Sioux City Journal du lieu suivant : Sioux City, Iowa • J3

SIOUXCITYJOURNAL.COM SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2020 J3 00 1 PROGRESS 2020 MASON DOCKTER ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa Vis- itors to the Arnolds Park Amuse- ment Park will notice some improvements to the park this summer. First, the Iowa Rock Roll Hall of Fame. The revamped and expanded hall reopened last year in the building that also houses the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum. The museums are part of the entertainment complex in Ar- nolds Park. The Rock Roll Hall of Fame previously was in the former Roof Garden, an open-air complex next to the Arnolds Park amusement park.

That version of the Roof Garden was demolished during the multimillion-dollar the campaign to make way for the new Roof Garden, which has the appearance of the historic ballroom. Maddi Tesch, the rock muse- administrator, said cials spent months preparing the new space. Outside consultants were brought in to help design it. The new, interactive museum features three times more space than the prior version, which opened in 1997. Exhibits feature photos, memorabilia and vid- eos from bands, musicians and radio personalities.

An interac- tive screen also allows visitors to watch touring dates as they approached playing at the historic Roof Garden. interesting thing about the Roof Garden was, kind of in the middle of all these tours that came through, so while they were on their way to Chicago maybe or another bigger part of the Midwest, they stopped at the Roof Tesch said. Highlights include recording equipment from Iowa music stu- dios, contracts to perform at the Roof Garden (signed by the likes of Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison) and a bright red suit worn on stage by the late Tommy Bolin, a Sioux City native and guitarist for such bands as Deep Purple and the James Gang. Tesch said Iowa has a rich his- tory with rock roll during the heyday of the old Roof Garden, ballrooms were a xture through- out the state and famous acts fre- quently stopped to play at them. much every county had a ballroom, sometimes Tesch said.

The Roof Garden once attracted major names like Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, The Yardbirds and The Byrds. Iowa musicians soon got in on the act John Senn, the muse- founder and CEO, was a member of the group Dee Jay and the Runaways, which had a hit in 1966 with the song knows that Tesch said. There currently are roughly 400 bands or individual artists in the Hall of Fame. Tesch said the more inductees there are, the more vis- itors are bound to come to see the museum. The Roof Garden, where the Hall of Fame used to be, has been completely redone.

The new Roof Garden, which has an appearance similar to the old Roof Garden, opened in August. The new Roof Garden is a replica of the old Roof Garden where those groups played decades ago, and among the crowning achievements of the $19 million the Park that began several years ago. The old Roof Garden ballroom, which hosted dances and mu- sic beginning in 1923, was taken down during a stretch of tough times at Arnolds Park in 1987. It was replaced with a second Roof Garden, an open-air venue that shared a name but had little else in common with the rst Roof Gar- den. It was demolished last May.

The third version of the Roof Garden brings it back home again, with an appearance similar to the old Roof Garden during its mid- 20th century heyday, when ev- eryone from the Yardbirds to the Byrds, and from Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs to Roy Orbison, played the ballroom. Roof Garden has a lofty ceiling the exterior has the oor appearance of the original, but a oor open-air facility. Roof Garden memorabilia is on display where the second oor would have been. By this summer, Arnolds Park should also have a brand-new boardwalk. The group Imagine Iowa Great Lakes, in coordination with the Historic Arnolds Park Amusement Park, is building a boardwalk that runs from the west end of the lakefront to the sand beach on the east end of the property, according to an email from Mi- chele Goodenow, executive di- rector of Imagine Iowa Great Lakes.

Work on the boardwalk began last September and is expected to be complete by May. The board- walk will be made of Kebony, a specially treated, highly durable, no-maintenance wood from a Norwegian company. Nearby there will be landscape beds, new shade trees, light posts with hanging baskets, 12 benches, six bike racks, six integrated table and chair sets with shade um- brellas, and a re feature. Imagine Iowa Great Lakes has also partnered with Arnolds Park and the Iowa Department of Nat- ural Resources to renovate the State Pier on the south shore of West Lake Okoboji. Construc- tion on this project began re- cently and is expected to be n- ished by July 4.

