Courtesy of I Remember New Britain Facebook Fan page. Ah, beautiful color photo! Looks recent! But it was not. Wow, look at that beautiful black car sitting on the curb of the road! Anyway, the floor covering store, Bruno's was closed for the evening as you can tell how the sunset was shining in the photo above the store. You also can see the main door to the rink downstairs was on the corner of the building right by that Cloud Blue car parked on the small narrow driveway. Likely taken in 1970s because of that car and the beautiful Black car! Ahh, I missed the 70s!
As ACME Appliance, Courtesy of Google/ACME Appliance. rows of appliances. I have been to stores like that before but this one is most interesting I believe because you see a real old stove-oven (white one on bottom of photo. A red motorcycle and yes, you can see a late 1990s Polaris Indy Snowmobile way in the back. (I believe it was 1997 model). Actually way up front. This was taken from the back of the store.
Left and above courtesy of Billboard. Left December 23, 1950 and above October 15, 1955. From the article on the left, it sounded like they were opened before 1950 as said in the first paragraph. They may have been operational since 1940. Maybe a different rink name, We all do not know until I get answers from people.
|
Courtesy of Matchbookalbumstore on Ebay. On the right I rotated 180 degrees so you can read the name. Yes, back then skaters and bowlers smoked while enjoying their recreational fun.
Bowl-O-Rink 296 Arch Street, New Britain, CT
New Britain Skating Rink 296 Arch Street, New Britain, CT
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink 296 Arch Street, New Britain, CT
New Britain Skating Rink 296 Arch Street, New Britain, CT
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink 296 Arch Street, New Britain, CT
Once was three skating businesses that ran at 296 Arch Street in New Britain, Connecticut. First came was Bowl-O-Rink then came along New Britain Skating Rink which named after the town, then Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink. Bowl-O-Rink was quite different than the 2 successors because Bowl-O-Rink was both bowling and roller skating rink. Those two.. the bowling was on ground floor as the skating rink was in the basement in this one story building that was built in 1940.
I believe the two successors had the rink in the basement because other businesses were on ground floor.
The building was built in 1940 but it had various of businesses come and go in 1940s but it was unknown when the Bowl-O-Rink began. Perhaps it did too in 1940s. But not sure. Sorry there are no information available when they first opened. Perhaps even in 1940 when the building was built. Again, not sure. Anyone know about it?
Likely was opened in 1940. Let's say it was and was opened and operated by Howard P. Rogers but perhaps he sold it to Ronald Gale who ran it from 1953 to 1960. Ray McDonnell and Jim Ferris took over after purchasing it in 1961 and only Ray McDonnell kept his stake and Jim Ferris sold his part to Robert Bruce (I know! Braveheart but that is not him! Haha) in 1966 and they renamed it to New Britain Skating Rink until 1969-70 when they sold it to Joseph & Dottie Dabkowski Jr who renamed it as Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink until around 1977. Some information are vague such as the beginning and the end. Anyone know about those dates? Please let me know at [email protected].
UPDATE --
A woman came forward in email telling me her foster parents, Joseph and Dottie Dabkowski owned it around 1969/1970 till 1977 and closed Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink there then.
I found groves of photos courtesy of Dottie Dabkowski on Facebook showing all the figure skating skaters and team at their Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink. I usually do not pose them but you can find on this page on Facebook with over a dozen, maybe two dozens of them. Most of them are in Black and White photos.
If that was where their rink was, it had very interesting murals on the walls. One part was a theme of "Around the World in 80 Days" with all murals pictures related to that story and movies. The other was Calendar on the wall. One of the earliest rinks to have such themed murals which was not common till 1990s to 2010s. Today renovated rinks or new rinks are not showing themes on the wall anymore. All very cleaned up look which makes the places look bigger.
This one really limited that because of low ceiling basement location for a rink there in New Britain, Connecticut.
