Upriver History: Babb's Beach grew from an 1898 fishing camp into a Congamond Lakes dance hall
Sunday dances drew crowds from Massachusetts towns where dancing was barred on the Sabbath.
SUFFIELD - In 1898, Curtis Babb bought land on the Suffield shore of Middle Pond, one of the Congamond Lakes, and set up a fishing camp that grew into Babb's Beach, according to the property's National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Babb, who had worked in ice harvesting, first built rowboats and rental cottages for visiting fishermen, the nomination says. Most came from Springfield and other valley cities, and Babb bought a steam launch, the Mascot, to pick up guests at the train station.
His son Nelson ran the business by 1911 and turned it into a family amusement park. He converted the horse barn into a dance hall, and Sunday dances drew crowds from nearby Massachusetts towns where dancing was prohibited on the Sabbath. At its peak, the park hosted as many as 3,000 visitors on a weekend day.
In the early 1930s Nelson built the dance hall that still stands, with a steel-truss roof spanning 50 feet over the floor, put up by laid-off steel workers from West Springfield. Big bands led by Tommy Dorsey and Harry James played there, and weekday roller skating made it one of the best-known rinks in the Connecticut Valley.
The family company conveyed the property to the Town of Suffield in 1977, and skating there ended in 1997.
How this story was made: AI tools helped research and draft this story, working from the sources cited and linked above. It was fact-checked against those sources, and our editor, Joshua Allen, reviewed and approved it before publication. See an error? Email upriverdaily@gmail.com.