Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society. Photograph repaired by Dead-Rinks (See badly damaged photo in your Google search) This is only oldest photo of exterior where the rink was. It was as New England Furniture Company.
Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society. A group of skaters posed for photo. The two seated might have been the two owners, Crocker and Leland. Photo is beautifully preserved!
Crocker Roller Skating Rink NW corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
Leland Roller Skating Rink Northwest corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
The Casino Building Northwest Corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
Leland Roller Skating Rink Northwest corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
The Casino Building Northwest Corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
This much storied rink called, Crocker Roller Skating Rink and shortly later, Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink in the The Casino Building which was on the Northwest corner of 6th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota. This building in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink then a furniture store, then a bank then now a Westin Hotel.
From my understanding why they named it The Casino Building is because it means another name for what Rome used to call, The Forum and in late 19th Century, Convention Center, and in 21st Century, Expo Center.
Then later, that building joined with a 12-sided architectural oddity to become a unique retail complex. A forerunner of a shopping mall? I do not think so. Of course, Minneapolis is the Mall Capital of the World, currently because of Southdale Center and Mall of America, world's first modern enclosured climate controlled mall and one of largest malls in the world. Sorry, Syracuse, NY, you are no longer Mall Capital of the World with 15 malls in a city under 150,000 people. Syracuse has, however, 2 malls left (Carousel Center/Destiny and Great Northern).
Back to this, maybe this was an experimental mall. All started with a roller rink! Of course, it began in November 1884 with two Minneapolis businessmen opened up this large rink but also use as an convention center which can seat up to 4000 people. It was a simple two-story brick building with Gable roof parallel along the 6th Street. They opened as Crocker Roller Skating rink.
In old Minneapolis phone directories showed that the name seemed to belonged to Frank L. Crocker who was owner of his own manufacturing company that manufactured roller skates! A few rink owners owned their own skate manufacturing companies like Crocker, Plimpton, and few others in the 19th Century. This sure does cut the expenses of purchasing rentals and even sold skates without ordering them through the mail (remember back then like Sears and Penney's did, mail order catalogs). It made sense Frank L. Crocker opened this rink as a silent partner with the main operator, W.H. Leland.
But two years later, in 1886, W.H. Leland assumed full control of his rink and changed the name of the rink to Leland Roller Skating Rink.
It is said that this rink was among 11 roller skating rinks in Minneapolis and 4 in St. Paul. bringing the total of 15 rinks in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul region by 1885. (oh no, my list is going to be HUGE! As Doc would say, GREAT SCOTT! As Crazy Eddie spokesperson, INSANEEEEE!) But the Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink lead the pack with the most noted, fancy, and class of all 15 rinks. 1880s were the peak era of roller skating, the real first Golden Era from 1865 to 1890. (How many operational rinks today in that region, anybody?)
Likely this rink met its fate because of quite often denunciations of roller skating by pastors preaching at the pulpits in various churches because of its similarity to dancing we see today and even skating but also because of my understanding why pastors preached against skating. (what about ice skating, hm?) They said because of girls would fall, their ankle length skirts would flip open exposing their underwear. Or how they move. Like we object to the Grinning when people dance today. Or when boys and girls roller dance together, churches back then had very strong authority of Jesus Christ with discipleship. Why you think people wore clothes to cover themselves up so much? From the start of the Reformation to the 1920s with the Flappers? That was the strong Christian Protestant Movement for 400 years.
Although after 1840s, things started to change. (That year Amish and Mennonites rejected going toward modernism, New Enlightenment Movement started after the Old Enlightenment Movement of 17th and 18th Century, the wars in America (The Alamo, Civil War, Spanish-America War, etc), etc. By 1890, many rinks were torn down or sold into something else.
“There are more people in the rinks than attend church on Sunday,” one newspaper writer groused, and that situation no doubt contributed to the ministerial wrath.
-- Larry Millett, Star Tribune, "One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink." November 7, 2020.
In 1887, the Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink folded and sold to a businessman from Boston, Massachusetts who would turn into “mammoth emporium.”
This history makes extra-ordinary when it comes to preserving history of the 19th Century Minneapolis but the translation really changed and the building itself too completely with demolishing and the rebuilds.
The building’s appeal to the New England Co. was its sheer volume. The Tribune noted that the rink’s capacity was “equal to a seven-story, 25 x 160 [foot] building,” which gave the store a huge amount of room to display its stock. (The Star Tribune). It was referring to the furniture store that occupied the former rink.
