Hecla Park Roller Rink 259 Hecla Rd., Bellefonte (Mingoville), PA. Explaining about the park in advertisement. And on right, an ad focusing on the rink. Source: (left) The Express - Saturday, 18 July 1942. (Right) Centre Daily Times - Saturday, 14 April 1984.
Hecla Park Roller Rink 259 Hecla Rd., Bellefonte (Mingoville), PA. Real estate ad. Source: Centre Daily Times - Tuesday, 19 November 2002.
Hecla Park Roller Rink 259 Hecla Rd., Bellefonte (Mingoville), PA. Real estate ad. Source: Centre Daily Times - Friday 27 September 2013.
Hecla Park Roller Rink 259 Hecla Rd., Bellefonte (Mingoville), PA. This is the photo top view of the former park. You can see the outline of the old swimming area. It was filled in. The red pin pointed where the old rink was. The arrow points direction of North. The real appearance. Source: Google.
Hecla Park Roller Rink 259 Hecla Rd., Bellefonte (Mingoville), PA
Hecla Park Roller Rink was located at the Hecla Park on 259 Hecla Road in Bellefonte (Mingoville), Pennsylvania. It is now Bellefonte Sports Academy @ the Rink. Yes, they kept the name "Rink" although it is no longer a roller rink. It is a sports school involving baseball/softball and golf, Those three have something in common, have an object to hit the ball. They train students, players how to play ball.
But Hecla Park Roller Rink had its beginning way back in 1921 and it ran quite a long time and it met its demise in 2001. That account for a good 74 years of operations. Could have held one more year to celebrate its 75th anniversary. That is golden! Err.. Diamonds! I know that does not sound right. Anyway, a joke!
Well, Hecla Park was an amusement park at the time and roller rinks at the time were commonly build at Trolley Parks, Amusement Parks, and Light Parks.
It had all sort of amusement and entertainment including a Carousel, swing and slide set, swimming lake, boating including rowing boats. picnicking, and relaxation.
The rink building remains standing today and it is currently as Bellefonte Sports Academy. It was, in fact, as RMC Sports but they went out of business because Google Map photo showed the for sale sign over the original name of that sporting center. From roller skating to sports and then sports again! Will it ever be back as a rink? Never know.
The skating rink closed because it became more of a baby sitting place than the business mission of being a roller rink. That is understandable because today skating rinks are geared for children which was a marketing error back in 1970s when they had DJ music playing and the older generation backed out because they prefer to figure skating and couple skating like they used to in 1920s to 1950s or even before that. The RSROA at the time may have made it too focused on marketing for children. I have seen patterns somewhat. Well, it is a fact that teens and young 20s are trendsetters. They choose roller skating in 1970s and early 1980s before teens decided to go to arcades in the 80s and more toward beach parties and house crashing parties thanks to the likes of Risky Business and Animal House and pretty much a lot of other teen movies that the Late John Hughes made and others as well. This later lead to home based video games trend and now cell phone and take pictures of themselves and rot at home today.
Now back to the Hecla Park Roller Rink. This is why they saw the trend of children coming and not others. The very same three generations of owners in the family including Mr. Hockman (1927 to ?), son, Harold Hockman and gradnson, H. R. "Randy" Hockman Jr. (1978-).
Before the rink was built in 1927, Hecla Furnace/Hecla Park was built in 1820 by Isaac McKinney along the Indian trail Logan’s Path, Hecla Furnace used the water of Little Fishing Creek for power. later the power company ceased operation in 1864. In 1893 a new railroad, the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, connected Bellefonte with the New York Central Line railroad established a park to serve as a resort. Hecla Park offered picnickers a fine wooded area, a large dam for bathing and boating, and a dance pavilion. Likely the dance pavilion became roller rink which lead right up to its closure and reopened as a sporting center.
The long lasting rink finally closed in 2001 but in 2002, Bob Rightnour, former Hecla Park skater and his uncle once owned the park, leased the rink & pool bathhouse for his business. Hockman stayed on to work for Bob Rightnour (RMC Sports & manufacturing).
The Interior.
It was said to be wood and can see the floor itself was wood. Maple or Oak or something similar was used. It was sort of big and free span so no posts in the middle of the rink. Just the outskirts of the rink.
