The Chance to Set Things Right

2021/2022 is shaping up to be as monumental as we could have dreamed for the future of the Dreamland Ballroom. For the first time in its 103-year history, the ballroom will be, by modern codes and standards, completely handicap accessible and usable as a public event space.

The origins of this amazing building and its 3rd floor ballroom are filled will stories of success and grandeur--the inspiring juxtaposition of colossal achievement within strained conditions. It is this that makes the downfall of the business district on 9th St. so sad and disappointing.

Finally, we have the chance to bring back the historic splendor alongside our modern standards. FOD’s focus is on making Dreamland a space for our community to listen to great music, throw a party, learn important and relevant history, and live and grow in unity.

As our new mission states: Friends of Dreamland celebrates the community of historic West Ninth Street, shares the legacy of the Dreamland Ballroom, and preserves the original intent of Taborian Hall.

But first we will need to open! Or re-open, truthfully. Assuming everything goes according to plan, the re-opening will happen spring of 2022 alongside our fundraiser Dancing into Dreamland.

Here’s where YOU come in!

There is so much to do before then! While the construction projects will help prepare the ballroom for public accessibility and safety, there are smaller projects where we could use YOUR help! Over the next year, Help us give the ballroom a face lift! We will be scheduling volunteer workdays to paint floors, restring lights, decorate, and more.

July is Taborian Hall’s birthday month, so we encourage you to consider elevating your commitment and generosity to the future of the Dreamland Ballroom! Donate through our Pave the Way program or offer any amount to the General Fund.

Keep in touch with us on our website, by signing up for our email list or follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram to learn when these workdays will be scheduled and check in with these campaigns.

Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy

Birthday Week!

A Century of Ups and Downs
From July 14th through 20th in 1918, the Knights of Tabor celebrated the completion of their newly constructed headquarters in Little Rock, AR. Taborian Temple (Hall) was born! A place that would serve the 9th Street community for five solid decades, facilitating a staggeringly diverse host of entrepreneurial, professional, and artistic endeavors. The following decade saw dwindling occupancy over the building’s multiple stories, resulting in 11 years of vacancy. For the last 30 years, Taborian Hall has gone through a loving tedium of careful rehabilitation finally bringing us to 2021, 103 years later, on the verge of opening this historic site to full capacity.

An Offering for the Ages
This time next year, on its 104th birthday, Taborian Hall will be fully utilized for the first time in over 50 years. But we aren't there yet! Less than a year from our grand opening, we ask that you give to the future of this building for its 103rd birthday. Give to the future of this cultural asset so that the Friends of Dreamland (FOD) can open and support the same level of economic and cultural diversity that the Knights of Tabor, the U.S. Officers Club, and the great promoters and performers of The Line once did.

How
For many years, FOD’s Pave the Way program has been an amazing campaign that preserves your generosity along with the Dreamland Ballroom and any amount can be donated through our General Fund. Any and every donation helps!

Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy

Taborian Hall is 103!

An Excerpt from Temple of Dreams:

On July 15, 1918, the Arkansas Democrat announced the dedication of the new state headquarters and Temple and Tabernacle: 

Taborian Hall Is Dedicated.  The thirty-­‐first annual convention of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, a Negro fraternal order, began at 10 o’clock Monday morning. Chief Grand Mentor S.A. Jackson [Jordan] of Little Rock was in the chair. The presiding officer opened the meeting with a few remarks and the dedication of the new Taborian hall at Ninth and State streets followed with appropriate ceremonies.88

A concise description of the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor and Taborian Hall followed on August 1918: 

Little Rock has a [N]egro organization that it may well be proud of in the above, the owners of one of the most modern and commodious office and lodge buildings in the Southwest. This building, known as Taborian hall, . . . was completed in July 1918, just prior to the meeting of the grand session, which was attended by over 1,500 delegates from all over the South. The building was formally opened and dedicated at this time.89 

The dedication was a grand affair that lasted for one week, July 14th – July 20th. Taborians, no doubt, followed the Manual’s specific and elaborate directives outlined in its chapter on the “Dedication Ceremony of Knights and Daughters of Tabor Halls.”90

Over 20,000 Arkansas Tabors contributed to the raising of the Grand Temple and a carved marble panel in building’s west entrance vestibule credits many of these helpmates—Knights and Daughters, temples and tabernacles.91 (Appendix Wall).

Delegates must have been awestruck to see Taborian Temple’s third story auditorium, the location of the dedication ceremony and the K of T’s grand session. A deep, raised stage ran the length  of  the  auditorium’s  north  wall.   The  freshly  painted  green-­‐blue  plaster  walls  and  Arkansas pine floor must have created an attractive setting for the ceremonial rites. Candlelight added to the festive mood and illuminated the colorful silk banners that hung along the walls—emerald, scarlet, pink, gold, silver, purple, and white. The banners bore the emblems of The International Order of Twelve—pointed stars, perfect numbers, a beehive, all represented the Tabors, and Temples, Tabernacles, Palatiums, and Tents throughout Arkansas. Prominently displayed was “Old Glory,” a telling nod to Tabor patriotism, for the United States had joined the Great War the year before and was now fully mobilized and engaged in total war.

… 

Taborian Hall is turning 103 this month! More details on the building’s history can be found on www.dreamlandballroom.org or in the book quoted above, Temple of Dreams by Berna Love.

Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy