Both Courtesy of National Museum of Roller Skating Newsletter. Photos fixed by Dead-Rinks. Beautiful Art Deco with beautiful Michigan Rock Maple floor.
Courtesy of Billboard April 25, 1942, Page 45. The clarification of the article by Dead-Rinks. This was the announcement of grand opening. I do not think this is the same Ozzie Nelson of Hollywood fame but president of ARSA at the time. ARSA I believe was Artistic Roller Skating Association. It was the same issue that RSRORA made decision to divorce from ASU (Page 44). That issue I think they made a mistake. This is why we do not have roller skating in Olympics compared to Ice skating did. Thanks a lot! DISCLAIMER: My humble and educated opinion.
Co-Ed Rollerdrome 20 Griggs Street, Allston, MA
Co-Ed Rollerdrome began on April 6, 1942, in the midst of Second World War in Allston, Massachusetts on a street called 20 Criggs Street.
This rink had a bit of unusual name with Co-Ed which literally means a mixture of gender. Very much of sounding like a college or athletics. But it is not, however in a way. Their logos involved a cap and a diploma rolled up. Some colleges and high schools actually do that while wearing cap and gown but my high school? Weird. Anyway, back to this. This rink made it sounds like it is targeting a college age students considering Greater Boston area is a college town. You have Boston University, Boston College, Cambridge, and God knows what else colleges and there was two Deaf residential schools in the area at the time.
Plus many schools from K to 12 in the immediate region.
The rink building is a beautiful architecture. Really. It has that 1920s Art Deco theme on the exterior. Originally it was an automobile storage facility.
The exact location is unfound on Google Map but interesting changes occurred on that street as a big one story garage was torn down and a new mutli-story brick building was built but cross the street, a 1950s style building was renovated from Red Bricks into Stucco which was popular in the decade of 2000s. And only true classic building that looked like the former rink but it was not. It was in same beautiful Red Brick and they painted into nice trim Forest Green and khani colors but then some muralist ruined it with awful dreadful worst than Van Gogh painting bunch of gray tones and dead looking trees. Yuck. Paint that over, please!
I think the rink was where this multi-story building is now where that coffee shop is housed now. I am not sure. The exact location is unknown thanks to Google Map was not clear. What was clear the rink was in a corner. What corner was it with? Anyone know?
The Interior.
It had beautiful clear Michigan Rock Maple wood built and the wood itself was a floatation citing that all studs were quarter by 1 inch thick. That is quite thin and small wood. Standard stud is merely 2 by 4. This is almost like lamination to me but it is not. It was real wood.
The entire floor was laid with this wood but perhaps they had Steel pipe rail on one one. This was a huge rink and was largest in New England region. Measuring at 78 feet wide by 220 feet long. Slight Narrower than NHL rink but longer than the NHL rink floor. It sort of balanced out actually because of narrowness as a sacrifice but longer rink which made up and slight more. 6 feet narrower but 20 feet longer. Which actually means 14 feet longer. Slight longer to skate straight before you make a turn.
It proudly had a display of an American Flag on the wall and it had three tones on the wall. With Black and White, I have no idea what color it was. With that, it really brings the interior looking very modern like about 80 years advanced.
They had a fireproof wall. Made the place pretty much fireproof considering they were in that state where the infamous Cocoanut Grove Fire occurred. The owners were smart to have it fireproof or it was already fireproof by previous owner way before the November 28, 1942 fire that caused 492 lives and injured many more.
Remember that roller rinks of yesteryear were sort of a night club of skating before they now made it more focused on children today.
The Exterior.
Beautiful Art Deco design. Originally the building was built for something else before the rink in 1942. It was an automobile storage place that was a forerunner of the modern storage places today.
Looks like it was a mixture of Art Deco of 1920s which usually had porcelain titles or ceramic tiles on the walls like White Castles, White Towers, and the Niagara Mohawk Building in Syracuse, NY. The architectural style on this former rink was closely resembled to many Art deco style building everywhere. One thing difference was this place had no porcelain material if you look carefully. It was Red Bricks! That really threw Architectural style a curve ball here. It looks very 1980s mix with 1930s style here. This was a genius ahead of time with this style that this building should have kept up and registered as Historical place by 2030s as required to be a hundred years old.
This rink for its time was one of the finest and people said on the net when I did research said it was one of the finest ever.
This was very much an award winning for sure. For us at Dead-Rinks, this is top 10 best rinks in the architecture genre of the 20th Century.
