A stage was built at one end and a backstage addition was put on as theater wings for storing scenery 800 chairs were installed across the barn floor and mighty shutters were hinged into the walls to let the breezes blow through in the summertime.Ī curtain hung on the stage with a painted sign that said Casino. In 1893, the big old barn was remodeled once again for its most prominent use in history. Abram Heineman kept his prize-winning workhorses there before they were hauled off to big cities for sale.Īt one time, for about a decade, the walls of the barn were insulated with thick layers of straw so the building could store and protect tons of ice, harvested in blocks from the lake nearby, then sold in town for Mansfield’s ice boxes.
The place was built like a barn, because the building first came into being intended for use as a stable. This scrapbook album of pictures, postcards, advertisements and ticket stubs traces the years from 1893 to 1934 when the Casino was an integral element in the social life of Mansfield. That’s because for so many years the landmark represented to Mansfielders all that was fun, enchanting and entertaining in life. Even though the Casino building burned down in 1934, its name stubbornly stuck around the park like a shadow that doesn’t want to fade.
