Sweet Home Hall, 348 CR 391, Yoakum, is an oldish hall. We found it located about 10 minutes from Blase’s in Hallettsville. According to information on Wikipedia, Solomon West purchased 2,214 acres of land in June 1853. He moved his family there a year later from Alabama. Upon arriving, his daughter Mary said, “Pa, this would be a sweet home,” and the name Sweet Home took root. Stephen Dean, in his book Historic Dance Halls of East Central Texas, noted the Kutac family donated 2 acres of land to SPJST Lodge #63 in 1949. Lumber from an old dance hall, The Wagon Wheel, was used in the construction. The fire department purchased it in 1958. In 1965 Hurricane Beula destroyed the hall, though it was rebuilt after the storm. The Yoakum Community Bingo Club purchased it around 1990, to use as a community center and officially named it Sweet Home Hall. More recent dances and activities held at the hall have caused it to be known as “Music City.”
The old volunteer fire department building is next door.
We drove out during the day to get photos. While circling the building we noticed a window open and a bike outside the window. We weren’t sure if someone had broken in, if they were still there, or if everything was OK. While standing there, a neighbor drove up to dump trash. We asked if he was the owner. Eric said he was a neighbor and agreed the bike looked suspicious. He gave me the owner, Tim Boswell’s, phone number and I called.
Turns out the bike belonged to Tim’s son and he thanked me for letting him know about the window. When we told him we were there to take photos, he told us how to get inside and told us we were welcome to take photos. So we did!
There is a wall of photos of bands who have played here in the past. We found one of Bobby Flores, who we were going to see that night at Blase’s.
We returned later that night, after dancing at Blase’s, to dance on the linoleum here. The Community Bank was holding their holiday party, so there were plenty of folks standing around the bar area. We were one of a few couples dancing to the Staudt Bros. band which didn’t bother us!
We made our way through the crowd to introduce ourselves to Tim and get a little more history on the building. Tim has owned it for the past 3 years in May. They hold Sunday afternoon dances from 2-6, where you might be one of 100-180 people in the building. They also hold fairly regular Saturday night dances from 9-12. Cover the night we were there was $10 per person. Tim tries to book local bands, though Dec 12 is Nathan Colt Young from Bastrop and New Years Eve is Blue Denim from Eagle Lake. They don’t have a website, but their Facebook link is here.
If you are a subscriber to Texas Polka News, you’ll find them posted there quite frequently.
Dancing Across Texas 