The Stats:
Rink Size: 78' x 220'. Floor: Clear Michigan Rock Maple, floatation. Quarter by 1 inch thick. 2 carloads of wood shipped and laid entire floor. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: April 6, 1942 to N/A.
Reason for Closure: 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: Roselindale High School Yearbook 1945; Pinterest (a few); Billboard, April 25, 1942, page 45;
Google Map;
Date of issue: 21 December 2020.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
This rink had a bit of unusual name with Co-Ed which literally means a mixture of gender. Very much of sounding like a college or athletics. But it is not, however in a way. Their logos involved a cap and a diploma rolled up. Some colleges and high schools actually do that while wearing cap and gown but my high school? Weird. Anyway, back to this. This rink made it sounds like it is targeting a college age students considering Greater Boston area is a college town. You have Boston University, Boston College, Cambridge, and God knows what else colleges and there was two Deaf residential schools in the area at the time.
Plus many schools from K to 12 in the immediate region.
The rink building is a beautiful architecture. Really. It has that 1920s Art Deco theme on the exterior. Originally it was an automobile storage facility.
The exact location is unfound on Google Map but interesting changes occurred on that street as a big one story garage was torn down and a new mutli-story brick building was built but cross the street, a 1950s style building was renovated from Red Bricks into Stucco which was popular in the decade of 2000s. And only true classic building that looked like the former rink but it was not. It was in same beautiful Red Brick and they painted into nice trim Forest Green and khani colors but then some muralist ruined it with awful dreadful worst than Van Gogh painting bunch of gray tones and dead looking trees. Yuck. Paint that over, please!
I think the rink was where this multi-story building is now where that coffee shop is housed now. I am not sure. The exact location is unknown thanks to Google Map was not clear. What was clear the rink was in a corner. What corner was it with? Anyone know?
The Interior.
It had beautiful clear Michigan Rock Maple wood built and the wood itself was a floatation citing that all studs were quarter by 1 inch thick. That is quite thin and small wood. Standard stud is merely 2 by 4. This is almost like lamination to me but it is not. It was real wood.
The entire floor was laid with this wood but perhaps they had Steel pipe rail on one one. This was a huge rink and was largest in New England region. Measuring at 78 feet wide by 220 feet long. Slight Narrower than NHL rink but longer than the NHL rink floor. It sort of balanced out actually because of narrowness as a sacrifice but longer rink which made up and slight more. 6 feet narrower but 20 feet longer. Which actually means 14 feet longer. Slight longer to skate straight before you make a turn.
It proudly had a display of an American Flag on the wall and it had three tones on the wall. With Black and White, I have no idea what color it was. With that, it really brings the interior looking very modern like about 80 years advanced.
They had a fireproof wall. Made the place pretty much fireproof considering they were in that state where the infamous Cocoanut Grove Fire occurred. The owners were smart to have it fireproof or it was already fireproof by previous owner way before the November 28, 1942 fire that caused 492 lives and injured many more.
Remember that roller rinks of yesteryear were sort of a night club of skating before they now made it more focused on children today.
The Exterior.
Beautiful Art Deco design. Originally the building was built for something else before the rink in 1942. It was an automobile storage place that was a forerunner of the modern storage places today.
Looks like it was a mixture of Art Deco of 1920s which usually had porcelain titles or ceramic tiles on the walls like White Castles, White Towers, and the Niagara Mohawk Building in Syracuse, NY. The architectural style on this former rink was closely resembled to many Art deco style building everywhere. One thing difference was this place had no porcelain material if you look carefully. It was Red Bricks! That really threw Architectural style a curve ball here. It looks very 1980s mix with 1930s style here. This was a genius ahead of time with this style that this building should have kept up and registered as Historical place by 2030s as required to be a hundred years old.
This rink for its time was one of the finest and people said on the net when I did research said it was one of the finest ever.
This was very much an award winning for sure. For us at Dead-Rinks, this is top 10 best rinks in the architecture genre of the 20th Century.
The Stats:
Rink Size: 78' x 220'. Floor: Clear Michigan Rock Maple, floatation. Quarter by 1 inch thick. 2 carloads of wood shipped and laid entire floor. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: April 6, 1942 to N/A.
Reason for Closure: 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: Roselindale High School Yearbook 1945; Pinterest (a few); Billboard, April 25, 1942, page 45;
Google Map;
Date of issue: 21 December 2020.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.