FL Polish Club Spent 3 Months Drying Out Historic Dance Floor After Hurricane Helene

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Thanks to the resiliency of its members and support of the greater community, the Polish American Society of St. Petersburg was able to bounce back six months after Hurricanes Helene and Milton ravaged the area.

To the shock of many of the group’s members, its longtime venue at 1343 Beach Drive SE — a space the organization has called home since 1957 —looks relatively unscathed to the unknowing eye, Roger Telschow, treasurer, told Patch.

But a significant amount of work and more than $100,000, most of that donations, went into restoring the historic space, he said.

Helene, which hit at the end of September, was the storm that caused the most damage. The hall is near Salt Creek and it was flooded by storm surge from the bay.

“We had half a foot of water in the club,” Telschow said.

The society’s pride and joy is its original floating dance floor made of Canadian maple wood that was installed in the 1950s.

“There’s an underlayment of wood that gives it a little bit of spring, so it’s softer on the feet. It’s not really done that much anymore,” he said, adding, “It’s really high quality wood. It’s our prized possession. There aren’t many hard wood dance floors in St. Pete.”

Water pooled under the iconic dance floor during Hurricane Helene leaving the Polish American Society’s members scrambling to try to save it as soon as the storm passed.

“There were thousands of gallons of water under there,” Jim Grinaker, president, told Patch.

Telschow added, “After the flood, it was so warped and buckled and whole sections of it just popped up. It was so damaged we didn’t think there was really any chance.”

Members and those living nearby came in with shop vacs and, after pulling up what floorboards they could, sucked up as much water as they could. From there, they spent three months drying out the wood.

“The process of drying that out was huge. There was so much moisture,” Grinaker said. “We had fans and dehumidifiers and we ran the (air conditioners) and it was just time. It just gradually dried it out. It was very stressful.”

In the attic, they found several piles of wood from the original installation and used that to replace a limited number of boards too warped to be restored, mostly around the dance floor’s edges.

“It was a surprise, but we were able to totally retain the original structure and the original high quality of that floor,” Telschow said.

There was other damage, as well. The roof was partly torn off during Helene and weeks later, Milton exacerbated that issue, tearing more of it away, Grinaker said.

Air conditioning units and the kitchen’s refrigerator needed to be replaced, rusted furniture needed to be sanded down and repainted, and the terrazzo floor, which flooded, needed repolishing.

The organization raised about $92,000 of its $150,000 goal for the restoration mostly through smaller donations from about 130 club members and the community. The Polish American Society is continuing to collect donations for the work online here.

“It’s about resilience. The real story is how a community came together to a volunteer organization to save this facility that’s been out there for 68 years,” Telschow said. “It’s considered a precious gem in the neighborhood; one that people have been coming to for decades. It’s a good story out of a very bad, difficult time.”

The venue reopened to the public on March 23 and a few weeks later welcomed a record crowd of about 220 people for its signature Dingus Day.

Though the space won’t be open daily again until November, it’s open every Thursday throughout the summer and early fall — including for trivia every third Thursday — and occasional weekend contra and square dancing events.

While it’s a space to celebrate Polish heritage, everyone is welcome there and it’s available to community organizations to rent for events, Telschow said.