skating to Balch's Beach.
Marcoullier eventually sold the property to Louisa Gavioli, which prompted the two men occupying Balch's Beach to sue him and Gaviloi, claiming Marcoullier did not honor the first right-to-purchase clause outlined in their lease agreement. (Gavioli and her husband owned Domenick's Spaghetti House. They opened the original Anchor at Balch's Beach. She died on December 24, 1960.)
Massachusetts State Police arrested a Hartford man and charged him with drunkenness and causing a disturbance at Balch's Beach in July 1936.
Two men escaped with a small amount of change after holding up the occupants of a parked car at Balch's Beach around midnight on July 3, 1937. The pair had stolen their getaway car in Westfield, Massachusetts, around 10:00 p.m. the night before. Police found the vehicle abandoned in the Little River section of Westfield.
"Gigi" Oriloli suffered a possible heart attack while bathing in Congamond Lake around 4:30 p.m. on August 15, 1945. Police dragged Congamond Lake but called off their search at dusk.
The following morning, around 8:15, Joseph Zanolli found Orioli's body floating in about 14 feet deep water near Balch's Beach.
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| Balch's Beach (Notice the merry-go-round on the hill in the background) |
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Egidio G. Orioli: Dec. 1, 1900 - Dec. 15, 1945.
Giuseppe Joseph Zanolli: March 17, 1893 - June 14, 1975.
Balch's Beach was originally going to be called Paradise Beach.
Paradise Beach was going to have a roller coaster and a shooting gallery.
The Balch's Beach Ballroom's grand opening was on July 31, 1929. The Ritz Ballroom's grand opening was on May 24, 1930.
Dick Newcomb & His Masters of Modern Melodies. Newcomb had a 14 musician orchestra.
Marcoullier once worked for a piano leg-making factory. He purchased the plant in 1915 and operated it until he sold it in 1928. He also owned a package store on Elm Street in Westfield from 1933 until he died in 1957.
It needs to be clarified why Owsiany and Mayhew were not getting along. Interestingly, Mayhew later married Helen E. Owsiany, Joseph's younger sister. Oliver and Helen married in April 1937, and she gave birth to a daughter on July 12. Helen died in 2005 at age 91. Oliver Kenneth Mayhew, a retired New York Central Railroad brakeman, died on February 10, 1983. Their daughter died on October 28, 2019, at age 82.
Police arrested Joseph Owsiany after pulling him over for speeding (50 miles or more an hour) on the new state highway in Wethersfield, Connecticut, on Saturday, March 14, 1931.
C. P. Kibbe used to partner with E. B. Vaughan. They were Vaughan & Kibbe Contractors known for excavating, and grading - which is likely why Balch selected them - they had to grade the large hill that was about where the Brass Rail is today. Vaughan & Kibbe separated. Vaughan picked up a new partner and Kibbe went solo. Kibbe and Vaughan began bidding against each other on jobs.
Kibbe appears to have done a lot of sewer and sidewalk work for the City of Springfield. Kibbe also did the grading at the Eastern States Exposition in 1924.
In 1927, someone broke into C. P. Kibbe's office at 220 Main Street in Springfield, by breaking the glass in a rear window and took all of the documents, letters, bills, etc. in the filing cabinets and placed them on a desk, saturated them with gasoline, and burned them. The papers were a total loss and the desk was badly damaged. Donald Kibbe discovered the scene when he opened the office at 7:00 am on April 21. Detectives suspected revenge or downright meanness for the act. Kibbe could not think of any reason as to why someone would do the deed. The only documents of value were insurance policies, so the act was basically just a huge inconvenience and embarrassment.
Halloween shooting incident.
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