Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. Source: Facebook group.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. The exterior taken around 1950s or 1960s. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. The interior in around 1970s or maybe early 1980s. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. This was when it was being demolished to make room the hospital they said they were expanding. Anyway, it was quite high. Looked higher than 47 feet high. Apparently had White, Yellow, and Blue colors for the interior. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL. Program for a tournament. at the time of its operations. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL at the time of its operations. Source: Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung.
Gay Blades 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL
Gould's Roller Rink 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL
Gould's Roller Rink 2191 Ninth Ave North, Saint Petersburg, FL
Gould's Roller Rink which was better known as "Gay Blades" in Saint Petersburg, FL by Tampa. Gay Blades had it started in 1953 it was owned and operated by the Gould Family for 32 years with son Fred "Buddy" buying the rink in 1976 from his parents. Robert Gould and his wife Elynor ran the rink.
Buddy added a drop ceiling, better lights and a more powerful sound system for the house record player. And he changed the name to Gould’s Roller Skating Rink.
When the Goulds with their three children moved to St. Petersburg, they brought several hundred pairs of rental skates, snack bar appliances and an old Hammond organ to provide music to skate to (the organist came along, too). That is correct, they moved the family belongings and the rinks belongings and the organist too!
During the “roller disco” craze of the late ‘70s, Buddy built a DJ booth and hired young record-spinners to broadcast the latest hits on weekends.
The rink was one of those classic rink of War Era and Post-War era 1950s Barrel Arch style building. The rink closed in November 1985 because the hospital was expanding its properties to enlarge their hospital.
Unfortunately, there are no photos of Gould's Roller Rink/Gay Blades so I have no further information to be added or commented. Although the building was common for roller rinks in 30s to 1950s including this rink. There was another rink on the Gulf side in Florida also was housed in a Quonset Hut as well.
However, I have one thing an article said that they had a Maple wood floor for their skating rink.
Over time, the weekend nights began to attract different crowds. While white teenagers came to skate on Fridays, Saturdays became predominantly Black. It was, Gould explains, just a natural process. Something that organically happened.
Weekend evening skating hours were 8 to 11 p.m. both days. Saturday nights at 9:45, at his patrons’ request, the skates came off and it turned into a dance party on the hardwood floor. These became known as “Soul Music Nights.”
In June 1985, Gould agreed to sell Gay Blades lock, stock and skate rentals to Hospital Corporation of America, which owned the Edward H. White Hospital next door. The rink wasn’t for sale – but, he explains, they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The money was simply too good.
The St. Petersburg rink had been named in honor of the famous Gay Blades Rollerdrome, at 52nd Street and Broadway in New York City, New York. The Goulds leased and subsequently purchased the facility from the owner, who hadn’t made much of a success of it after he tried for three years.
Will need photos of both interior and exterior, dimension of rink, and building. I got was the height. The height of 47 feet is quite high for a Q-hut because of a website belonging to a manufacturer of Q-Huts explained the dimension. They do not manufacture a 47 feet for a modern day version. However, with that newspaper watermarked photo, it was apparently about 160 to 172 feet wide. In my educated estimate of an ideal rink of its time, it was wall to wall with iron pipes rail separating the rink and the off-rink floor designated area such as lockers, snack bar, seating area, etc.
The Interior.
They had a Hammond Organ playing at the rink that had 90 Feet by 180 Feet Non-painted Clear Maple wood floor.
They did not have air conditioning until they renovated in 1976 by adding it. They had real loud exhaust fans drew air through the translucent jalousie windows.
In the mid 1970s, the one and a half-inch thick floor was ruined when the retention pond out back flooded during a thunderstorm. Bob Gould took out a small business loan to have the floor replaced and make additional upgrades.
He added a drop ceiling, better lights, and a more powerful sound system for the house record player.
The Exterior.
Steel Trusses Barrel Arch-style building with Concrete walls and Tin Roof.
The Stats:
Rink Size: 90' x 180' (slight distortion of NHL rink) Floor: 1.5' thick Non-painted Clear coated Maple.
Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1953. Renovations: 1960 Demolished: November 1985 demolish to make way for hospital expansion..
Type of Building: Free-Span Wood Trusses Concrete - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Tin roofing Half Barrel/D-Arched.
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Hammond (model is unknown).
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Jungle Gym Playground: None.
Skate Park: None.
Operated: (Overall)-- Tuesday, 12 May1953 to November 1985.
Gay Blades: Tuesday, 12 May1953 to 1976
Gould's Roller Rink: 1976 to November 1985.
Reason for Closure:
Gay Blades: Sold to Bobby, their son.
Gould's Roller Rink: Sold to hospital for hospital's expansion.
