Above courtesy of the Coventry Organization and below is Google Map. You noticd where the main front door was. You can tell with that tree and the extension part of the building and the stairs to the front door. This is you are looking at the building from the lake. The clear photo in Google Map explains it clearly below the extension building and the tree. The stair is missing. Renovated heavily on exterior look.
From left to right, courtesy of Hartford Courant, June 26, 1938, and May 28, 1938 article in same, Hartford Courant, that Jimmy Dorsay, a well known conducer of Jimmy's Orchestra was playing at The Casino. The article was cut off at the time with unfinished sentence should say, "...for a one night event."
Courtesy of Hartford Courant June 13, 1941. Early signs showing roller skating now open. Freddy Marsh and his Orchestra played for one night from 9 pm to 1 in morning for dancing on Saturday June 14, 1941. Noticed bands have shorter and fewer showtimes. Real sad. War time was just around the corner which also mark the end of Big Band Orchestra Golden Era of 1920s to 1941. It is sad at the time.
This shows a business card (vertical, not landscape), The Pros were also the owner/operators, Ray and Jean Schmidt.
Hartford Courant Tuesday April 15, 1975. Good explaining how rinks are closing and this one, Ray's hanging on. But could not and sold in 1978. Then just 4 years later, in 1982, Coventry Roller Center closed for good. It was tough for the rink in 1970s and early 1980s.
Courtesy of Hartford Courant Friday November 9, 1979, page 60 (perhaps in sports section!) This time, as Coventry Roller Carnival. Wow, I wish I skated with Maryellen! That is ok, I skated with at least hundreds of females at rinks I skated at.
Courtesy of Hartford Courant, December 2, 1982. This marked the end of skating at the Casino Building.
Lakeside Casino (aka the "Casino") 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Sholes Lakeside Casino 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Ray's Roller Center 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Coventry Roller Carnival 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Sholes Lakeside Casino 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Ray's Roller Center 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
Coventry Roller Carnival 44 Lake Street, South Coventry, CT
The history goes back further to 1900 that there were a few houses on one side of the row were owned by owners of the mills. The two houses which actually dated back to 1770s in front of the former rink were demolished in 1963.
There was a creek but that was covered up by the parking lot where the rink was and the actual original location of the dance hall, the Pavilion. In 1892, Eugene Tracy who was a mill owner, purchased two acres between the cemetery and the brook with a small building on the site. He may have considered a small boat launch for touring. About 1900, the South Coventry Water Supply Company upgraded a crude piping system from the lake that ran south of the brook and continued into the Village on Main Street. That is all covered by parking lot now. The Company began serving several dozen customers in the Village for residential and mill with a gravity-powered water supply. Then in 1904, Tracy leased the site to John Wadsworth for $5 per month. Eugene Tracey kept a small boat house and a gate house of the water supply company. A local resident, John Wadsworth was engineer. He occupied the site for about 6 years. He partnered with Mr. Edgar Brown on site.
Wadsworth built a two story pavilion and purchased a 33’ tour boat and built a small dock to board passengers. His pavilion contained a dance hall on the second floor as well as lunch room and ice cream parlor. His father, Lemuel Wadsworth, and friend Louis Daniels leased the lunch room and dock for a time.
So, actually the dance hall was on the second floor at the Pavilion which is actually next door to where the rink was.
Lakeside Park, a trolley park, was in a fine grove of chestnut trees and the park has paths laid out to the boat landing. The pavilion was a two-story affair with ice cream parlors and a bowling alley on the first floor and a hall for dancing upstairs. Nearby was a merry-go-round and refreshment stands and lunch counters.
However, August 27, 1909 the Wadsworth pavilion suffered a serious accident where a section of the second floor dance hall collapsed. Fortunately there were no major injuries. Whew, praise God.
Because of this, the owner of the building removed Wadsworth from his lease and then leased the pavilion in 1910 to Augustus Johnson who was a wholesale confectioner and had a store on Main Street in Willimantic. He tore down the existing pavilion and constructed a new building that was 500 square feet larger and one story instead of two. The dance hall and other features were included in the building and a box ball bowling alley was planned for the future. Johnson also worked with the Connecticut Company (the trolley) to illuminate the park with the electricity used to power the trolleys.
In May or June of 1916, the large dance pavilion and other buildings owned by Augustus Johnson were destroyed by fire. The loss was $5,000. Mr. Johnson did not rebuild. A new dance pavilion had just been constructed at Wangumbaug Lake, one minute’s walk from the trolley car terminus which linked Coventry with Willimantic. This was considered to be excellent news for Willimantic's young people who had regularly visited the old "Casino” dance pavilion in Coventry, which had succumbed to fire the previous summer.
