The Bainbridge Grange’s last big event was a meeting of the newly-formed fruit grower’s club. They tasted pears, talked about their gardens’ successes and failures, and strategized about how to get new members – typical stuff at the quiet little community hall on North Madison.

But things weren’t always so tame. The Grange hosted some raucous teenage rock shows during the early part of the last decade, and even more back in the ’90s.

But the island’s teenagers of the recent past have nothing on the crazy knife-wielding, window bashing kids of the 1960s.

From our archives, here’s a news item about a Grange Hall riot that took place 50 years ago this week:

An orderly teenage dance became chaos Saturday night when a full-scale riot erupted at the Bainbridge Island Grange Hall.

Two youths remained hospitalized today from the melee, and three others required treatment for stab wounds.

Several others were injured but did not require treatment.

Two youths are being held in the county jail as a result of the incident. At least 10 automobiles parked outside the hall near Rolling Bay had windows broken because of the fracas.

For more about the Grange, read our 2010 story about its revival here.

And check out Larry Steagall’s photo gallery here.