LE Buzz:Historic Sweets Ballroom in Oakland

I love my city. I’m a child of Oakland. And we have some wonderful place to hold your events and meetings. One of the oldest in the city is Sweet’s Ballroom in Downtown.

Sweets Ballroom has been around since the Big Band days. The building’s birth began in 1923 and was built by Mr and Mrs J.E. Hassler for the small investment of $8,000. WOW! But it had four other sisters sites that have long since passed into history.

This ballroom has had many names:

From 1924-1933 it was “Sweet’s.”
From 1933-1943 it was “McFadden’s.”
From 1943-1953 it was “Linn’s.”
From 1954-1979 it was “Sands.”

During its heyday, it has seen the likes of Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Harry James and many others. Can you imagine being in this spot listening to the greats back in the day? Check out this pic from Sweets Ballroom circa 1930

The ballroom today

But then it went quite until February 1998 when it was reborn. And this place is HUGE. It holds up to 900 people standing and around 600 or so for sit down dinner. Check out the slide show here http://www.historicsweetsballroom.com/venue.html

I have an event coming up and I think that I want to use this space and I’m sure that some of my clients will want to do the same.

Just wanted to share a lil bit about my city and some of its treasures.