Scurrying from machine to machine with a handful of tickets, backed by a soundtrack of bells and whirring pinballs, is a common memory amongst lovers of the Balacade. Though its future is uncertain, the building at 1006 Bala Falls Road holds a rich past extending back decades.
The structure that’s home to the Balacade was built sometime before 1934. It was used as part of Walter Langdon’s skating rink and Andy Bellemer’s butcher shop before becoming the business it is known for today. Many locals remember when Paul and Patricia Arney ran the Balacade, but before them, the Vigneux family owned it.
Two boys, boat rentals and the Balacade
George Vigneux said his grandfather bought the property to keep his sons, George’s father Jerome and his uncle Arthur, out of trouble. The exact timeline of when they acquired the property is murky since Jerome died in 2007, but George suspects it was sometime in the early 50s.
They offered pinball machines in the shop and boat rentals out back. Their time on the lake led Jerome to become an avid water skier. Eventually, he joined the Canadian National Exhibition’s water ski show. Older locals may remember seeing him and his brother out on the water.
“My uncle built this ramp and he would drive the boat. My dad would go and then do jumps off of it, and people started paying attention to it,” George said. “My dad told me one time, and somebody else concurred, that it was known to be the first water ski ramp at least in Ontario, but maybe Canada.”
While his dad was on the water, George’s mom spent several summers working at a local restaurant. The two met in Bala, and the town remained important to them even after they sold the Balacade in 1957.
Years later, George brought his dad back to the property to reminisce. Jerome recognized several machines, including the fortune-telling granny, and showed his son around the property, sharing memories along the way. After Jerome died in 2007, George honoured his father’s final wish by scattering his ashes in Bala.
Bala will always hold a special place in his heart, both because of his dad’s history there and because of his own. He camped there as a teen, and his family rented cottages for years before his brother-in-law bought one on Ragged Rapids Road, where he watched his kids grow up each summer.
“When my brother-in-law told me that the Balacade was for sale, he said, ‘George, you should really buy it.’ And I just didn’t have the means to do it,” he said. “I regret it because that would have been so cool to get that back in the family.”
Though he knows “you can’t fight progress,” he’s glad that Bala has retained so much of its character. Along with the Balacade, he has a strong love for Don’s Bakery as well as the Kee to Bala, where he’ll be in the crowd once again this August.
No matter where he goes in life, he always seems to gravitate back to Bala. He wishes he could’ve been lucky enough to buy the Balacade, but he’s happy it went to people who care enough to honour its history.
“I’m very encouraged to hear that they are going to retain some of the memorabilia that’s of significance because that’s huge,” George said. “Now, even when I go there still, I will remember my dad, and I know the machines that he recognized. It would mean a lot to me that they would keep a part of that history alive.”
From family business to family business
The Vigneux family sold the property to Jack Howey in 1957. Paul Arney ran it for him that summer, his wife Patricia said, before buying it the following year. He filled it with machines he bought from hotels and lodges along his work route from Moosonee to Muskoka.
Paul and Patricia met during a staff party at Dunn’s Pavilion, now known as the Kee to Bala, two years later. That’s how the Balacade became a family business once again, acting as the summer cottage for the Arneys and their two boys.
“It was on Lake Muskoka, so the kids learned to swim off our back deck,” Patricia said in a May 2021 interview with Muskoka411. “And in the wintertime, we went back to Kirkland Lake.”
The family moved to Bala full-time in 1998. They hired many local teens to work in the arcade over the years, and once they were old enough, their sons also became employees. They have many fond memories, including the rush of customers that came along with Tuesday night ski shows and visits from bands that were in town to play at the Kee.
“We had a very symbiotic relationship with the Bala Falls Pub because mom and dad could go and have lunch and then send the kids over to the Balacade,” Patricia said. “With five bucks, they could spend half an hour, an hour.”
The business gained an iconic reputation with locals and even ended up in an iSH music video and a painting by west coast artist Robert Amos. The couple felt they were too old to keep running it, so they initially put the Balacade and all its contents up for sale in 2014, seeking a buyer who would continue to run it as an arcade.
It didn’t sell until 2017 when Grant Caton and his partner entered the scene. Patricia said it’s hard not to be there anymore after watching three generations grow up in its walls.
“We’ve had so many memories there that it’s hard to remember all of them,” Paul said. “We had a good time, and as Pat was saying, we really miss the kids… they’re all grown up since we left.”
Paul and Patricia said that while they’re devastated that the arcade isn’t operating, they know Grant and his partner did the best they could through the challenges of the pandemic. They wish them the best, and while they know it’s a major undertaking, they’re hopeful about the future of the property.
“I hope they do fix it up, because the building is old, but we always kept it painted and looking respectable,” Patricia said. “We’d like to see some renovations, for sure, and we’d like to see the doors open.”
Rebuilding a beloved business
Grant Caton and his partner David Anthony continued running the business as an arcade for three years after buying it in 2017. Since the Arneys owned it for nearly 60 years, they knew they were taking on an important piece of Bala’s local culture.
“Their heritage and history there is deep, and it’s hard shoes to fill,” Caton said in a 2021 interview. “We tried very hard to do that the best we could throughout the time and kept it going, and we loved seeing everyone come through.”
Even after the historic floods of spring 2019 damaged the building, they managed to open it up for the summer. The following year, however, the pandemic brought the business to a grinding halt. Issues with their game supplier emptied the arcade of most of its machines, and the limitations around COVID made an arcade business virtually impossible.
In 2021, they started renting the space to the neighbouring general store Jack & Stella. The store has continued to use the space as an additional showroom ever since, while Caton and his partner worked on plans for rebuilding.
“It’s being used today. It’s part of the community today. It’s playing a service today,” Caton said in a July 2023 interview. “We just took a pause on pushing forward.”
There’s potential that the new building could house an updated version of the Balacade, even if it’s just a small component of the building, but Caton doesn’t want to make any promises on that front. They retained some of the more well-known machines from the business, including Miss Pac-Man and several pinball machines, which they’ve slowly worked to restore over the years.
After pausing their efforts, Caton said they’re actively looking at options to start work on the property. Their current plan is to create a retail space with one or two apartments above, but they haven’t landed on a final design. He hopes that locals will be supportive of their efforts moving forward despite some of the recent rumours and controversy surrounding the property.
“It’s a great place where I grew up and my children grew up,” Caton said. “I hope the overreaction was really a reaction of passion on how great of a community and waterfront Bala can have and has.”
To learn more about the Balacade, read the article linked below.