One another interesting story is that makes this rink truly a prototypical Rink because not just the murals, but also they had an experimental project by advertising targeting towns 8 miles away from the rink which was not that far but they provided a bus for skaters to ride on the bus which occurred in 1955. This was not new. Even way back to 1900s at Crystal Ballroom in the same state that they had city buses stopped at the facility and I am sure later on, the rink there had some buses for a time. Another rink did the same got bus rides and trolley parks with skating rinks had trollies ride direct to the parks and patrons skated there. Some rinks today DO have buses but as much. Astro Skates does that in Florida. For a time, Sports-O-Rama in Mattydale, NY had a real double-decker bus that they had from UK. They even had operators from other rinks to watch customer reactions on that bus ride so they can see if they can do the same. I do not see it was that successful because I have done a lot of profiles and cataloging rinks and it was not that successful.
Today a lot of rinks are targeting children as main customers with their parents. Since parents can drive they are almost not needed to have a bus. Second of all, parents know their children were bulled riding the bus for school so they do not want that anymore. And the insurance since 1980s were out of control that it is very expensive for a business to operate buses. Churches too today since 1990s were having a hard time. Since I am also a pastor, I can see how many churches had to get rid of buses because of insurance. One church I know had a donation of like 10 vans so that many ministries can have but the insurance in New York State really killing it and the state attempt to control which is wrong. They had to get rid of 7 vans then rid of 2 more leaving just one van using for just the Youth Ministry and the Deaf Ministry.
All those three presented problems in modern world today. And its sad. But if rinks wanted to, they would have to work with city bus companies, taxi companies such as Uber, and Lyft and any other local driving taxi type companies. This should work well in today's world. Parents should also consider organizing van rides with their children AND friends to ride together. Make a great after-school activity on a Friday night that they are picked up at school and ride to the child's home where that parent lives and have a pizza dinner before heading out to the rink. Called a car pooling and easier on birthday parties too.
Acme took over the main floor on June 30, 1980 after Bruno's went out of business or moved in mid 1980 but according to Google Map in June 2012, they have their store in the basement taking over the former rink while on top, another business. Acme did not go out of business, they moved to the downstairs location as another business took over then a bakery took over. Now it is a Hispanic Pentecostal Church located there now while Acme Appliance is in the basement. They had leasing available in 2017. Acme closed in around 2017. Likely the church occupied both floors. The building was sold on May 30, 2018 according to Realty Trac.
The Interior.
I do not know what the interior look for the first two businesses, the Bowl-O-Rink, and the New Britain Skating Rink were like but good find I found on Facebook someone put up courtesy of Dottie Dabkowski. It had clear Maple wood floor to skate in Log Cabin layout. Hard to see but it does appear that way. The ceiling is quite low considering this was in the basement. When it was Bowl-O-Rama, the ground floor was a bowling center and small one. Likely it had six to eight lanes. But when that business closed, they got rid of the bowling part and leased out ground floor to other businesses and has been like that ever since.
But just the rink was in the basement all that time till its closure in 1977 because Acme opened on June 30, 1980. Likely they sold the building at the time. Maybe closed the rink months before that. No one knows.
The murals were quite interesting in 1970s with those Black-n-White photos of skaters seen on Facebook.
They had one side with theme as "Around the World in 80 Days" with a hot air balloon and there are part of ocean waves, and famous landmarks in a very simple form.
The other part was a series of Calendar. Big oversized Calendar months with days were on the wall. This was rather very unusual for a rink for its time. Themes were not common till 1990s. Perhaps this was a prototypical rink.
The Exterior.
The appearance was very basic low lying flat ceiling building. Likely they had windows up front for the bowling section of the business on ground floor with doors in middle of front door but skating still got the side door. But the rinks had humility because they outlasted the bowling and still have that treatment as not meaning to be political here. as second class because they did not have that nice front treatment as the bowling did.
The appearances changed quite bit. I do not know what it was like with the first 2 rink businesses but the Hi-Low had simple White and Dark Forest Green or was that Black? The photo had more brownness of type of film Kodak used in the 1970s.