Now, the new relocated the "Casino" Dance Hall known as Lakeside Casino was built by Spring 1917 to replace the burned down original rebuild Pavilion. That is just a minute walk further on the same property. Many young people were happy about that according to The Willimantic Chronicle- Spring 1917.
This pavilion is not the same pavilion but the old one was main building for area residents to attend but because of the fire, it was shifted to the new place although the original was build in 1909.
In 1909 one of the home owners on Lake Street near the brook sold his house and land to Daniel Killourey. Daniel was 50 years old and was the Chief of Police in Willimantic at the time and so, Police Lieutenant Daniel Killourey of Willimantic built a new large pavilion near the lake having a dance hall and trolley waiting room on the first floor and a second floor hall for movies. than the original/rebuilt Pavilion a minute walk away. Traffic on the new trolley has been heavier than expected and another car will be put in operation. Clearly this "third time a charm worked for the building.
Daniel Killourey died in 1929 and the site became the property of his son John. In 1930, Daniel’s estate gave the site to son John, but in 1936 it was foreclosed and sold to St. John Birch Society, Then in 1938 to Lakeside Inc. who leased to Leo Sholes until 1965. The ownership has changed six times since then. (Lakeside Inc. was incorporated in Hartford in 1938, by Morris and Nellie Sholes of Pawtucket R.I. and Leonard Sholes of Hartford. Leonard came from Providence and one year earlier was involved with leasing a large building on Park Street in Hartford for roller skating and dancing. The Sholes family owned several large roller rinks in southern New England, the largest in Warwick R.I.).
The trolley stopped running in 1926 though there was a bus service to Willimantic for a short time. Automobiles were becoming affordable and popular which destroyed the trolley service.
Funning thing that it was called, The Lakeside Casino although there were never any casino gaming at all. Way far from that. The reason for the name "The Casino" was because it was a place referred to “a public building for entertainment”. From the early 1930’s to WWII, The “Casino” was a very popular stop in the summers for nationally known big bands. A 1938 ad did explain that The Lakeside Casino had been enlarged to 10,000 Square Feet to accommodate more fans and skaters.
Back then, some rinks and some facilities were called casinos although never games.
Later, it became Sholes Lakeside Casino. It was named because of a family's last name which owned several rinks in Southern New England region. The Sholes operated until the end of 1930’s when the Sholes removed to Florida. The site was sold in 1941.
The building itself does appeared to be a recreational type of building when The Casino/Lakeshore Casino were operational. Ray's Roller Rink was first opened in 1940 but Ray's was in business until 1978. Apparently Ray's owners were smart to get out before the Great Disco Crash of 1980 and the new owners of Ray's who converted to Coventry Roller Carnival in 1978 did not survive pass 1982. That was just 4 short years. At that time many rinks started to closed and shut down. Many did because rinks followed the Disco craze which I believe they made a mistake to do that. Should have stick with organ music and not blindly followed Empire Disco Rink for its own Roller Disco craze to die.
Several owners owned the Casinos. The Sholes Family owned the Sholes Lakeside Casino up to 1965 Lenny Scholl and Vivian Carpenter whom they both owned in later 1960s before Mr and Mrs Ray Schmidt owned Ray's Roller Rink together from likely 1965 to 1978. James Totten and Richard Cromie briefly owned the rink, Coventry Roller Carnival from 1978 to 1982. I believe the name was different before Ray Schmidt and his wife purchased the rink in 1960s. It has to be different name. Anyone know? The Coventry CT Document PDF's history truly conflicting with Forgotten Roller Rinks of the Past because of the ownerships kind of overlapping dates. If the PDF version is written by a local there who knew a lot about history, I would be safe to say their history is more accurate than my competitor, FRRP. The reason for the name Ray's is clear: Mr. and Mrs. Ray Schmidt named that rink after himself when he bought out Sholes Lakeside Casino in 1965. End of story to settle the differences, period. Second of all FRRP did not fill more history. Dead-Rinks did! Dead-Rinks --The World's Best and Most Informative Defunct Skating Rinks History website!
Richard Cromie who was the principal owner of the rink as Coventry Roller Rink was behind in payment of a 80,000 USD bank loan to pay for the mortgage. Richard Cromie was an attorney whose office was directly cross the street from the rink! He saw it was an eyesore and had a lunch with Ray Schmidt and that is how the deal happened to purchase.
The Interior.
Really have no information or photos on the interior at all. I am sure it was Maple floor for sure because of dancing requires wood floor and skating too because of metal wheels then later polyurethane wheels on skates.
The Exterior.
