Weesatche Hall Cafe can be found at 140 E. FM 884, Weesatchee. We drove out here to see the hall and have dinner before dancing at Lindenau with Gary P. Nunn. We had heard the dance floor was closed, but that doesn’t usually stop us from visiting. We often find a corner of repurposed halls and dance on the floor, and thought we might do the same here.
The cafe is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 – 9:30 p.m. We arrived a few minutes after 5:00 and were greeted by Missy. She and her father Scot McGowan own and run the property. Missy told us we could have our choice of tables because the cafe didn’t get busy until the local farmers were finished with work around 6:30.
Before we checked out the menu, we walked the length of the cafe and found the pool tables and internet juke box.
There were photos of local servicemen on the wall and a flag that was flown on a combat mission in Iraq.
Missy brought us a menu from the past that had a history of the area. We learned Weesatche used to be called Middletown. According to the menu, the dance hall was established in 1900. According to Stephen Dean’s book Historic Dance Halls of East Central Texas, page 86, “Weesatch also known as Wesatch and Wesatche) was established in the late 1840’s or early 1850’s. A dance hall was reported in 1900, and the hall shown here is purported to have been built in or around 1919.”
The beer cooler was full.
We asked Missy if it would be possible to see the dance hall behind the red door.
She told us the hall had been converted into their home. Six years ago multiple family members came down with cancer. In order to care for them, the hall was repurposed into a living area. She did let us into the section between the cafe and their home. The windows in the center of the photo was the original window where she served beer at the dances.
We could still see the ceiling trusses of the hall.
Scot told us he used to own a dance hall in the Corpus area. He sold it years ago and it is now a Lutheran Church. We talked a bit about how expensive it is to run a dance hall, maintenance being a big part of the expense.
We ordered our dinner and while we waited, we chose a song from the jukebox and danced next to the pool tables. The grilled chicken on sourdough and the batter fries were very tasty and gave us the sustenance we needed to get through the dance later that night.
We enjoyed talking with Missy and Scot and wished them well before we left.
Weesatche Hall Cafe was our 40th dance hall so far this year.
Dancing Across Texas 
that place is the best
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