Cotton Grove Dance Floor and Store
Moulton, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Following World War II, hundreds of soldiers came home from the battlefield to the rural areas of Lavaca County. The returning veterans needed a place to gather, socialize and enjoy their victory. Soldiers and their dates came to the Cotton Grove dance floor to dance and mingle. Most of the youth were first- or second-generation descendants of German and Czech immigrants. They were still attracted to their ancestors’ music and because of this, local bands such as the Hi Toppers would play polkas and waltzes and sing in their native languages. Cotton Grove dance floor was started by Alfons and Martha Pavlicek in 1946 and flourished for eight years as a social, musical and cultural center for the surrounding area. The dance floor had a white picket fence enclosing it as well as a ticket booth, restrooms and a wooden band stand. Colored lights were hung on tall poles and strung across the dance floor and roof lines of nearby buildings. In 1948, Mr. Pavlicek built a small store next to the dance floor and erected an additional building to serve as a bar. Cotton Grove also doubled as a major site for wedding receptions for couples who wished to return to the place they first met, on the dance floor. Because of the opening of a few air-conditioned indoor halls and a widespread outbreak of polio in the area, attendance went down, and the dance floor was closed. Cotton Grove still lives on as a pleasant memory for thousands of citizens and stands as a unique symbol of a simpler and more innocent time when it reigned as the social, musical and cultural heart of Northwestern Lavaca County in the post-World War II era.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When soldiers came home to rural Lavaca County after World War II, they wanted somewhere to celebrate, and in 1946 Alfons and Martha Pavlicek opened the Cotton Grove dance floor. Strung with colored lights and ringed by a white picket fence, it drew the grandchildren of German and Czech immigrants to hear local bands like the Hi Toppers play polkas and waltzes sung in the old languages. For eight years it was the social heart of the area — even hosting wedding receptions for couples who first met there — until air-conditioned indoor halls and a polio outbreak drew the crowds away.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of the open-air dance halls where Central Texas's German and Czech communities kept their music and language alive in postwar America.
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Related people
- · Alfons Pavlicek
- · Martha Pavlicek
Themes & tags
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