Most Atlantic City residents and visitors know that Boardwalk Hall, located next to Trump Plaza on the Boardwalk, is a historic structure, but few appreciate just how storied the building is. From its inception, it served many functions, and at least twice hosted events of deep historical importance In the early 1920s, Atlantic City's reputation as a convention grew rapidly. National groups like the National Electric Light Association, National Railroad Car Builders, and National Dairy Association held regular meetings there, usually on Million Dollar Pier. As the gatherings got larger, they outgrew the pier. In order to prevent other cities from swiping this lucrative business, Mayor Edward Bader proposed building a large convention hall. Bader purchased land on the Boardwalk between Mississippi and Florida avenues that had been the site of Rendezvous Park. This amusement park featured carnival games, a dance hall, a bathhouse, a restaurant, and a "scenic railway." The park opened in May 1921, but lasted only one summer; it was razed by a fire in September of that year. After Bader's death, his successor, Anthony M. Ruffu, saw that the building was completed as planned. Construction began in late 1924 and cost nearly $13.5 million. The building itself was an architectural marvel. The main hall, 488 feet long and 288 feet wide, was large enough to hold a regulation football field. The curved roof peaked at 137 feet. Built with no supporting pillars, for years it was the largest unobstructed room in the world. The building opened as Convention Hall on May 31, 1929, which was the same year as the Atlantic City Diamond Jubilee and the Golden Jubilee of Light, the national celebration of the 50th birthday of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb. As the National Electric Light Association was one of the city's major convention groups, they made the most out of this coincidence. On the night of its dedication, Convention Hall and the entire Boardwalk were bathed in gold lighting, and the battleship Wyoming trained its lights on the hall from offshore. Convention Hall had, for decades, the world's largest pipe organ, which had over 32,000 pipes. During the 1930s, the Atlantic City Seagulls, a semipro hockey team, made their home in the hall. Beginning in 1941, the Ice Capades visited every summer, and the Miss America pageant became an annual rite of September. Thousands of conventions, exhibitions, and shows made use of the Hall from its beginning. In 1935, Convention Hall was the scene for an epic moment in labor union history: the creation of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). The American Federation of Labor, the country's dominant union organization, placed an emphasis on craft-based unions and disdained mass organizing along industrial lines. John L. Lewis, leader of the United Mine Workers, disagreed. Tensions between AFL leaders and upstart industrial unionists came to a head during the AFL's 1935 convention. Lewis, angered at comments by carpenters' union president William Hutcheson, knocked the craft unionist to the ground with a single punch. Following his Convention Hall fisticuffs, Lewis and other industrial unionists organized the CIO, which became a rival to the AFL before the two groups merged in 1955. Convention Hall stepped again onto the national stage from August 24 to 27, 1964, as the host of the Democratic National Convention. That year, Democrats mourned the loss of John F. Kennedy and nominated Lyndon Johnson for re-election as President. Johnson announced his running mate, Hubert H. Humphrey, at the convention. But the 1964 convention is most significant for a watershed moment in civil rights. The Mississippi Democratic Party, still committed to segregation, refused to back Lyndon Johnson, who had signed epochal civil rights legislation into law. Civil rights organizers, angry over their lack of a voice in the state party, sent a rival group of delegates to the convention as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The group took its case to the credentials committee, which did not seat them. National television news covered the MFDP's attempt to be seated, which focused attention on the issue of African-American voting rights in the South; the next year, President Johnson would sign important voting rights legislation. Convention Hall continued to adapt to the times; the East Hall added 200,000 feet of convention space in 1971, and the main hall hosted many world championship boxing matches, as well as two World Wrestling Federation "Wrestlemania" extravaganzas in the 1980s. With the opening of the new Atlantic City Convention Center in 1997, the boardwalk facility was closed for a $90 million renovation and, upon re-opening, renamed Boardwalk Hall. It currently hosts two minor-league teams, the hockey Boardwalk Bullies and the arena football Card Sharks. Calling itself "America's Seaside Entertainment Center" and still hosting Miss America each year, Boardwalk Hall continues to do its founders—the visionaries of the 1920s—proud.

By David Schwartz

David G. Schwartz (www.dieiscast.com), an Atlantic City native, is the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV and the author of several books, including Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.

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