The pier design includes a pedestrian plaza with a fountain and ect- ing pool below three stainless steel sail sculptures. The pier will fea- ture precast concrete benches with amphitheater seating, landscape beds, decorative paving and an LED handrail. The lighting on the sails and fountain will coordinate with the arches of the Promenade. The Captain Steve Kennedy statue will remain a prominent feature on the State Pier and the original pavers purchased by do- nors during the the campaign in 1999 will be re-en- graved on new granite pavers and built into the design. Updated Iowa Rock Roll Hall of Fame opens, Arnolds Park celebrates new Roof Garden JUSTIN WAN PHOTOS, SIOUX CITY JOURNAL The new Roof Garden ballroom at Arnolds Park has much the same appearance as the old Roof Garden that was razed in 1987.

The Majestic Pavilion at Roof Garden is seen in Arnolds Park, Iowa, on June 8, 2019. PROVIDED Imagine Iowa Great Lakes has partnered with Historic Arnolds Park Amusement Park and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to renovate the State Pier on the south shore of West Lake Okoboji. The pier is shown here in a rendering. MASON DOCKTER ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa a lot Mercedes Ste es would like to tell you about The Inn Hotel. But rst, a disclaimer: The Inn Hotel is not the original Inn, the beloved Okoboji lakeside destina- tion that opened in 1896 and was demolished last year.

had some confusion if a liated with The Inn not a liated with The Ste es said last summer. was just an ode, an homage, to the original The 38-room hotel at 15 Dam Road about a ve-minute walk from the Arnolds Park amusement park opened May 24. Even though not the same hotel, Ste es and her husband, Marc, have done a lot to make their independently owned Inn reminis- cent of the old Inn including the pair of arches on the portico, evoking the turn-of-the-century look of the old Inn, which also had arches at its poolside entrance. taken to calling the 1910s and golden of Oko- boji-area leisure and hospitality, thus the period theme of the ho- tel. The jaunty style is visible from the exterior the striped window awnings in particular point to an earlier time.

was the time for self-in- dulgence, and entertaining was, I keep saying, an art Ste es said. Perhaps the crown jewel of the new Inn is The Beach Club, a bar and restaurant evoking the moody look of a tropical 1920s hotel restaurant with its vin- tage-style furniture, xtures, old photos, swing music and parquet wood oors. True to its 1920s form, you have to be a hotel guest to have a cocktail or dinner at The Beach Club in those days, hotel restaurants were common gath- ering places even for people who actually rent a room at the hotel. Ste es said the couple wants to cultivate social club in The Beach Club. Ste es, who served as the ho- interior designer, paid at- tention to details when choosing its xtures, furniture, decor and numerous potted plants.

especially proud of a large, dec- orative glass light xture hanging above a stairway. love that light, I found that in Arizona where I was vacationing 1960s Miami she said. Marc Ste es, whose rm, Stef- fes Companies, was responsible for building the hotel, said the timing was right to open a nice hotel a fraction of a mile from the Arnolds Park amusement park (the rm is also in charge of considerable on- going construction at the park). was kind of the driving force behind why we built the hotel in the rst place, was just to kind of support the vision for the Roof Garden, which is a year-round Mercedes Ste es said. The newly renovated Majestic Pavilion at Arnolds Park, a pop- ular venue for weddings and other large gatherings, complements the hotel well.

basically have weddings 10 months out of the Marc Ste es said while sitting at the pool-adjacent Cabana Bar. weekend from here on out, there are wedding groups at the And what is a hotel without a pool to lounge around? The 4-foot-deep, oor pool, which Marc Ste es referred to as a is a bright and shiny a air in an outside deck area. Because neither Ste es had a background as a hotelier and the hotel is operated independently, they brought in a manager with 20 experience running hotels to keep things ship-shape. are not managing, we are owners, but we do not Mercedes Ste es said. obvi- ously are doing a lot of up-front managing and helping and get- ting everything going, but the plan is to kind of step golden of Okoboji hospitality lives on at the Inn Hotel JUSTIN WAN PHOTOS, SIOUX CITY JOURNAL Owners of The Inn Hotel, Mercedes Ste es and Marc Ste es, pose for a photo with their daughter Ruby, 5.

The 1920s-themed Arnolds Park hotel opened May 24, 2019. The Beach Club inside The Inn Hotel is seen in Arnolds Park last summer. Mercedes Ste es, co-owner of The Inn Hotel, talks about the Arnolds Park Beach Club bar and restaurant last summer..