Where is the oldest roller rink in the USA?
Roy ARTZ
Does anyone know of any rink still in operation older than ours? For 70
years it is (4th generation) family owned and operated. A novelty mirror
bought at a flea market with LaRose's advertisement states that it was
established in 1926 and that in it's 14th anniversary it was the oldest
rink in the east at that time...(1940). LaRose's Skating Rink is located
on Rt. 209, Lehighton, PA.
George Robbins
That's a pretty difficult question to answer unless you have a list at of
the other "old" rinks. The rink at Oaks Park in Portland is supposed to
date to the 20's, but none of the articles on the recent flood mention
the date. There are still a few other "amusement park" rinks that have
survived files and closures that could date back to the 20's.
You might want to chat with the people at the USAC museum, perhaps they
have the information or could put something in their newsletter that
would eventually elicit a response - 402-483-7551.
--
George Robbins - not working for, work: to be avoided at all costs...
but still emotionally attached to: uucp: ...!uunet!tharsis.com!grr
Commodore, Engineering Department domain: g...@tharsis.com
RRJJGG
Warnoco North in Greeley CO was built in 1919 as part of an amusement
complex. It was expanded in the late 40s with a second larger floor, but
the original floor is still in place. Lawrence Welk used to bring his
band up from Denver on off nights to play back before he hit the big
time!! The rink is still open although it is currently used only for
hockey, since all sessions, parties, and artistic club activities have
been moved to the newer rink in town.
I would think that there are several older rinks back east or in the
midwest still operating. I couldn't tell you where they are though.
George Robbins
The Braddock Height Roller Rink, near Frederick MD claims to have been
operating since 1902. It was part of a now-defunct amusement park.
The Oaks Park rink in Portland OR may have been operating since 1905,
though that's the park opening date and it's not 100% clear that the
rink opened at the same time.
It's no big surprise that the oldest rinks were associated with amusement
parks and that there are so few left. Roller skating is characterized
by boom-bust-decline cycles, with each cycle seeing the closure of many
of that cycles new rinks and those surviving from the previous cycle.
Association with another amusement facility generally gives the rink
more resiliance, since people are coming to the locale anyway and the
rink can also serve as a dance pavilion, dining/convention hall, casino
or arcade during the low periods. Of course, stand-alone amusement
parks were generally in a decline by the post-war years, and the rise
of theme parks and suburbanization and associated rising property
values has dealt many of the remaining parks a death blow. In some
cases, they survive the park, at least for another cycle.
The early roller skating booms were loosely associated with some other
trends in increasing personal mobility. In early Plimpton days, most
of the rinks were in city locations, none survive though there are
buildings which were rinks at some point. The boom of the late 1800's
can be tied in with the maturing of the railroads as a local transport
system, fares were afforable and trains went everywhere. This period
saw a lot of growth in resorts - shore/lakeside destinations, religious
and rustic retreats from the cities. They didn't have a lot of rides
or amusements, but did have social centers, often including a multi-
function hall which could serve as a roller rink. The skating part
of this era ended with the bicycle craze of the 1890's.
The next boom period corrsponds with the rise of the city trolley
and rural interurban electric railways, which provided a finer grained
public transportation web than the railroads and promoted the first
wave of suburbanization. One of the features of many of the trolley
lines was a company owned amusement park somewhere along the line.
Some park were simple picnic areas, but many had the rides, arcades
and fun-houses of the traditional amusement park and a roller rink was
a fairly standard feature of these parks. This period of skating
ended with WW-I and the bulk of the trolley-car expansion was done by
the early 20's.
Rink building in 20's and 30's seems to have been mostly in areas where
there were already recreational attractions. During the 40's and 50's
it seemed to be more in the expanding urban neighborhoods and also in
rural locations. The boom in the 70's/early 80's was clearly suburban,
by this time most of the rinks in urban locations were in the wrong
neighbohoods and most of the old amusement parks were dead or winding
down. Rinks built during this boom make up the largest cluster of the
rinks still operation today - there were fewer than 1000 operating
rinks by 1970 and an estimated 3000-4000 during the peak of the disco
skating boom!
Chris
> rrj...@aol.com (RRJJGG) writes:
> Warnoco North in Greeley CO was built in 1919 as part of an amusement
> complex. It was expanded in the late 40s with a second larger floor, but
> the original floor is still in place. Lawrence Welk used to bring his
> band up from Denver on off nights to play back before he hit the big
> time!! The rink is still open although it is currently used only for
> hockey, since all sessions, parties, and artistic club activities have
> been moved to the newer rink in town.
>
> I would think that there are several older rinks back east or in the
> midwest still operating. I couldn't tell you where they are though.
>
>>>>
continued to operate at full speed to this day. We continue to excel in parties for all ages as well as our
public sessions, run hockey camps ad clinics, and have had a resurge in our artistic program. We still try
to operate our rink to high standards and hope to continue and support the sport of roller skating
if you are in the area and want to stop by our phone # is 201-377-0465 call for hours
~Chris Segot
Florham Park Roller Rink -mgr.
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* Chris Segot se...@segot.gti.net *
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