Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Ave, Scranton, PA. Postcard of the building. Source: Wikipedia.
Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Ave, Scranton, PA. Postcard of the building. Better view of it. You can see the roller rink would be located toward back since you can see it appeared like a Monitor Roof style arena. Courtesy of Old Postcards.
Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Ave, Scranton, PA. Today. Source: Wikipedia.
Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Ave, Scranton, PA. Ticket but has no number. Or it may have been a business card size cards give-a-way. Courtesy of eBay.
Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Ave, Scranton, PA
Armory Roller Skating Rink 900-940 Adams Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania was in fact a roller rink in the named Watres Armory building. Named after Col. Louis Arthur Watres
Unfortunately, not much about the roller rink. Likely it was operational back in first half of 20th Century. Thanks to ONE evident from ebay. A ticket. the seller said it was from 1940s. Also a man named Frank in the comments section on this website, PA Historic Preservation. He said around 1940s to 1960s. But that is just a blur.
Anyone know more about this rink?
The Watres Armory was in fact used for many purposes. Mainly for the military. It was also used for boxing, basketball, and other sports and functions such as political town halls, etc.
University of Scranton used it for a time for their basketball team to play there.
The building, however, was built in 1900, and is a four-story, 20 bays by 26 bays, brick and stone building executed in the Romanesque Revival style. The front facade features a central stone arch entrance flanked by crenellated towers. According to Wikipedia.
It is registered as a Landmark in the year 1989.
It consists of a large drill hall where the roller rink was, administrative space, classrooms, a dining hall with kitchen, and multiple storage areas.
The building is no longer in use. The unit relocated to a new facility, the new Armed Forces Reserve Center.
Hardly any history found. Anyone?
The Interior.
They used wood floor for the rink. Most armory around the country used wood floor. It has a whooping 102,200 Square Foot interior with bottom two floors the biggest square footage than the top two floors.
The Exterior.
Beautiful four-story, 20 bays by 26 bays, brick and stone building executed in the Romanesque Revival style. The front façade features a central stone arch entrance flanked by crenellated towers. The acreage is 1.6000 Acre and do the math.. which is complicated because first 2 floors are same but 3rd and 4th up front is not connected to the rest. The building itself has 69,696 Square Feet (1.6 Acres) so That explains per floor for floor 1 and 2. The rest is much less. The second postcard above showed you what it appeared. Looks confusing? I know. This does not include the sidewalks because the city owns that part. Usually 4 feet from the road are not counted. Just leave as it is because it is confusing.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely wood floor Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 102,200 SF. Built: 1900. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: Still standing. Historic landmark.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Brick and Stone - Walled Multistory castle-like Armory Building.
Roof: Flat front, main section Monitor style.
Acres: 1.6000 Acres.
Architect: Lansing C. Holden.
Contractor: N/A.
Interior Designer: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Air Hockey Tables: N/A.
Foosball Table: N/A.
Basketball Speed: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Jungle Gym Playground: None.
Skate Park: None.
Theater (movie/stage): None.
Dance Center: None.
NRHP reference No.89002081 It has not yet been digitalized for you to read.
Operated: (Overall)-- Likely around 1940s to 1960s (Unverified).
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Also send me any updates such as reopening, sold, name changes, or whatsoever occurred with this rink or any rinks. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Rink-History©. Before you email, please state this rink name AND THE CITY AND STATE (or COUNTRY) so I can know where or what rink you are talking about. Thank you. We welcome both active and defunct rinks.
Sources:
PA Historic Preservation - Mentioned about roller skating in the comments section. No article! Just a photo. Hmm, that website needs to have captions about the building and second of all, have an article about it.
Wikipedia - Watres Armory.
Fact Sheet - in PDF.
Date of issue: 26 June 2023.
Updated:
For office use only: 4.
Worth to visit:
You can only on the exterior. It is not in use though. Ask the front desk when you go in since they do have offices. Ask for permission FIRST! Please read disclaimer below for further details. When you do, great! Please take picture of the main armory and email it to me or Facebook message me and I will post it here and credited to you.
DISCLAIMER:
International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© (formerly known as Dead-Rinks) and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Dead Rinks is now International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© because many former names have become new names at the same rinks that are still active and due to much confusion, We have decided that International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© fits better for all rinks including defunct, closed, inactive, rebooted, and rinks that are still active today. For short on this site, it is International Roller Skating Rinks History© Bear with us as we change the entire site page by page each day. Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former. Since we are rebooted to allow alive rinks, active rinks, we welcome those active rinks as well. It will be described.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© are not the property of International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group and/or International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved become property of International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Disclaimer.