What interesting was that the rink interior was not much of a change and that is true with many more recent rinks I noticed that were sold to thrift stores and furniture stores, they did not change much inside! But the outside of the Casino Building did change quite a bit to have signs directing in the furniture store.
The store grew too quickly and the rink was too small as the owner of the store thought. They bought a building next door on the 6th Street and North of Marquette Avenue to expand their growing store.
The addition was the Panorama building, a 12 sided brick building that was built in 1886 at 5th and Marquette Avenue.
The purpose of the 12 sided was to be a special effect of sort of building that housed a U.S. Civil War panorama (Cyclorama) view of art, “The Battle of Atlanta,” that was created by artists. A Milwaukee entrepreneur, William Wehner, directed this art project.
You would have to stand on a platform in the center of the building to view the panorama. The building was opened on June 28, 1886. It would draw as many as 12,000 visitors weekly, with the price of 50 cents per person to pay admission. Unfortunately, it was short lived and was shut down in 1889. Currently it is on display in Atlanta History Center after it was survived through the years. Its sister panorama, “Battle of Gettysburg” opened in 1887 in St. Paul and closed just two years later. It did not survive.
The furniture store, The New England Company purchased and expanded into the Panorama Building in 1893 and filled it with everything from carpets to comforters to stoves and heaters. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of the Panorama Building’s interior, but it must have been a peculiar venue for the sale of home furnishings. (The Star Tribune).
The New England Furniture store grew and took over the entire city block, it became one of the biggest retailers.
Big changes were coming along that The Farmers and the Mechanics Saving Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis' first Federal Reserved Bank. The design was done by an architect named Cass Gilbert who designed the Minnesota State Capitol. Cass Gilbert was an architect.
First the Panorama Building was demolished for the bank's new building which was built in 1924. However, the bank expanded greatly and remodeled into now called, the 510 Marquette Building. Clearly the furniture store reduced in size selling off parts of the block. Then by end of 1930s, the rest of the old Casino Building where the old roller skating rink was housed in demolished to finish the enlarging the building in 1941. The built and continuation lasted from 1924 to 1941. Almost 2 decades.
Then the New England Furniture that was where the rink was, was relocated to where the Kickernick Building is now on 5th Street at 1st Avenue North. But its main store was on 8th at Marquette in a building that had four floors. That building was called, New England Furniture & Carpet Company Building. It was demolished in 1969 to make way for the IDS Center.
As for the fate of the bank, it became Westin Hotel and the exterior has that look as it is, I believe, registered National Historical because of its uniqueness in design and because of the known architect. It is a hotel but the name of the bank and the big sign, "BANK" that sits in the corner is still on the wall because the exterior has to remain intact. It is already 80 years old.
The IDS Center is a beautiful glass skyscraper that reminded you of a certain building in New York City near Penn Station (I think). Very similar in shape vertically.
The rink really made it quite a history influcing the landscape there with each successor.
And the fate of the furniture company... It was reorganized in a buyout or merger by the owners of Grand Rapids Furniture Co. By 1904, they last produced under that name and continued as Grand Rapids Furniture until 1957 and they were acquired by Brower Furniture Co.
The Interior.
Maple wood floor with likely White walls and granular 1880s interior look with a band shell in the wall. Free span. Likely steel since building was made of Red Bricks. They had high windows to light up inside the building for skaters to see.
The Exterior.
The photo showed as the furniture mega store, there is no way what it was originally like. But the style I see are vary on each section. If it was on the corner, like that was the big one on the corner. There is a huge wall covered the windows likely. That was likely where the rink was.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 28,000 SF (according to The Star Tribune). Built: 1885 (?).
Demolished: 1941. Make way for new building.
Type of Building: No strong style, Red-Brick bricks walled, with Wood interior walls, Free-Span Steel Truss "rink" building; Seat up to 5,000 patrons for circuses.
Roof: Central Gables and 2 smaller Gables.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: N/A.
Crocker Roller Skating Rink: November 1884 to 1886
Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink: 1886 to 1887.
The Casino Building (part of it): 1880 to 1941.
Bank: 1941 to N/A
Westin Hotel: N/A to present.
Reason for Closure: Churches and media (newspapers) blamed skating as a sin.
Crocker Roller Skating Rink: Partnership dissolvement.
Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink: Quickly declined blamed on churches and newspapers, 14 other rinks locally.
The Casino Building (part of it): Grand Rapids Furniture, the parent company, sold building after the furniture store relocated.
Furniture store: See The Casino Building above for reason.
Bank: Likely Merger.
