Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 23 Feb 2002 8:58 am |
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Evergreen Ballroom destroyed
A piece of rock 'n' roll history is lost forever in afternoon fire
Friday, July 21, 2000
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
LACEY -- For nearly seven decades, the sounds of some of rock 'n' roll's
greatest legends filled the Evergreen Ballroom.
Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Janis Joplin and Jerry Lee Lewis performed there.
So had other giants, including Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers.
But yesterday, the Evergreen Ballroom burned to the ground, and with it, a
piece of rock 'n' roll history was lost forever.
The Lacey Fire Department received the fire alarm at 3:20 yesterday
afternoon.
Within 45 minutes, the flame-ravaged building collapsed.
"It's a lost cause," Fire Capt. Van Neudegg said as he watched the ballroom
burn.
The fire ignited some nearby brush, but those flames were quickly controlled
by the 35 to 40 firefighters who responded.
Two firefighters reportedly suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire
was not immediately determined, but it possibly started in a kitchen area,
officials said.
Built in 1932, the ballroom included a restaurant and billiard rooms.
Not long after the dawn of the rock 'n' roll era, Bill Haley and the Comets
played "Rock Around the Clock" at the cavernous ballroom in 1957.
It was a few miles east of Lacey on the old Pacific Highway, once the main
route between Portland and Seattle.
But construction of Interstate 5 steered traffic and big-name acts away from
the Evergreen, and in recent years it played mostly recorded dance music.
Its walls were covered with the album covers and posters of the big names who
once played there.
It was billed as Washington's last ballroom.
The owner, Fon Morcus, said the building, valued at $1.5 million, was not
insured.
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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047
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