The building itself had expanded and reduced size a few times. First it was smaller when it was built in 1909 then expanded again to accommodate more room. By 1938, with the Sholes Family ownership that owned rinks expanded to 10,000 SF. But by the time the auction according to the article the building was reduced to 7,827 Square Feet. I wonder what happened to 2,173 Square Feet? That size is large enough to be a large cookie cutter house or a McManson. That was a valuable addition needed. Really odd.
The looks was very different back then than today. Even before that.
You see, the original was smaller with hip roof and front door was on the length-side of the building. But later the expansion in 1938 showed it grew to 10,000 Square Feet. And had extension part of the building with a new frontage to that lakeside end of the building (see orange photo with illustration). Then that extension stays and the rest stayed but perhaps cut off 2,179 Square Feet? Perhaps cut off the road side of the building.
The windows in the original 1909 was actually making the building more look like a real dance hall. But the 1938 version, they were making it more sleek, hidden windows and more of.. long plane windows in that generation of prototypical Modernism of 1950s look when a lot of windows were short, long plane windows which were also can be casement windows.
Then the newer photos showed it was renovated again perhaps when it was Coventry Roller Carnival. It does look more like a lodge today and nice Soft Light gray aluminum siding. According to the article in Hartford Courant (see above in photo section). Costing entirely at 285,000 USD. That is not including the purchase of the building.
The auction house perhaps was at the rink auction that December 1982 loved the place when they were there to sell merchandise such as skate rentals, etc. They decided to bid themselves to buy the building and houses auction to this day.
The Stats:
Original Pavilion of 1904 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1904. Demolished: Collapsed 27 August 27 1909, rebuilt adding 500 SF,
Type of Building: Free-Span wood Truss wood-Walled Pavilion - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
The Rebuilt Pavilion of 1909 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: wood, maybe Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: Fire in May/June 1916.
Type of Building: Free-Span wood Truss wood-Walled Pavilion - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
This section of the ongoing dance ended at the Pavilion due to the fire in 1916, dancers (and perhaps business) moved to the new location, the Casino, a one minute walk to new building replacing the old burned down in Spring 1917...continue...
The Casino Building of 1909 -- (Lakeside Casino and on...)
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: Less than 10,000 Sf. Built: 1909. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Dance Hall - like Building.
Roof: Hip.
Acres: N/A.
The Casino Building Expansion of 1939 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 10,000 SF. (Advertisement) 7,827 SF (by time of auction, article). Built: 1909.
Demolished: Still standing. Now as auction house.
Type of Building: Free-Span Wood Truss Wood built and Walled Dance Hall - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: N/A.
Lakeside Casino (aka the "Casino"): 1909 (1917 crowd went to this new place) to 1938
Sholes Lakeside Casino: 1938 to 1965.
Ray's Roller Center: 1965 to 1978.
Coventry Roller Center: 1978 to November(?) 1982 (Building foreclosure and sold on Dec 2, 1982)
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Lakeside Casino (aka the "Casino"): N/A
Sholes Lakeside Casino: Sholes Family sold rinks and moved to Sunny Florida.
Ray's Roller Center: Likely, in opinion, declining business, losing money.
Coventry Roller Center: Failure to non-payment on mortgage as result, forced a foreclosure and auctioned by bank.
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: Coventry CT Document Center website; Coventry CT Document PDF verison; FRRP; Many Hartford Courant articles (dates are shown in photos sections.)
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
There was a creek but that was covered up by the parking lot where the rink was and the actual original location of the dance hall, the Pavilion. In 1892, Eugene Tracy who was a mill owner, purchased two acres between the cemetery and the brook with a small building on the site. He may have considered a small boat launch for touring. About 1900, the South Coventry Water Supply Company upgraded a crude piping system from the lake that ran south of the brook and continued into the Village on Main Street. That is all covered by parking lot now. The Company began serving several dozen customers in the Village for residential and mill with a gravity-powered water supply. Then in 1904, Tracy leased the site to John Wadsworth for $5 per month. Eugene Tracey kept a small boat house and a gate house of the water supply company. A local resident, John Wadsworth was engineer. He occupied the site for about 6 years. He partnered with Mr. Edgar Brown on site.
Wadsworth built a two story pavilion and purchased a 33’ tour boat and built a small dock to board passengers. His pavilion contained a dance hall on the second floor as well as lunch room and ice cream parlor. His father, Lemuel Wadsworth, and friend Louis Daniels leased the lunch room and dock for a time.
So, actually the dance hall was on the second floor at the Pavilion which is actually next door to where the rink was.
