'Almost like they lose their will to live'

OSBURN — The beautiful yet decaying building on Yellowstone Avenue in the community of Polaris in Osburn will soon stand no longer. A dilapidated sign that reads “Dance Academy” with a classic pink ballet shoe painted on it is the only hint of what this building used to be. Residents of the area can expect to see Shoshone County Fire District No. 1 running drills on the lot and in the building soon until the beginning of July or until the structure is completely demolished.

“I’ve seen this many times,” said the new owner of the lot, Jerry White, who works as the Shoshone County Assessor. White recently bought the property with his wife Candi and explained, “If a structure is not lived in and taken care of, it will deteriorate really fast. Almost like they lose their will to live.”

The outside of the structure shows significant wear and tear. Unfortunately, the inside shows even worse damage, with rotting floors, water-damaged ceilings, mold, and other forms of destruction that would be a massive undertaking to repair, which is why White decided to demolish it and use the land.

“I liked the location of the lot the building is on, and the uniqueness that it has. The state of disrepair helped us decide to demolish.”

The building wasn’t always a dance academy, with an early photograph from the Barnard-Stockbridge Collection showing it in the 1930s as the Silver Strike Tavern.

“From what I’ve heard, it was the Silver Strike Supper Club,” said local Sue Halley, director of the Sierra Silver Mine Tour in Wallace. “And it was only for the muckety mucks, the common folk were not often welcome.”

Muckety mucks refers to a person of self-importance.

“It was closed for a long time after the Silver Strike shut down, and stood empty for a long time.”

“It was quite a nightclub,” said Jerome Bunde, who has lived in the Silver Valley for most of his life and has memories of the building being a church but couldn’t recall the specific denomination.

“It was the round church so that the devil couldn’t corner you,” he said laughing.

When the building eventually became a dance studio, it was run by Slyvia Needles, who ended up closing the studio and moving to Utah, where she sadly passed.

“I met Sylvia Needles once,” explained Joni Bartel, who ran and owned her studio in Osburn for decades. “She asked if she could teach at my studio, but I didn’t need a teacher at the time. I think it was a dance academy for only a couple of years. I always felt bad that the building that had been a church continued to become so run down.”

After the firefighters have completed their drills and there is nothing left of the building, White and his wife plan to place a manufactured home on the lot with a small garage.