Westin Hotel: Still operational, building on historical register.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: The Star Tribune - One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink by Larry Millett, November 7, 2020; Emporis - New England Furniture and Carpet Company Building;
Furniture City History - New England Furniture and Carpet Company; Larry Millett website;
Lost Buildings and Places in Minneapolis - Page 2 (PDF version);
Date of issue: 26 January 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
From my understanding why they named it The Casino Building is because it means another name for what Rome used to call, The Forum and in late 19th Century, Convention Center, and in 21st Century, Expo Center.
Then later, that building joined with a 12-sided architectural oddity to become a unique retail complex. A forerunner of a shopping mall? I do not think so. Of course, Minneapolis is the Mall Capital of the World, currently because of Southdale Center and Mall of America, world's first modern enclosured climate controlled mall and one of largest malls in the world. Sorry, Syracuse, NY, you are no longer Mall Capital of the World with 15 malls in a city under 150,000 people. Syracuse has, however, 2 malls left (Carousel Center/Destiny and Great Northern).
Back to this, maybe this was an experimental mall. All started with a roller rink! Of course, it began in November 1884 with two Minneapolis businessmen opened up this large rink but also use as an convention center which can seat up to 4000 people. It was a simple two-story brick building with Gable roof parallel along the 6th Street. They opened as Crocker Roller Skating rink.
In old Minneapolis phone directories showed that the name seemed to belonged to Frank L. Crocker who was owner of his own manufacturing company that manufactured roller skates! A few rink owners owned their own skate manufacturing companies like Crocker, Plimpton, and few others in the 19th Century. This sure does cut the expenses of purchasing rentals and even sold skates without ordering them through the mail (remember back then like Sears and Penney's did, mail order catalogs). It made sense Frank L. Crocker opened this rink as a silent partner with the main operator, W.H. Leland.
But two years later, in 1886, W.H. Leland assumed full control of his rink and changed the name of the rink to Leland Roller Skating Rink.
It is said that this rink was among 11 roller skating rinks in Minneapolis and 4 in St. Paul. bringing the total of 15 rinks in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul region by 1885. (oh no, my list is going to be HUGE! As Doc would say, GREAT SCOTT! As Crazy Eddie spokesperson, INSANEEEEE!) But the Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink lead the pack with the most noted, fancy, and class of all 15 rinks. 1880s were the peak era of roller skating, the real first Golden Era from 1865 to 1890. (How many operational rinks today in that region, anybody?)
Likely this rink met its fate because of quite often denunciations of roller skating by pastors preaching at the pulpits in various churches because of its similarity to dancing we see today and even skating but also because of my understanding why pastors preached against skating. (what about ice skating, hm?) They said because of girls would fall, their ankle length skirts would flip open exposing their underwear. Or how they move. Like we object to the Grinning when people dance today. Or when boys and girls roller dance together, churches back then had very strong authority of Jesus Christ with discipleship. Why you think people wore clothes to cover themselves up so much? From the start of the Reformation to the 1920s with the Flappers? That was the strong Christian Protestant Movement for 400 years.
Although after 1840s, things started to change. (That year Amish and Mennonites rejected going toward modernism, New Enlightenment Movement started after the Old Enlightenment Movement of 17th and 18th Century, the wars in America (The Alamo, Civil War, Spanish-America War, etc), etc. By 1890, many rinks were torn down or sold into something else.
“There are more people in the rinks than attend church on Sunday,” one newspaper writer groused, and that situation no doubt contributed to the ministerial wrath.
-- Larry Millett, Star Tribune, "One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink." November 7, 2020.
In 1887, the Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink folded and sold to a businessman from Boston, Massachusetts who would turn into “mammoth emporium.”
This history makes extra-ordinary when it comes to preserving history of the 19th Century Minneapolis but the translation really changed and the building itself too completely with demolishing and the rebuilds.
The building’s appeal to the New England Co. was its sheer volume. The Tribune noted that the rink’s capacity was “equal to a seven-story, 25 x 160 [foot] building,” which gave the store a huge amount of room to display its stock. (The Star Tribune). It was referring to the furniture store that occupied the former rink.
What interesting was that the rink interior was not much of a change and that is true with many more recent rinks I noticed that were sold to thrift stores and furniture stores, they did not change much inside! But the outside of the Casino Building did change quite a bit to have signs directing in the furniture store.
The store grew too quickly and the rink was too small as the owner of the store thought. They bought a building next door on the 6th Street and North of Marquette Avenue to expand their growing store.
The addition was the Panorama building, a 12 sided brick building that was built in 1886 at 5th and Marquette Avenue.
