In the summer of I882, William Eliot Barrows, the Willimantic Linen Co.'s president, built a park and dance pavilion at the Oaks, on the southern side of Quercus Avenue. During the park‘s opening night concert in August 1882, the Willimanlic Band entertained the massed crowds with afternoon  and early evening concerts. The dance pavilion was so packed that the orchestra had difficulty perfoming. The following Saturday evening the Willimantic Band was able to perform on a 16-foot square stage erected inside the pavilion. The parks opening night attraction was William Barrows’ floodlit tableaux, a unique entertainment which was met with gasps of  elight. At sunset Barrows projected paintings onto 20-foot-high canvases. The bright beams which illuminated the pictures were provided by one of Barrows’ own inventions, an “oxi~hydrogen” light. The performance was repeated the following week. The word quickly spread and over 2,000 people packed the grounds and dance pavilion to few the outdoor projection show. However, ‘rowdy elements’ caused problems, and before the Oaks Park third summer concert of the season, Barrows’ posted the following notice around Willimantic:  The Grove at the ‘Oaks’ is for your exclusive use and for such friends you would be pleased to invite. It is hopeful you will find it a source of pleasure and recreation. The Willimantic Band has been engaged Io furnish music each  Saturday evening. Ten o’clock is the hour when " it is expected that all persons will leave the grounds. Loud and boisterous talking and laughter should not be indulged in as such conduct is annoying to the large majority of the persons visiting the Grove, and it also leads to the belief that some of you are ill bred. It should be remembered that this Grove is not opened to the public and that it is the private property of the Willimantic Linen Company, and that all persons except yourselves and those whom you invite are trespassers.  The concerts and entertainments continued each Saturday during the summer of l882, playing to packed crowds, However, on Oct. 14 there was great disappointment when a downpour of rain caused a postponement. The evening dance and concerts at the Oaks Park returned the following summer, and a massive crowd came to the July 4, 1883 Independence Day celebrations held at the old "Grove."  The Grove was Willimantic’s summer social center for the next decade. lt housed every conceivable form of entertainment during the summer months. The company also rented the park to other organizations, particularly to the various societies of St. Joseph’s Church. However in l892, after several rowdy, drunken brawls at the dance pavilion, the park was closed down for “public safety."  On July 13, 1892, the Willimantic Chronicle reported on the Willimantic Linen Co.’s decision: “The dance pavilion at the Oaks Park will be taken down on  account of the fact that it is the  resort of many, on Sundays and  evenings, who get noisy and dis-  turb the occupants of the tenements of this vicinity.”  The Oaks Park met with an ignominious end, but because of its early popularity, Barrows decided to build a trotting and park at the east end of Willimantic at Sodom. He illuminated the racetrack with electric arc lights, and the first race meeting held in July 1883 attracted an estimated crowd of more than  4,000. Barrows also built a vast exhibition hall. and invited local farmers and civic leaders to hold an annual agricultural fair.  The first Willimantic Agricultural Show was held in October l883, and the new park at Sodom became better known to two generations of Willimantic  residents as the Willimantic  Fairgrounds. The following year the Willimantic Linen Co. laid a baseball diamond in the center of the track and erected a grandstand. A professional baseball team, the Willimantic Colts, was formed to compete in the  Connecticut Baseball League, and  it played its home games at the  new Fairgrounds baseball park  Agricultural fairs were held here  annually until l9l4, when the  Willimantic Linen Co.’s successors, the American Thread rebuilt the grounds into a sporting  facility, which it renamed  Recreation Park.