The Exterior.
It was a Free-Span Steel Trusses Wood - Walled Antique Rink Arena - like Building with Mixed Specialized Roof. (Segmental with Skirt). It was White on the wall and Rubberized roof material. It even had curved walls on all four corners. And the roof itself on top view showed it was curved corners, not sharp but curved making it unique.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1927. Renovations: N/A. (Few times) Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Wood - Walled Antique Rink Arena.
Roof: Mixed. (Segmental with Skirt), Specialized curve).
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Brand unknown but they had an organ.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: Number unknown. Carousel, Swings, boat rides (rowing), swim area.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: Possible but unknown number.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None. (possible they had though).
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming: Man made lake.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1927 to 2001 (Roller Rink and Park).
Reason for Closure: Owners had enough of rink becoming more like a baby sitting service than a rink.
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 - Bellefonte.com page.
Google Images
The Express - Saturday, 18 July 1942. (Shown above)
Centre Daily Times - Monday, 20 July, 1992.
Centre Daily Times - Tuesday, 19 November 2002.
Centre Daily Times - Saturday, 14 April 1984. (Shown above)
Centre Daily Times - Tuesday, 17 Mar 1987.
Centre Daily Times - Friday 27 September 2013. (Shown above)
Bellefonte Sports Academy at the Rink - Website.
Date of issue: 25 July 2022.
For office use only:
Worth to visit:
None. Unless you want to check in the facility to consider practicing your baseball or golf skills. FORE! Oh you got to learn how to swing right! Careful! Now, do not walk out crying you could not swing a golf club or actually crying that the rink is gone. Unless you can buy out the business and turn it back to a roller rink again! Haha.
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.
But Hecla Park Roller Rink had its beginning way back in 1921 and it ran quite a long time and it met its demise in 2001. That account for a good 74 years of operations. Could have held one more year to celebrate its 75th anniversary. That is golden! Err.. Diamonds! I know that does not sound right. Anyway, a joke!
Well, Hecla Park was an amusement park at the time and roller rinks at the time were commonly build at Trolley Parks, Amusement Parks, and Light Parks.
It had all sort of amusement and entertainment including a Carousel, swing and slide set, swimming lake, boating including rowing boats. picnicking, and relaxation.
The rink building remains standing today and it is currently as Bellefonte Sports Academy. It was, in fact, as RMC Sports but they went out of business because Google Map photo showed the for sale sign over the original name of that sporting center. From roller skating to sports and then sports again! Will it ever be back as a rink? Never know.
The skating rink closed because it became more of a baby sitting place than the business mission of being a roller rink. That is understandable because today skating rinks are geared for children which was a marketing error back in 1970s when they had DJ music playing and the older generation backed out because they prefer to figure skating and couple skating like they used to in 1920s to 1950s or even before that. The RSROA at the time may have made it too focused on marketing for children. I have seen patterns somewhat. Well, it is a fact that teens and young 20s are trendsetters. They choose roller skating in 1970s and early 1980s before teens decided to go to arcades in the 80s and more toward beach parties and house crashing parties thanks to the likes of Risky Business and Animal House and pretty much a lot of other teen movies that the Late John Hughes made and others as well. This later lead to home based video games trend and now cell phone and take pictures of themselves and rot at home today.
Now back to the Hecla Park Roller Rink. This is why they saw the trend of children coming and not others. The very same three generations of owners in the family including Mr. Hockman (1927 to ?), son, Harold Hockman and gradnson, H. R. "Randy" Hockman Jr. (1978-).
Before the rink was built in 1927, Hecla Furnace/Hecla Park was built in 1820 by Isaac McKinney along the Indian trail Logan’s Path, Hecla Furnace used the water of Little Fishing Creek for power. later the power company ceased operation in 1864. In 1893 a new railroad, the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, connected Bellefonte with the New York Central Line railroad established a park to serve as a resort. Hecla Park offered picnickers a fine wooded area, a large dam for bathing and boating, and a dance pavilion. Likely the dance pavilion became roller rink which lead right up to its closure and reopened as a sporting center.
The long lasting rink finally closed in 2001 but in 2002, Bob Rightnour, former Hecla Park skater and his uncle once owned the park, leased the rink & pool bathhouse for his business. