Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Earliest known photograph. In watercolor as a postcard. Source: Lake Erie Winds (Blog).
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Same Bathhouse as the postcard on top. They added the name of the building. Taken in 1930s/40s because of the automobiles. You can see the growth in that area. New building in front of the bathhouse, new growth of trees, and man-made areas. Source: Catawaba Island Magazine July 2011, page 8.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Same Bathhouse as the postcard on top. They added the name of the building. Taken in 1930s/40s because of the automobiles. You can see the growth in that area. New building in front of the bathhouse, new growth of trees, and man-made areas. Source: Catawaba Island Magazine July 2011, page 9.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. This version was a postcard and painted in watercolor. Huge differences. This might have been build and photographed before the black-and-white photo above with the band shell seen facing the main building. In this one, no shell and no name of the building either. The road leads to the building was all neat with grass before it was all ruined by patrons you can see in the B/W photo above. Source: Hippocard.com.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Top view on Google. The aging building with white roof on. They became a storage facility according to the picture because of the boats, trailers, and storage building on the left with Blue-ish Gray roof. Source: Google.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Source: Pinterest.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Source: Pinterest.
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH. Tickets to the bathhouse. The smaller tickets I am not sure what admissions they were. Source: Catawaba Island Magazine, July 2011, page 9.
Gem Beach Roller Rink 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH
Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH
Terrace Beach Pavilion Port Clinton, OH
Gem Skateland 5700 East Twin Beach Drive, Port Clinton, OH
Terrace Beach Pavilion Port Clinton, OH
Gem Beach Roller Rink/Gem Skateland were rinks at 5700 East Twin Beach Drive,, Port Clinton, Ohio. It was a much storied because of the beach resort history and even next door beach, the Terrace Beach when they relocated there as Terrace Beach Pavilion. That relocation was 1937.
It began 1919 when Mathias "Mott" J. Barnholt of Catawaba Island bought a farmland on the east side of the island to develop a resort for 5,000 USD. He had Nels Peterson to excavating the land to built a two story building but when that happened, they discovered the bones buried in the ground and likely they thought it might have been.
The Interior.
Gem Skateland: This building was part of the two stories building that housed Bathhouse on first floor for beachgoers to use restrooms, bathing suit rentals, and locker rooms. The roller rink was on the second floor shared with the dance hall. It was said to be Maple wood. They layout is unknown. Likely it had wood posts positioned on the rink considering this was a Gabled Roof house like building.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: N/A.
The Exterior.
Gem Skateland: This building was part of the two stories building that housed Bathhouse on first floor for beachgoers to use restrooms, bathing suit rentals, and locker rooms. The roller rink was on the second floor shared with the dance hall. This was a Gabled Roof house like building.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: This building where the new owners relocated to the Segmental Arch building part of the Terrace Beach section because both resorts merged together. Today it has all broken into lots and subdivisions, etc. The Terrance Beach Pavilion is quite an interesting building. It was a Chevron shaped in 90 Degrees angle building that has Segmental Arch. Really unique and rare to have such floorplan design in this matter. It also had an outdoor dance floor without any canopy. It did have a band stand facing the main section of the building. It would give that outdoor party of the week feel (like Syracuse, NY used to have Party in the Plaza weekly which is outdoors, and many cities had or still have such weekly outdoors party in their plazas or squares). This is how I saw at this place in the photo. There was a rink outdoors with a band shell in Utah somewhere or Idaho I cannot recall. Similar format.
Both were part of the beach resort with many functions and activities. Funny those resorts did not mentioned hotels but only Gem Beach had cottages that they sold to beachgoers. I am not sure if that part is still active. I would have to investigate in person where this or that was. Google Map did not have street mapping driving through every road. Only I found is top view.
Gem Skateland/Gem Beach Roller Rink:
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely Non-painted, Hardwood Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1920 Renovations: N/A. Demolished: Still standing
Type of Building: Columns-Supported Wood Trusses Wood - Walled House - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Terrace Beach Pavilion:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely Non-painted, Hardwood Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1929 (3rd rebuilt) Renovations: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Segmental Arch.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1920 to 1970(?) or 2000(?).
