Slideshow

Slide Show: 100 Years at the Crystal Ballroom

December 9, 2013

Jan 22, 1914: Montrose Ringler opens the Cotillion Ballroom. After multiple arrests for violating Portland’s dancing regulations, he gets run out of town in 1921.

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1920s: Lola Baldwin of the Portland Police’s Women’s Protective Division repeatedly raids the Cotillion for morally offensive jazz dancing. “A great majority of women and girls owe their downfall to the dance hall,” Baldwin declares.

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1960s: The ballroom finds new life as a rock hotbed, showcasing African American performers and counterculture bands.

Feb 2–3, 1968: The Grateful Dead paint the ballroom with a psychedelic light show and use some of the recordings from the Portland appearance on their second album, Anthems of the Sun.

Photography by chickenonaunicycle.com

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Psychedelic folk band Kaleidoscope hangs out in the office of the Crystal before a set.

Photography by Bill Keenom

Portland garage rockers the Weeds, including local legends Fred and Toody Cole, hang out on the Ballroom's fire escape in 1968.

Photography by Clyde Keller

July 1968: Fueled by a Newsweek report about hordes of San Francisco hippies migrating to Portland, public outrage and a failed safety inspection force the venue to shutter.

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Feb 19, 1997: McMenamins reopens the storied building after three decades of dormancy...

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...restoring its original floating floor...

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...and adding McMenamins' trademark flourishes

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August 12, 2006: The seminal rock band Sleater-Kinney plays its final show as a band.

Photography by sarae

After a finale with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder on ukelele, the ladies take their final bow together.

Photography by sarae

2008: The Black Keys record the 'Live at Crystal Ballroom' DVD.

Sept 23, 2009: Modest Mouse plays four consecutive sold out shows. During the encore of the fourth, frontman Isaac Brock got a haircut on stage while singing.

Photography by Jesse Millan

Jan 21, 2014: A solo show by the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy closes out the first 100 years.

Photography by Crystal Ballroom

The Crystal Ballroom celebrates 100 years as the city’s preeminent dance and music venue—and as a hotbed of sin and psychedelia. We look back on the highs and lows of a rich history.

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