After Acme took over, they painted Snow White, then they had Royal Blue, the bakery had that then bakery went out quickly then the church had painted to Dry Mud Light Gray color. Sold recently as this year in 2020, we do not know what will be next.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Clear coated Maple. Floor Layout: (hard to see but look like LOG).
Building Size: 19,008 SF (likely included the finished basement). Built: 1940. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: 0.4900. (21,344 SF lot)
Operated: 1940(?) to 1980(?).
Bowl-O-Rink: 19540(?) to 1966.
New Britain Skating Rink: 1966 to1969/70.
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink: 1969/70 to 1977.
Reason for Closure:
Bowl-O-Rink: N/A.
New Britain Skating Rink: N/A.
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding actual dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos.
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Facebook - I Remember New Britain; Loop Net; Loop Net 2 (updated); Trulia; Realty Trac;
D.M. (foster daughter of the Dabkowskis);
Realtor; CT-Registry website:
Date of Issue: Fall 2020. Updated: 21 February 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
I believe the two successors had the rink in the basement because other businesses were on ground floor.
The building was built in 1940 but it had various of businesses come and go in 1940s but it was unknown when the Bowl-O-Rink began. Perhaps it did too in 1940s. But not sure. Sorry there are no information available when they first opened. Perhaps even in 1940 when the building was built. Again, not sure. Anyone know about it?
Likely was opened in 1940. Let's say it was and was opened and operated by Howard P. Rogers but perhaps he sold it to Ronald Gale who ran it from 1953 to 1960. Ray McDonnell and Jim Ferris took over after purchasing it in 1961 and only Ray McDonnell kept his stake and Jim Ferris sold his part to Robert Bruce (I know! Braveheart but that is not him! Haha) in 1966 and they renamed it to New Britain Skating Rink until 1969-70 when they sold it to Joseph & Dottie Dabkowski Jr who renamed it as Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink until around 1977. Some information are vague such as the beginning and the end. Anyone know about those dates? Please let me know at [email protected].
UPDATE --
A woman came forward in email telling me her foster parents, Joseph and Dottie Dabkowski owned it around 1969/1970 till 1977 and closed Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink there then.
I found groves of photos courtesy of Dottie Dabkowski on Facebook showing all the figure skating skaters and team at their Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink. I usually do not pose them but you can find on this page on Facebook with over a dozen, maybe two dozens of them. Most of them are in Black and White photos.
If that was where their rink was, it had very interesting murals on the walls. One part was a theme of "Around the World in 80 Days" with all murals pictures related to that story and movies. The other was Calendar on the wall. One of the earliest rinks to have such themed murals which was not common till 1990s to 2010s. Today renovated rinks or new rinks are not showing themes on the wall anymore. All very cleaned up look which makes the places look bigger.
This one really limited that because of low ceiling basement location for a rink there in New Britain, Connecticut.
One another interesting story is that makes this rink truly a prototypical Rink because not just the murals, but also they had an experimental project by advertising targeting towns 8 miles away from the rink which was not that far but they provided a bus for skaters to ride on the bus which occurred in 1955. This was not new. Even way back to 1900s at Crystal Ballroom in the same state that they had city buses stopped at the facility and I am sure later on, the rink there had some buses for a time. Another rink did the same got bus rides and trolley parks with skating rinks had trollies ride direct to the parks and patrons skated there. Some rinks today DO have buses but as much. Astro Skates does that in Florida. For a time, Sports-O-Rama in Mattydale, NY had a real double-decker bus that they had from UK. They even had operators from other rinks to watch customer reactions on that bus ride so they can see if they can do the same. I do not see it was that successful because I have done a lot of profiles and cataloging rinks and it was not that successful.
