Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1982. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Valley Dale Ballroom is a historic building in Columbus, Ohio. Constructed in 1925, it became a nationally known ballroom during the Big Band era of the 1930s and 1940s.”
Wikipedia article Valley Dale Ballroom, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 295 National Register listings in Franklin County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Franklin County.
National Register reference number.82001462- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Columbus city, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
The Mound Builders and Indians - First White Settlements and Struggle for Possession - Indian Village at the Forks of the Scioto Attacked by Crawford and Dispersed - The Ohio Company, the Scioto Company and Symmes Purchase - Indian Power Broken and British Hopes Blasted - First Surveys - Topography, Geology and Soil of Franklin County.
The chapter on Columbus City in History of Franklin County [Ohio]:, published 1858 names Columbus. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
From the first organization of the State government in 1803, until 1816, there was no permanent seat of State government. The sessions of the Legislature were held at Chillicothe until 1810, and the sessions of 1810-11, and 1811-12, were held at Zanesville, and from thence they were removed back to Chillicothe, and there remained until December, 1816, when the first session commenced in Columbus.
No further definite action, however, was had on the subject until February, 1812, when the law was passed establishing it at Columbus. Various proposals were received, offering inducements for its establishment at different points, and amongst the rest were the proposals of Lyne Starling, James Johnston, Alexander McLaughlin and John Kerr, for establishing it on the '-' high bank of the Scioto River, opposite Franklinton," which site was principally a native forest. Franklinton was then at its apex, and a town of considerably more consequence than it now is, and was one of the sites proposed ; but the plan upon which it was laid out, and more particularly its low situation, were considered sufficient objections to its adoption. Worthington and Delaware were also among the sites proposed.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Valley Dale Ballroom between
2007 and 2007, burning about 0 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 10,679 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Valley Dale Ballroom between 1804 and
1975: 8,683 Animalia, 1,277 Fungi, 573 Plantae, 117 Chromista, 28 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by 19 V 1938 in original publication, Knull, =, ? and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Valley Dale Ballroom: 1 plant, 1 producer, 1 past producer.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Zinc, Sulfur, Sulfuric Acid. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Columbus, the town this property stands in, in 107 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 56 thunderstorm wind, 26 hail, 13 flash flood, 11 flood.
The reports record 9 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Trees were downed, some on power lines. Four golfers were injured after lightning struck the shelter house they entered to take shelter from the storm.
Trees were downed at several locations. Winds were measured at 59 mph at Port Columbus Airport. Four men were injured at an outdoor amphitheater when the tent they occupied was blown over.
A microburst, with winds estimated to be between 80 and 100 mph, struck the west side of Columbus, destroying roofs of two industrial buildings. The debris from the roofs stretched 600 yards. A tractor-semitrailer was also blown over, injuring one male.
Damage was first observed on Deserette Court. The west-facing|side of several housing units had shutters torn off and also|experienced minor siding damage. This is where it appears the|tornado first touched down.||On the opposite side of Deserette Court, additional shutter and|siding damage was observed, and primarily affected the east-facing|side of the housing units.||Damage continued to the east onto Boyleston Boulevard, with the|garage door of one home completely destroyed and walls of the|garage experiencing significant damage. Siding and roof damage was|also observed on this home, and damage is assessed to be in the|EF0 category, with winds around 80 mph. An eyewitness also stated|that she was looking west and saw a tornado moving toward|Boyleston Boulevard.||A swath of damage continued to the east, affecting homes along|Niantic Drive and Hingham Lane. Much of the damage was associated|with trees, where large tree branches in the back yards of|several homes on both Niantic Drive and Hingham Lane were snapped.|A convergent pattern was observed from 10 to 12 inch diameter tree|branches. Some damage to homes was also observed, including a|large portion of siding being stripped off the east-facing side of|a two story home. Minor roof damage was also noted on several|homes.||Damage became more sparse further east along Hingham Lane and was|confined to a few large hardwood tree branches being snapped off.
Two to three feet of water on some roads submerged some cars and caused others to float. On Leonard Street and 5th Avenue, a foot of water was entering the main level of some homes.
Roofing materials were removed from several buildings, a gutter was blown down, power lines were downed, and fencing was partially blown over in northeastern Columbus due to damaging thunderstorm winds. These winds also blew a large tree down onto a house on Schleppi Road.
10 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
17,700 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Three small evergreen trees were planted in place of the vestibule, and now are to the dancefloor.At the northern end of the dancefloor is the stage flanked by _ deteriorated - unaltered .unexposed two-story central block topped by a low arched roofline that is flanked by identical of unknown age is located at the northeast corner. The building was originally east corner for covered with horizontal wooden siding, but in 1941 the facade and side elevations were covered by the permastone on the facade and replaced by two circular openings. The interior of the Ballroom is divided into two levels:a dancefloor level and a A padded vinyl semi-circular bar is located on the southern wall of the mezzanine the stage where there are three wooden bars with architectural bronze countertops.
date from the hall.The wooden rafters and trusses which support the roof are exposed entering at the second floor level.A number of the windows level.A solid railing with padded vinyl panels is placed around the mezzanine. it had a wooden oriental fence around the perimeter and an elevated wooden bandstand, on the interior.To the right of the stage a small stairs leads to a room behind Areas of Significance - Check and justify below - conservation .law - science - economics - sculpture . architecture - military - social/ - 1700-1799 . engineering X music - theater X 1900- _ communications - politics/government - transportation - invention X other (specify) Builder/Architect 1925-Elford Inc. Statement of
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) Valley Dale is significant as one of the nationally renowned ballroom dancehalls of the "Big Band" musical era of the 1930s and 1940s. Although the main structure dates Many of the big bands of national reputation appeared at Valley Dale since the late 1920s, but it was during the early 1940s that CBS and NBC (then Mutual Broadcasting Dale remains as one of the last few great American ballrooms still in existence from The first Valley Dale opened in 1918 and burned to the ground in an unfortunate New hosted many of the name bands during its long history. Included among these enter- Lombardo; Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman; Sammy Kaye; and Tommy Dorsey, along with operated the ballroom since the late 1920s.
Valley Dale was threatened with condermation by the City of Columbus in 1980, but reopening in October 1981. It was of major importance during the first half of the 20th century, and is now o the international history of music. Although a large portion of Valley Dale' commerce 1600-1699 industry humanitarian education Entertainment prehistoric 8. Significance 1941-Richard Tulley _1800-1899 _literature this era that retains its interior and exterior furnishings and design. -art . landscape architecture - religion - archeology-historic _ agriculture . exploration/settlement . - philosophy known impresario Frank Daley who copied his famous Meadowbrook Ballroom in New Jersey. System) had simultaneous coast-to-coast radio broadcasting from the stage. Valley Year's Eve fire of 1923.
Rebuilt in 1924-25 and remodeled in 1941, Valley Dale has important local musicians like Earl Hood, Chuck Selby, and Ronald Koal. The ballroom has a reputation of an excellent acoustical set-up.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82001462, 86 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
Block
