Next to the Halsey Theatre. The ballroom was a 1-story, 150×200 foot fireproof structure, and had a dancing space of 89×100 feet and a promenade 25 feet wide. It was “splendidly lighted with a seating capacity of 4,500, and it (was) everything that a dance hall should be in every way,” noted feminist author Djuna Barnes, in her first piece of “newspaper fiction” in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1913.

By the 1910s, more than 500 public dance halls were open each evening in the Greater New York area. And their popularity was eclipsing the movie theatres and vaudeville halls – which both pleased and frightened “better society,” which saw the latest styles of dancing as simple interludes to immorality.

The introduction of such dance halls were seen by some as the slippery slope into the evils of immorality. Others, taking the opposite tack, saw the attraction of youth to dancing as an opportunity to educate and improve upon society’s morals.

Such groups as the “Committee on Amusement and Vacation Resources for Working Girls,” were instrumental in passing the “decent dance hall legislation,” and has “waged unceasing warfare on the turkey trot and other sensational dances.”

The opening of the Arcadia, however, had the committee members proclaiming their “jubilance,” noting that there will be “no turkey trotting, bunny-hugging, or other improper dances.”
The admission fee at the Acadia was 10 and 15 cents.

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