© Copyrighted by International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation©, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 17. Deut. 32:7.
Unfortunately, not much about the roller rink. Likely it was operational back in first half of 20th Century. Thanks to ONE evident from ebay. A ticket. the seller said it was from 1940s. Also a man named Frank in the comments section on this website, PA Historic Preservation. He said around 1940s to 1960s. But that is just a blur.
Anyone know more about this rink?
The Watres Armory was in fact used for many purposes. Mainly for the military. It was also used for boxing, basketball, and other sports and functions such as political town halls, etc.
University of Scranton used it for a time for their basketball team to play there.
The building, however, was built in 1900, and is a four-story, 20 bays by 26 bays, brick and stone building executed in the Romanesque Revival style. The front facade features a central stone arch entrance flanked by crenellated towers. According to Wikipedia.
It is registered as a Landmark in the year 1989.
It consists of a large drill hall where the roller rink was, administrative space, classrooms, a dining hall with kitchen, and multiple storage areas.
The building is no longer in use. The unit relocated to a new facility, the new Armed Forces Reserve Center.
Hardly any history found. Anyone?
The Interior.
They used wood floor for the rink. Most armory around the country used wood floor. It has a whooping 102,200 Square Foot interior with bottom two floors the biggest square footage than the top two floors.
The Exterior.
Beautiful four-story, 20 bays by 26 bays, brick and stone building executed in the Romanesque Revival style. The front façade features a central stone arch entrance flanked by crenellated towers. The acreage is 1.6000 Acre and do the math.. which is complicated because first 2 floors are same but 3rd and 4th up front is not connected to the rest. The building itself has 69,696 Square Feet (1.6 Acres) so That explains per floor for floor 1 and 2. The rest is much less. The second postcard above showed you what it appeared. Looks confusing? I know. This does not include the sidewalks because the city owns that part. Usually 4 feet from the road are not counted. Just leave as it is because it is confusing.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely wood floor Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 102,200 SF. Built: 1900. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: Still standing. Historic landmark.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Brick and Stone - Walled Multistory castle-like Armory Building.
Roof: Flat front, main section Monitor style.
Acres: 1.6000 Acres.
Architect: Lansing C. Holden.
Contractor: N/A.
Interior Designer: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Air Hockey Tables: N/A.
Foosball Table: N/A.
Basketball Speed: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Jungle Gym Playground: None.
Skate Park: None.
Theater (movie/stage): None.
Dance Center: None.
NRHP reference No.89002081 It has not yet been digitalized for you to read.
Operated: (Overall)-- Likely around 1940s to 1960s (Unverified).
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Also send me any updates such as reopening, sold, name changes, or whatsoever occurred with this rink or any rinks. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Rink-History©. Before you email, please state this rink name AND THE CITY AND STATE (or COUNTRY) so I can know where or what rink you are talking about. Thank you. We welcome both active and defunct rinks.
Sources:
PA Historic Preservation - Mentioned about roller skating in the comments section. No article! Just a photo. Hmm, that website needs to have captions about the building and second of all, have an article about it.
Wikipedia - Watres Armory.
Fact Sheet - in PDF.
Date of issue: 26 June 2023.
Updated:
For office use only: 4.
Worth to visit:
You can only on the exterior. It is not in use though. Ask the front desk when you go in since they do have offices. Ask for permission FIRST! Please read disclaimer below for further details. When you do, great! Please take picture of the main armory and email it to me or Facebook message me and I will post it here and credited to you.
DISCLAIMER:
International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© (formerly known as Dead-Rinks) and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Dead Rinks is now International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© because many former names have become new names at the same rinks that are still active and due to much confusion, We have decided that International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© fits better for all rinks including defunct, closed, inactive, rebooted, and rinks that are still active today. For short on this site, it is International Roller Skating Rinks History© Bear with us as we change the entire site page by page each day. Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former. Since we are rebooted to allow alive rinks, active rinks, we welcome those active rinks as well. It will be described.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© are not the property of International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group and/or International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved become property of International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Disclaimer.
© Copyrighted by International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation©, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 17. Deut. 32:7.