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 Dead-Rinks. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Facebook
The Evening Independent- November 13, 1985,
Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung. (Updated addition)
Date of issue: 2019
Updated: 17 August 2022.
For office use only: 8.
Worth to visit:
None. It is a hospital expansion.
DISCLAIMER:
Dead-Rinks and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on Dead-Rinks are not the property of Dead-Rinks therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved becomes property of Dead-Rinks and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Dead-Rinks List.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 16. Deut. 32:7.
Buddy added a drop ceiling, better lights and a more powerful sound system for the house record player. And he changed the name to Gould’s Roller Skating Rink.
When the Goulds with their three children moved to St. Petersburg, they brought several hundred pairs of rental skates, snack bar appliances and an old Hammond organ to provide music to skate to (the organist came along, too). That is correct, they moved the family belongings and the rinks belongings and the organist too!
During the “roller disco” craze of the late ‘70s, Buddy built a DJ booth and hired young record-spinners to broadcast the latest hits on weekends.
The rink was one of those classic rink of War Era and Post-War era 1950s Barrel Arch style building. The rink closed in November 1985 because the hospital was expanding its properties to enlarge their hospital.
Unfortunately, there are no photos of Gould's Roller Rink/Gay Blades so I have no further information to be added or commented. Although the building was common for roller rinks in 30s to 1950s including this rink. There was another rink on the Gulf side in Florida also was housed in a Quonset Hut as well.
However, I have one thing an article said that they had a Maple wood floor for their skating rink.
Over time, the weekend nights began to attract different crowds. While white teenagers came to skate on Fridays, Saturdays became predominantly Black. It was, Gould explains, just a natural process. Something that organically happened.
Weekend evening skating hours were 8 to 11 p.m. both days. Saturday nights at 9:45, at his patrons’ request, the skates came off and it turned into a dance party on the hardwood floor. These became known as “Soul Music Nights.”
In June 1985, Gould agreed to sell Gay Blades lock, stock and skate rentals to Hospital Corporation of America, which owned the Edward H. White Hospital next door. The rink wasn’t for sale – but, he explains, they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The money was simply too good.
The St. Petersburg rink had been named in honor of the famous Gay Blades Rollerdrome, at 52nd Street and Broadway in New York City, New York. The Goulds leased and subsequently purchased the facility from the owner, who hadn’t made much of a success of it after he tried for three years.
Will need photos of both interior and exterior, dimension of rink, and building. I got was the height. The height of 47 feet is quite high for a Q-hut because of a website belonging to a manufacturer of Q-Huts explained the dimension. They do not manufacture a 47 feet for a modern day version. However, with that newspaper watermarked photo, it was apparently about 160 to 172 feet wide. In my educated estimate of an ideal rink of its time, it was wall to wall with iron pipes rail separating the rink and the off-rink floor designated area such as lockers, snack bar, seating area, etc.
The Interior.
They had a Hammond Organ playing at the rink that had 90 Feet by 180 Feet Non-painted Clear Maple wood floor.
They did not have air conditioning until they renovated in 1976 by adding it. They had real loud exhaust fans drew air through the translucent jalousie windows.
In the mid 1970s, the one and a half-inch thick floor was ruined when the retention pond out back flooded during a thunderstorm. Bob Gould took out a small business loan to have the floor replaced and make additional upgrades.
He added a drop ceiling, better lights, and a more powerful sound system for the house record player.
The Exterior.
Steel Trusses Barrel Arch-style building with Concrete walls and Tin Roof.
The Stats:
Rink Size: 90' x 180' (slight distortion of NHL rink) Floor: 1.5' thick Non-painted Clear coated Maple.
Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1953. Renovations: 1960 Demolished: November 1985 demolish to make way for hospital expansion..
Type of Building: Free-Span Wood Trusses Concrete - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Tin roofing Half Barrel/D-Arched.
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Hammond (model is unknown).
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Jungle Gym Playground: None.
Skate Park: None.
Operated: (Overall)-- Tuesday, 12 May1953 to November 1985.
Gay Blades: Tuesday, 12 May1953 to 1976
Gould's Roller Rink: 1976 to November 1985.
Reason for Closure:
Gay Blades: Sold to Bobby, their son.
Gould's Roller Rink: Sold to hospital for hospital's expansion.
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 Dead-Rinks. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
The Evening Independent- November 13, 1985,
Cataylist - 29 June 2020 By Bill DeYoung. (Updated addition)
Date of issue: 2019
Updated: 17 August 2022.
For office use only: 8.
Worth to visit:
None. It is a hospital expansion.
DISCLAIMER:
Dead-Rinks and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on Dead-Rinks are not the property of Dead-Rinks therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved becomes property of Dead-Rinks and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Dead-Rinks List.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 16. Deut. 32:7.