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The Westerville Promendaders Square Dance Club

The Promenaders - sharing memories and making new ones for over fifty years. The Club has been offering exercise, fellowship, and lots of fun for Club members and guests since it began. Western style square dancing made its way from California to Ohio in the early 1950s. The Promenaders Club was started by Paul Moore who lived in Westerville and wanted to teach neighborhood children how to square dance. As a result, several of the parents of these children also learned to square dance and they formed the Club in 1958. Classes were held in the basements of the parents, local schools and the Grange Hall in Westerville. While there are no charter members with the club any longer, Beulah Fritsche who, with her late husband Carl, was in the second class which graduated in the fall of 1959; and Ed and Ruth Conklin, who graduated in the spring of 1960, are still active members. Ruth reports that they graduated after ten lessons in those days with most calls being taught at the regular dances. The club danced at the Indian Run Golf Club located on Africa Road (no longer in existence) for the first couple of years. The Masonic Temple in Westerville was used for the 1961/1962 season, and then the Club moved to the Grange Hall on East College Avenue in the fall of 1962. Dances were held at that location until the fall of 2009 when the Club relocated to the Westerville Senior Center at 310 West Main Street.

The Promenaders have been quite active in the Westerville community, demonstrating their dancing skills at street fairs, local schools, art fairs, and the like. At one time there were three clubs in Westerville, but only the Promenaders Club remains. A highlight of the dancing season was a “get-away” weekend, usually in late February, which began in the early 1970s. The first of these weekends was held at the Salt Fork Lodge in Cambridge. For several years, Club members and guests traveled to Burr Oak State Park with a final move to the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta a decade ago.

Each year, the Central Ohio Council of Dance Clubs (COCDC) organizes an Honoree Couple competition during which each Club nominates two dancers from their membership. These dancers are named because of their contributions to square dancing in Central Ohio and one Club’s nominee is named as the Honoree Couple of the Year. The Westerville Promenaders are proud that three of their current or former members have been so named - Ed and Ruth Conklin, Bob and Ann Phelps, and Dick and Pat Liston.

While the Promenaders began as a couples only club, the Constitution has been changed and single dancers are now welcomed as members. Regular dances are held from September to the second Saturday in June (the annual Flag Dance) on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. Dances begin at 7PM and end at 9:45P:M. There are rounds as well as squares each evening with a varied schedule of square dance callers and round dance cuers available during the season. Lessons begin for new dancers each September at the Central College Presbyterian Church located on Sunbury Road in Westerville.

The Promenaders have had many members since 1958, some who have passed on to that great dance hall in the sky, some who have retired and/or relocated, a few no longer able to dance, and some who have moved on to other interests. However, most if not all would agree that they not only learned how to square dance but found an extended family to share the good times and find support during the bad times we all face on occasion.