Lakeside Park, a trolley park, was in a fine grove of chestnut trees and the park has paths laid out to the boat landing. The pavilion was a two-story affair with ice cream parlors and a bowling alley on the first floor and a hall for dancing upstairs. Nearby was a merry-go-round and refreshment stands and lunch counters.
However, August 27, 1909 the Wadsworth pavilion suffered a serious accident where a section of the second floor dance hall collapsed. Fortunately there were no major injuries. Whew, praise God.
Because of this, the owner of the building removed Wadsworth from his lease and then leased the pavilion in 1910 to Augustus Johnson who was a wholesale confectioner and had a store on Main Street in Willimantic. He tore down the existing pavilion and constructed a new building that was 500 square feet larger and one story instead of two. The dance hall and other features were included in the building and a box ball bowling alley was planned for the future. Johnson also worked with the Connecticut Company (the trolley) to illuminate the park with the electricity used to power the trolleys.
In May or June of 1916, the large dance pavilion and other buildings owned by Augustus Johnson were destroyed by fire. The loss was $5,000. Mr. Johnson did not rebuild. A new dance pavilion had just been constructed at Wangumbaug Lake, one minute’s walk from the trolley car terminus which linked Coventry with Willimantic. This was considered to be excellent news for Willimantic's young people who had regularly visited the old "Casino” dance pavilion in Coventry, which had succumbed to fire the previous summer.
Now, the new relocated the "Casino" Dance Hall known as Lakeside Casino was built by Spring 1917 to replace the burned down original rebuild Pavilion. That is just a minute walk further on the same property. Many young people were happy about that according to The Willimantic Chronicle- Spring 1917.
This pavilion is not the same pavilion but the old one was main building for area residents to attend but because of the fire, it was shifted to the new place although the original was build in 1909.
In 1909 one of the home owners on Lake Street near the brook sold his house and land to Daniel Killourey. Daniel was 50 years old and was the Chief of Police in Willimantic at the time and so, Police Lieutenant Daniel Killourey of Willimantic built a new large pavilion near the lake having a dance hall and trolley waiting room on the first floor and a second floor hall for movies. than the original/rebuilt Pavilion a minute walk away. Traffic on the new trolley has been heavier than expected and another car will be put in operation. Clearly this "third time a charm worked for the building.
Daniel Killourey died in 1929 and the site became the property of his son John. In 1930, Daniel’s estate gave the site to son John, but in 1936 it was foreclosed and sold to St. John Birch Society, Then in 1938 to Lakeside Inc. who leased to Leo Sholes until 1965. The ownership has changed six times since then. (Lakeside Inc. was incorporated in Hartford in 1938, by Morris and Nellie Sholes of Pawtucket R.I. and Leonard Sholes of Hartford. Leonard came from Providence and one year earlier was involved with leasing a large building on Park Street in Hartford for roller skating and dancing. The Sholes family owned several large roller rinks in southern New England, the largest in Warwick R.I.).
The trolley stopped running in 1926 though there was a bus service to Willimantic for a short time. Automobiles were becoming affordable and popular which destroyed the trolley service.
Funning thing that it was called, The Lakeside Casino although there were never any casino gaming at all. Way far from that. The reason for the name "The Casino" was because it was a place referred to “a public building for entertainment”. From the early 1930’s to WWII, The “Casino” was a very popular stop in the summers for nationally known big bands. A 1938 ad did explain that The Lakeside Casino had been enlarged to 10,000 Square Feet to accommodate more fans and skaters.
Back then, some rinks and some facilities were called casinos although never games.
Later, it became Sholes Lakeside Casino. It was named because of a family's last name which owned several rinks in Southern New England region. The Sholes operated until the end of 1930’s when the Sholes removed to Florida. The site was sold in 1941.
The building itself does appeared to be a recreational type of building when The Casino/Lakeshore Casino were operational. Ray's Roller Rink was first opened in 1940 but Ray's was in business until 1978. Apparently Ray's owners were smart to get out before the Great Disco Crash of 1980 and the new owners of Ray's who converted to Coventry Roller Carnival in 1978 did not survive pass 1982. That was just 4 short years. At that time many rinks started to closed and shut down. Many did because rinks followed the Disco craze which I believe they made a mistake to do that. Should have stick with organ music and not blindly followed Empire Disco Rink for its own Roller Disco craze to die.