Today a lot of rinks are targeting children as main customers with their parents. Since parents can drive they are almost not needed to have a bus. Second of all, parents know their children were bulled riding the bus for school so they do not want that anymore. And the insurance since 1980s were out of control that it is very expensive for a business to operate buses. Churches too today since 1990s were having a hard time. Since I am also a pastor, I can see how many churches had to get rid of buses because of insurance. One church I know had a donation of like 10 vans so that many ministries can have but the insurance in New York State really killing it and the state attempt to control which is wrong. They had to get rid of 7 vans then rid of 2 more leaving just one van using for just the Youth Ministry and the Deaf Ministry.
All those three presented problems in modern world today. And its sad. But if rinks wanted to, they would have to work with city bus companies, taxi companies such as Uber, and Lyft and any other local driving taxi type companies. This should work well in today's world. Parents should also consider organizing van rides with their children AND friends to ride together. Make a great after-school activity on a Friday night that they are picked up at school and ride to the child's home where that parent lives and have a pizza dinner before heading out to the rink. Called a car pooling and easier on birthday parties too.
Acme took over the main floor on June 30, 1980 after Bruno's went out of business or moved in mid 1980 but according to Google Map in June 2012, they have their store in the basement taking over the former rink while on top, another business. Acme did not go out of business, they moved to the downstairs location as another business took over then a bakery took over. Now it is a Hispanic Pentecostal Church located there now while Acme Appliance is in the basement. They had leasing available in 2017. Acme closed in around 2017. Likely the church occupied both floors. The building was sold on May 30, 2018 according to Realty Trac.
The Interior.
I do not know what the interior look for the first two businesses, the Bowl-O-Rink, and the New Britain Skating Rink were like but good find I found on Facebook someone put up courtesy of Dottie Dabkowski. It had clear Maple wood floor to skate in Log Cabin layout. Hard to see but it does appear that way. The ceiling is quite low considering this was in the basement. When it was Bowl-O-Rama, the ground floor was a bowling center and small one. Likely it had six to eight lanes. But when that business closed, they got rid of the bowling part and leased out ground floor to other businesses and has been like that ever since.
But just the rink was in the basement all that time till its closure in 1977 because Acme opened on June 30, 1980. Likely they sold the building at the time. Maybe closed the rink months before that. No one knows.
The murals were quite interesting in 1970s with those Black-n-White photos of skaters seen on Facebook.
They had one side with theme as "Around the World in 80 Days" with a hot air balloon and there are part of ocean waves, and famous landmarks in a very simple form.
The other part was a series of Calendar. Big oversized Calendar months with days were on the wall. This was rather very unusual for a rink for its time. Themes were not common till 1990s. Perhaps this was a prototypical rink.
The Exterior.
The appearance was very basic low lying flat ceiling building. Likely they had windows up front for the bowling section of the business on ground floor with doors in middle of front door but skating still got the side door. But the rinks had humility because they outlasted the bowling and still have that treatment as not meaning to be political here. as second class because they did not have that nice front treatment as the bowling did.
The appearances changed quite bit. I do not know what it was like with the first 2 rink businesses but the Hi-Low had simple White and Dark Forest Green or was that Black? The photo had more brownness of type of film Kodak used in the 1970s.
After Acme took over, they painted Snow White, then they had Royal Blue, the bakery had that then bakery went out quickly then the church had painted to Dry Mud Light Gray color. Sold recently as this year in 2020, we do not know what will be next.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Clear coated Maple. Floor Layout: (hard to see but look like LOG).
Building Size: 19,008 SF (likely included the finished basement). Built: 1940. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: 0.4900. (21,344 SF lot)
Operated: 1940(?) to 1980(?).
Bowl-O-Rink: 19540(?) to 1966.
New Britain Skating Rink: 1966 to1969/70.
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink: 1969/70 to 1977.
Reason for Closure:
Bowl-O-Rink: N/A.
New Britain Skating Rink: N/A.
Hi-Lite Roller Skating Rink: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding actual dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos.
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Facebook - I Remember New Britain; Loop Net; Loop Net 2 (updated); Trulia; Realty Trac;
D.M. (foster daughter of the Dabkowskis);
Realtor; CT-Registry website:
Date of Issue: Fall 2020. Updated: 21 February 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.