Moultonbr/ Lavaca County, Texasbr/ 29 33.934' N 97 05.947' Wbr/ Directions: Start at the intersection of FM-532 and CR-265. The marker is on the southeast corner of the intersection.br/ br/ Historical Marker: Following Word War II, hundreds of soldiers came home from the battlefield to the rural areas of Lavaca County. The returning veterans needed a place to gather, socialize their victory. Soldiers and their dates came to the Cotton Grove Dance Floor to dance and mingle. Most of teh youths were first or seccond generation descendents of German and Czech immigrants. They were still attracted to their ancestors' music and because of this, local bands such as the Hi Toppers would play polkas and waltzes and sing in their native languages. Cotton Grove Dance Floor was started by Alfons and Martha Paylicek in 1946 and flourished for eight years as a social, musical and cultural center for teh surround area. The dance floor has a white pickett fence enclosing it as well as a ticket booth, restrooms and a wooden band stand. Colored lights were hung on tall poles and strung across the dance floor and roof lines of nearby buildings. In 1948, Mr. Pavlicek built a small store next to the dance floor and erected an additional building to serve as a bar. Cotton Grove also doubled as a major site for wedding receptions for couples who wished to return to the place they first met, on the dance floor. Because of the opening of a few air conditioned indoor halls and a widespread outbreak of polio in the area, attendance went down and the dance floor was closed. Cotton Grove still lives on as a pleasant memory for thousands of citizens and stands as a unique of a simpler and more innocent time when it reigned as the social, musical, and cultural heart of the northwestern Lavace County int he post-World War II era.