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The Nyabinghi Dance Hall, 1990-1998
Reopened as "The Nyabinghi Dance Hall" by a duo of young entrepreneurs, the venue again prospered and succeeded as a showplace for all types of "underground" music. By this time it was apparent that the music scene that Marsha and friends fostered now had a life of its own, and Morgantown kept producing yearly crops of local bands playing original music. [Note: In 1990 the bar took on its current layout, with the main bar removed from the "stage room" and the upper and lower bar inaugurated.]
In 1995, the bar was sold to Greg. The bands and the people kept coming, yet the bar's doom slowly showed itself. As the '90s progressed, the 100-year-old building became more and more run down. When it rained outside it rained inside, and the years of shows and improvising electric hookups had culminated in piles of extension cords, overloaded outlets, holes in the ceilings and walls, and various other dangerous situations. This fact did not go unnoticed by Morgantown's city officials. Finally, the Nyabinghi Dance Hall and the Brick Row apartments were condemned by the city of Morgantown as an unsafe structure in February, 1998. Rumors abounded that the building would be torn down...