Balcony House history brings people together

The Balcony House Bed & Breakfast in Imperial is a familiar business in the community.
Jim and Linda Pirog have owned the property since 1997.
After a total renovation, they opened the B & B in April 1999, a little over a year before it was listed (July 5, 2000) on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska.
A little history
The Balcony House’s original building was constructed outside of Imperial in the 1880s and served as part of Imperial’s original town school in the 1890s.
In the early 1920s, Mr. E.E. Widger moved the building to its current location after the Nebraska Fire Marshal condemned the school.
Once there, Widger added the north section as well as enclosing the balcony on three sides of the house.
Imperial was located on the DLD (Detroit/Lincoln/Denver) highway, a transcontinental highway that crossed Nebraska along the current day route of U.S. Route 6, a major east/west thoroughfare of that time.
During this time period, tourist camps sprang up to accommodate travelers.
Along with several other buildings on the same block as the Balcony House structure, Widger created a tourist resort called “The Balcony House Hotel and Tourist Camp.”
The hotel and tourist camp became a prominent local business, hosting as many as 300 visitors in a day.
Widger hosted events such as free concerts and received regular coverage in the local newspaper.
Great Depression
The years from 1920 to 1929 were called the “Roaring Twenties” when the U.S. economy more than doubled, and Wall Street witnessed reckless speculations and rash financial decisions from investors in all walks of life.
The stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929.
The stock market crash in October 1929 wiped out millions of investors.
Some 15 million Americans were unemployed and half the banks in the country had failed.
The Great Depression had begun. It lasted from 1929 to 1939.
Understandably, leisure travel slowed to a crawl, depriving Widger’s business of its customers.
In  1930, the camp was forced to close.
In later years, the Balcony House served as a boarding house, a dormitory for high school students whose families lived in the country and small apartments.
In the late 1980s the property was abandoned when the owner moved out of state.

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