The purpose of the 12 sided was to be a special effect of sort of building that housed a U.S. Civil War panorama (Cyclorama) view of art, “The Battle of Atlanta,” that was created by artists. A Milwaukee entrepreneur, William Wehner, directed this art project.
You would have to stand on a platform in the center of the building to view the panorama. The building was opened on June 28, 1886. It would draw as many as 12,000 visitors weekly, with the price of 50 cents per person to pay admission. Unfortunately, it was short lived and was shut down in 1889. Currently it is on display in Atlanta History Center after it was survived through the years. Its sister panorama, “Battle of Gettysburg” opened in 1887 in St. Paul and closed just two years later. It did not survive.
The furniture store, The New England Company purchased and expanded into the Panorama Building in 1893 and filled it with everything from carpets to comforters to stoves and heaters. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of the Panorama Building’s interior, but it must have been a peculiar venue for the sale of home furnishings. (The Star Tribune).
The New England Furniture store grew and took over the entire city block, it became one of the biggest retailers.
Big changes were coming along that The Farmers and the Mechanics Saving Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis' first Federal Reserved Bank. The design was done by an architect named Cass Gilbert who designed the Minnesota State Capitol. Cass Gilbert was an architect.
First the Panorama Building was demolished for the bank's new building which was built in 1924. However, the bank expanded greatly and remodeled into now called, the 510 Marquette Building. Clearly the furniture store reduced in size selling off parts of the block. Then by end of 1930s, the rest of the old Casino Building where the old roller skating rink was housed in demolished to finish the enlarging the building in 1941. The built and continuation lasted from 1924 to 1941. Almost 2 decades.
Then the New England Furniture that was where the rink was, was relocated to where the Kickernick Building is now on 5th Street at 1st Avenue North. But its main store was on 8th at Marquette in a building that had four floors. That building was called, New England Furniture & Carpet Company Building. It was demolished in 1969 to make way for the IDS Center.
As for the fate of the bank, it became Westin Hotel and the exterior has that look as it is, I believe, registered National Historical because of its uniqueness in design and because of the known architect. It is a hotel but the name of the bank and the big sign, "BANK" that sits in the corner is still on the wall because the exterior has to remain intact. It is already 80 years old.
The IDS Center is a beautiful glass skyscraper that reminded you of a certain building in New York City near Penn Station (I think). Very similar in shape vertically.
The rink really made it quite a history influcing the landscape there with each successor.
And the fate of the furniture company... It was reorganized in a buyout or merger by the owners of Grand Rapids Furniture Co. By 1904, they last produced under that name and continued as Grand Rapids Furniture until 1957 and they were acquired by Brower Furniture Co.
The Interior.
Maple wood floor with likely White walls and granular 1880s interior look with a band shell in the wall. Free span. Likely steel since building was made of Red Bricks. They had high windows to light up inside the building for skaters to see.
The Exterior.
The photo showed as the furniture mega store, there is no way what it was originally like. But the style I see are vary on each section. If it was on the corner, like that was the big one on the corner. There is a huge wall covered the windows likely. That was likely where the rink was.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 28,000 SF (according to The Star Tribune). Built: 1885 (?).
Demolished: 1941. Make way for new building.
Type of Building: No strong style, Red-Brick bricks walled, with Wood interior walls, Free-Span Steel Truss "rink" building; Seat up to 5,000 patrons for circuses.
Roof: Central Gables and 2 smaller Gables.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: N/A.
Crocker Roller Skating Rink: November 1884 to 1886
Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink: 1886 to 1887.
The Casino Building (part of it): 1880 to 1941.
Bank: 1941 to N/A
Westin Hotel: N/A to present.
Reason for Closure: Churches and media (newspapers) blamed skating as a sin.
Crocker Roller Skating Rink: Partnership dissolvement.
Crocker-Leland Roller Skating Rink: Quickly declined blamed on churches and newspapers, 14 other rinks locally.
The Casino Building (part of it): Grand Rapids Furniture, the parent company, sold building after the furniture store relocated.
Furniture store: See The Casino Building above for reason.
Bank: Likely Merger.
Westin Hotel: Still operational, building on historical register.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: The Star Tribune - One of the quirkiest buildings in downtown Minneapolis began as a roller rink by Larry Millett, November 7, 2020; Emporis - New England Furniture and Carpet Company Building;
Furniture City History - New England Furniture and Carpet Company; Larry Millett website;
Lost Buildings and Places in Minneapolis - Page 2 (PDF version);
Date of issue: 26 January 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.