Several owners owned the Casinos. The Sholes Family owned the Sholes Lakeside Casino up to 1965 Lenny Scholl and Vivian Carpenter whom they both owned in later 1960s before Mr and Mrs Ray Schmidt owned Ray's Roller Rink together from likely 1965 to 1978. James Totten and Richard Cromie briefly owned the rink, Coventry Roller Carnival from 1978 to 1982. I believe the name was different before Ray Schmidt and his wife purchased the rink in 1960s. It has to be different name. Anyone know? The Coventry CT Document PDF's history truly conflicting with Forgotten Roller Rinks of the Past because of the ownerships kind of overlapping dates. If the PDF version is written by a local there who knew a lot about history, I would be safe to say their history is more accurate than my competitor, FRRP. The reason for the name Ray's is clear: Mr. and Mrs. Ray Schmidt named that rink after himself when he bought out Sholes Lakeside Casino in 1965. End of story to settle the differences, period. Second of all FRRP did not fill more history. Dead-Rinks did! Dead-Rinks --The World's Best and Most Informative Defunct Skating Rinks History website!
Richard Cromie who was the principal owner of the rink as Coventry Roller Rink was behind in payment of a 80,000 USD bank loan to pay for the mortgage. Richard Cromie was an attorney whose office was directly cross the street from the rink! He saw it was an eyesore and had a lunch with Ray Schmidt and that is how the deal happened to purchase.
The Interior.
Really have no information or photos on the interior at all. I am sure it was Maple floor for sure because of dancing requires wood floor and skating too because of metal wheels then later polyurethane wheels on skates.
The Exterior.
The building itself had expanded and reduced size a few times. First it was smaller when it was built in 1909 then expanded again to accommodate more room. By 1938, with the Sholes Family ownership that owned rinks expanded to 10,000 SF. But by the time the auction according to the article the building was reduced to 7,827 Square Feet. I wonder what happened to 2,173 Square Feet? That size is large enough to be a large cookie cutter house or a McManson. That was a valuable addition needed. Really odd.
The looks was very different back then than today. Even before that.
You see, the original was smaller with hip roof and front door was on the length-side of the building. But later the expansion in 1938 showed it grew to 10,000 Square Feet. And had extension part of the building with a new frontage to that lakeside end of the building (see orange photo with illustration). Then that extension stays and the rest stayed but perhaps cut off 2,179 Square Feet? Perhaps cut off the road side of the building.
The windows in the original 1909 was actually making the building more look like a real dance hall. But the 1938 version, they were making it more sleek, hidden windows and more of.. long plane windows in that generation of prototypical Modernism of 1950s look when a lot of windows were short, long plane windows which were also can be casement windows.
Then the newer photos showed it was renovated again perhaps when it was Coventry Roller Carnival. It does look more like a lodge today and nice Soft Light gray aluminum siding. According to the article in Hartford Courant (see above in photo section). Costing entirely at 285,000 USD. That is not including the purchase of the building.
The auction house perhaps was at the rink auction that December 1982 loved the place when they were there to sell merchandise such as skate rentals, etc. They decided to bid themselves to buy the building and houses auction to this day.
The Stats:
Original Pavilion of 1904 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1904. Demolished: Collapsed 27 August 27 1909, rebuilt adding 500 SF,
Type of Building: Free-Span wood Truss wood-Walled Pavilion - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
The Rebuilt Pavilion of 1909 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: wood, maybe Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: Fire in May/June 1916.
Type of Building: Free-Span wood Truss wood-Walled Pavilion - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
This section of the ongoing dance ended at the Pavilion due to the fire in 1916, dancers (and perhaps business) moved to the new location, the Casino, a one minute walk to new building replacing the old burned down in Spring 1917...continue...
The Casino Building of 1909 -- (Lakeside Casino and on...)
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: Less than 10,000 Sf. Built: 1909. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Dance Hall - like Building.
Roof: Hip.
Acres: N/A.
The Casino Building Expansion of 1939 --
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 10,000 SF. (Advertisement) 7,827 SF (by time of auction, article). Built: 1909.
Demolished: Still standing. Now as auction house.
Type of Building: Free-Span Wood Truss Wood built and Walled Dance Hall - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: N/A.
Lakeside Casino (aka the "Casino"): 1909 (1917 crowd went to this new place) to 1938
Sholes Lakeside Casino: 1938 to 1965.
Ray's Roller Center: 1965 to 1978.
Coventry Roller Center: 1978 to November(?) 1982 (Building foreclosure and sold on Dec 2, 1982)
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Lakeside Casino (aka the "Casino"): N/A
Sholes Lakeside Casino: Sholes Family sold rinks and moved to Sunny Florida.
Ray's Roller Center: Likely, in opinion, declining business, losing money.
Coventry Roller Center: Failure to non-payment on mortgage as result, forced a foreclosure and auctioned by bank.
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: Coventry CT Document Center website; Coventry CT Document PDF verison; FRRP; Many Hartford Courant articles (dates are shown in photos sections.)
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.