1940's - This simple farm house rents to various local folks as a nice little home, but destiny already has chosen this structure to one day fulfill a famous role!
1949 - Viola (Hobbs?) turns half of the downstairs into a small cafe serving easy to prepare meals to dam workers and railroad workers who are busy building the new reservoirs.
1949-1954 - A local resident frequents the in home cafe through 1952 then joins up with the military. He returns during 1954 to find the building has been expanded and the Dexter Lake sign is up an on. The club is in place and hopping.
1964 - The picture on the right is taken from where the new Hwy 58 would have been laid. Notice no windows present in what is now the cafe portion of the building. This is around the time reports of the large, back lit pictures of the dam are hanging in the club. As a side note, we will soon have one of those original pictures returning back to it's home in the bar!
1971 - The Dexter Lake Club owned and operated by Wayne & Wilma Woods.
1977 - Movie location scouts for National Lampoon choose the Dexter Lake Club for fiming important scenes of what would be one of America's most famous comedies; Animal House. The club was chosen for its roadhouse appearance as well as the huge neon sign that sits atop the roofline. Black extras were bussed in from California and Seattle to fill the bar with folks listening to the soulful sounds of Otis Day and the Knights, and creating many comedic moments as the young white colledge kids try and fit in at the black bar. As a footnote, that is Robert Cray playing bass behind Otis in the scenes.
1997 - The Dexter Lake Club's cafe is operated as a cafe while the bar is converted to a garden and gift store.
2003 to 2004 - Cafe leased and ran by Tom Mahaffey.
2004 to 2005 - Cafe leased and ran by Mike Owens.
2007 - The club side of the building is converted back into a bar patterned after it's former layout.
2011 - Gregg & Shannon Stewart arrive on the scene to complete its resurrection and cement its legacy as an original, American icon.
(If anyone has old pictures of inside or outside the Dexter Lake Club, we would be very excited to scan or have scanned copies of your pictures for use on this website! Thank you!)
