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This 40 ft. by 80 ft. dance hall, with a full basement, was built in 1922 by Charles H. and Mary Welch, husband and wife, at a total cost of $6406.36. The contractors were Alfred and Daniel Plugge. It was located just south of Shell Creek on the Colfax-Platte County line, which is one mile south of the farm homesteaded in 1871 by Charles’s grandfather, Moses Welch. This is roughly 10 miles northeast of Columbus, Nebraska.

Two dances were held in December 1922. The third was a New Year’s dance on January 1, 1923. The hall was the site of many community gatherings: Farmers Union, Farm Bureau, and Grange meetings and picnics, church picnics and community and Luther League plays. Dances were usually scheduled on Saturday nights and included wedding, anniversary, World War II furlough dances, and any reason one could think of for having a dance. Local bands furnished music for the dances, however, Charles even recorded a dance at which there was no orchestra. The story is that a snowstorm prevented the band from getting to the hall. So, some of Charles and Mary's children, William at the sax, Mary on the piano, and David at the drums, provided the dance music. A granddaughter’s, Donna Jean Lusche’s, wedding dance was the last dance held there on February 16, 1947.

A Shell Creek flood in the spring of 1947 collapsed the west basement wall. The hall was dismantled and houses were built in Leigh, Nebraska from its lumber. Ownership of the hall site has since changed hands several times. [Information provided by Louis Welch.]