The Crystal Ballroom

Crystal Ballroom, originally built as Cotillion Hall, is a live music venue in Portland, Oregon. Cotillion Hall was built in 1914 as a ballroom, and dance revivals were held there through the Great Depression. In the 1960s, the hall was the host to many popular pop, rock, folk, blues and jazz artists, as well as beat poetry and other entertainment. Notable 1960's performers include Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, Grateful Dead, Ike & Tina Turner, Country Joe & The Fish, and Buffalo Springfield. In the 1970s through the mid-1990s, the ballroom was not used for any public events and became a residence for squatters, artists who used it as studio space, with occasionally private invite-only parties. In 1997, the ballroom was re-opened by McMenamins, with a bar and restaurant on the first floor, a brewery and a new dance floor on the second floor, and the restored main ballroom on the third floor. featureing a mechanical "rotating" dance floor, thought at the time of its construction to be the only one on the West Coast.