By Dennis McCann
The Rothschild Pavilion that opened to such fanfare in 1911 had fallen onto hard times by the 1990s, when years of neglect predictably led village officials to lock the doors, board the windows and look the other way, along with most of the townspeople.
The last trolley stop in the town of Rothschild, the grand pavilion was built by the Wausau Electric Railway Co. to boost business for its weekend service. It worked: the grand hall – with its 6,725-square-foot wooden dance floor – became a hip hangout, with a stage that in the ‘50s was serving up the pop of Buddy Holly and the elegant schmaltz of Liberace. Over time, the place went dreadfully quiet, and it seemed bulldozers were merely biding their time for the condos that would surely take its place alongside Lake Wausau.
One day in 2006, a house painter from Mosinee (about 15 minutes south of Rothschild) named Jeff Campo showed up in Rothschild with some supplies and the idea that he could put a smile on the pavilion’s sad visage with a daub of paint. He began to repaint the faded fascia boards on the pavilion’s roof, never imagining that he was creating a type of civic mural – or, as it turned out – a civic miracle.
As Campo kept returning to continue freshening up the paint on the pavilion, he began attracting a lot of attention. Who was this stranger and why was he painting the onetime community treasure, on his own time – and dime?
Interest was sparked, news stories followed, other volunteers began showing up with hammers and time to share, and local companies began donating material and even loaning workers. Six months later, ready or not (and it was largely not), the doors of the partially restored pavilion were thrown open for some 1,400 music fans attending the Rock & Roll Revival – a sequel, in sweet serendipity, to the last event held in the giant music hall before it was locked up in 1997.
“(Campo) was the catalyst,” says village president Neal Torney, who has personally invested countless hours in the pavilion’s rebirth. He credits untold numbers of volunteers, including some working off “indiscretions” with community service hours, with bringing the village’s most historic structure back from the brink.
Step by step, the original pavilion was revealed. Two false drop ceilings were removed to bring back the ballroom’s vaulted ceiling, plywood siding was taken off the original stonewalls, and new windows and doors (donated by a local millwork company) were installed.
Today, restoration proceeds as funds and volunteer labor allow, and the pavilion is in use almost every weekend from spring through fall for music events, weddings and other gatherings. Walk onto the sprawling wooden dance floor, suspended on 24 large railroad springs for buoyancy, on a day when it is empty and the possibilities are overwhelming: strap on wheels for an old-fashioned all-skate, polka into the night or rock until the clock says go home. If the tunes from the pavilion’s past are oldies but goodies, the revival made one oldie so much better.
Dennis McCann is a longtime Wisconsin writer and traveler and a regular contributor to Wisconsin Trails.