Gem Skateland: 1920 to 1937(?)
Gem Beach Roller Rink: 1920 to 1937(?)
Terrace Beach Pavilion: 1937 to 1970/2000(?)
Reason for Closure:
Gem Skateland: Likely the Great Depression, losting money.
Gem Beach Roller Rink: Likely the Great Depression, losting money.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: Rising cost of real estate, taxes out pacing income.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Facebook - Catawba Island Historical Society.
Catawba Island Magazine - History of Gem and Terrace Beaches Resorts, pages 6 to 9.
Exposure Gallery & Candle Co. - Tumblers for sale.
Lake Erie Winds - Photo/postcard showing 1920s automobiles, one of earliest.
Date of issue: 14 November 2021.
For office use only: 8.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.
It began 1919 when Mathias "Mott" J. Barnholt of Catawaba Island bought a farmland on the east side of the island to develop a resort for 5,000 USD. He had Nels Peterson to excavating the land to built a two story building but when that happened, they discovered the bones buried in the ground and likely they thought it might have been.
The Interior.
Gem Skateland: This building was part of the two stories building that housed Bathhouse on first floor for beachgoers to use restrooms, bathing suit rentals, and locker rooms. The roller rink was on the second floor shared with the dance hall. It was said to be Maple wood. They layout is unknown. Likely it had wood posts positioned on the rink considering this was a Gabled Roof house like building.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: N/A.
The Exterior.
Gem Skateland: This building was part of the two stories building that housed Bathhouse on first floor for beachgoers to use restrooms, bathing suit rentals, and locker rooms. The roller rink was on the second floor shared with the dance hall. This was a Gabled Roof house like building.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: This building where the new owners relocated to the Segmental Arch building part of the Terrace Beach section because both resorts merged together. Today it has all broken into lots and subdivisions, etc. The Terrance Beach Pavilion is quite an interesting building. It was a Chevron shaped in 90 Degrees angle building that has Segmental Arch. Really unique and rare to have such floorplan design in this matter. It also had an outdoor dance floor without any canopy. It did have a band stand facing the main section of the building. It would give that outdoor party of the week feel (like Syracuse, NY used to have Party in the Plaza weekly which is outdoors, and many cities had or still have such weekly outdoors party in their plazas or squares). This is how I saw at this place in the photo. There was a rink outdoors with a band shell in Utah somewhere or Idaho I cannot recall. Similar format.
Both were part of the beach resort with many functions and activities. Funny those resorts did not mentioned hotels but only Gem Beach had cottages that they sold to beachgoers. I am not sure if that part is still active. I would have to investigate in person where this or that was. Google Map did not have street mapping driving through every road. Only I found is top view.
Gem Skateland/Gem Beach Roller Rink:
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely Non-painted, Hardwood Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1920 Renovations: N/A. Demolished: Still standing
Type of Building: Columns-Supported Wood Trusses Wood - Walled House - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Terrace Beach Pavilion:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Likely Non-painted, Hardwood Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1929 (3rd rebuilt) Renovations: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Segmental Arch.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1920 to 1970(?) or 2000(?).
Gem Skateland: 1920 to 1937(?)
Gem Beach Roller Rink: 1920 to 1937(?)
Terrace Beach Pavilion: 1937 to 1970/2000(?)
Reason for Closure:
Gem Skateland: Likely the Great Depression, losting money.
Gem Beach Roller Rink: Likely the Great Depression, losting money.
Terrace Beach Pavilion: Rising cost of real estate, taxes out pacing income.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Facebook - Catawba Island Historical Society.
Catawba Island Magazine - History of Gem and Terrace Beaches Resorts, pages 6 to 9.
Exposure Gallery & Candle Co. - Tumblers for sale.
Lake Erie Winds - Photo/postcard showing 1920s automobiles, one of earliest.
Date of issue: 14 November 2021.
For office use only: 8.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.