The High Ridge Community Center building at the end of Community Lane has stood for years as a landmark to the dedication of a generation of community-minded people, most who have passed.
The Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Department operates the Community Center now, but for years the High Ridge Civic Improvement Association ran it.
The association has just three members left – Cliff Goettelman, 88; Herb Bilgram, 84; and Ginnie Bilbro, 71. The three are trustees over a small sum of money that was left in the treasury after the organization became inactive, and they regularly use money from that pool to donate to the Jefferson County Library and the High Ridge Food Pantry at St. Anthony’s of Padua, Goettelman said.
Goettelman said his late wife, Lucille, also was very active in the organization, which, in its hay day, had about 30 or 40 members.
“All the people who belonged were friends of ours,” he said. “High Ridge wasn’t small, but it wasn’t like it is today. It still had a rural feeling to it.”
When the group decided to build the Community Center in 1965, Goettelman’s brother-in-law served as the general contractor, and Cliff, a bricklayer, helped to lay the bricks. The building was paid for with donations and fundraisers of all kinds, he said.
Once it was completed, the group had meetings and dances in the building. It also was rented out for weddings and parties. The association even ran a license fee office inside for a while.
“My wife, Lucille, Dodie Stevens and Ruth Bidmead all went to Jefferson City to learn how to run a license office,” Goettelman said.
The office ran out of the center for several years, even after political parties changed in the governor’s office. The association used profits from the license office to support the Community Center, Goettelman said.
Mike Baker, 51, of High Ridge said his parents, the late Robert and Shirley Baker, also were active with the group that helped to build, develop and run the High Ridge Community Center.
“I’ve got pictures of them when they were building the pavilions. There was actually a small concession area there and a small drive-in theater-type screen between where the school administration building is and the Community Center,” Baker said.
His mother ran the concession stand, he said.
“They would sell popcorn and soda. That went on until the early 70s,” Baker said.
High Ridge also had a homecoming event every year in the Community Center’s parking lot, he said.
“At one of those events, they held a greased-pole contest. They would tape a $20 bill on top of this pole. You paid a quarter a ticket and whoever got to the top, got the cash,” Baker said.
“A lot of the boys who grew up in that era remember that greased-pole event,” Baker said. “Everybody had their own little schemes about how they would get to the top and get that money. Some involved using your T-shirt to try and wipe off the grease. That never worked. All it did was ruin a perfectly good T-shirt and make the moms furious.”
Baker even made his own contribution to the homecoming.
“The sound system for the event was set up on the roof of the Community Center. They would play music for that entire area. During the rest of the year, I had those speakers in my bedroom,” he said.
As time went on, however, the group lost the license office, the members grew older and new, younger members never filled their ranks.
“That was something they (association members) didn’t do very well,” Baker said. “They didn’t recruit younger people.”
As the group got older, they became less active, and most of the people in the original group have now died, Goettelman said.
The High Ridge Community Center they were so proud of soon became a liability to the remaining members.
“When we became inactive, we didn’t have enough money to maintain the building and pay the taxes. Then we had a problem with vandalism,” Goettelman said.
The High Ridge Improvement Association donated the Community Center, at 2700 Community Lane, to the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Department in June 1994, parks Director Mike Ginger said.
Herb Bilgram, who was president of the organization for several years, was there to close the deal.
“I think we sold it to them for a dollar, and I’m not sure I got my dollar,” Bilgram said with a laugh.
At the time, the 2 acre Community Center property included not just the building, but also tennis courts and a pavilion. Eventually, the unused tennis courts were taken out and an inline hockey rink donated to the department was installed on the property, Ginger said.
The building still serves the High Ridge community. In the center is a large room where marshal arts and exercise classes now are held.
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