Dolan's Casino & Rollerway

Dolan's Casino was a dance hall at Nuttings Lake, on Water Street at the Middlesex Turnpike, kept by Francis J. Dolan, the town's tree warden, on his family's homestead land on the north shore of the lake. In the 1920s the lake was a summer resort of camps and cottages, and the town licensed its dance halls from 1922, collecting $150 a year, three halls at $50 each in 1929. The selectmen reported in 1924 that "the dance halls at the several resorts have been patronized by an unusually large number during the past year, but these places have been well conducted and their owners have cooperated with our police in preserving order," and in 1926 they placed policewomen "on duty at the dance halls in Pinehurst Park and Nutting's Pond." The 1925 directory lists Dolan's Casino on Water Street among the town's places of amusement, and the 1931 directory names Francis J. Dolan as its proprietor. The town's dance hall fees fell to $100 in 1932 and $25 by 1935.

From 1941 the building was a roller skating rink, Dolan's Casino Rollerway, run by Alice M. Dolan, the widow of Francis J. Dolan. It advertised in the Howe High School yearbooks from 1941 to 1953 as the Casino Rollerway, "A. M. Dolan, Nuttings Lake" ("Open May 15" in 1943), and later as Dolan's Casino Rollerway: "For Roller Skating at Its Best, Plan an Evening at Dolan's Casino Rollerway" (1950). In July 1955 she sold the lot "with the buildings thereon, being a roller-skating rink" to Guy H. and Anne B. Scott, and that year a town meeting article proposed buying "Scott's Roller Skating Rink" for a public playground on Nuttings Lake.