The Riviera, Historic building in Lake Geneva, United States.
The Riviera is a marina and mixed-use meeting hall on the shore of Geneva Lake in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The building was designed by local architect James Roy Allen and stands on a small island created with a rubble mound and 280 piles driven into the bedrock. It was completed in 1932 and includes a ballroom.
The Riviera was built in 1932 to a design by local architect James Roy Allen, after residents approved an $85,000 bond issue during the Great Depression. Workers drove 280 piles into bedrock beneath a rubble-mound island; the first went in on March 29, 1932, and the hall opened with a dance on September 1. It cost $55,000, was rehabilitated by architect Daniel Curran in 1980, and joined the National Register of Historic Places on April 3, 1986.
From 1912 the U.S. Postal Service ran summer mail delivery from this lakeshore point, and the site later became the town's dance hall. In the 1930s–1950s the ballroom hosted swing and jazz bandleaders such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington, with singers including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. From 1972 to 1979 it operated as the nightclub Top Deck, booking disco acts like Donna Summer and the Village People.
The Riviera stands at the foot of Broad Street where it meets the Geneva Lake shore, the point that served as the town's boat landing and, from 1912, its summer post office. The building sits on a small island made by a rubble mound with 280 piles driven into the bedrock, so the hall and its docks are reached over the water. Riviera Beach, the adjacent daily-admission beach, is a separate facility.
The Riviera was built on a small artificial island: a rubble mound was laid down and 280 piles were driven into the bedrock, with the first pile set on March 29, 1932. The whole building was finished in time for a dance on September 1 that same year, at a total cost of $55,000.
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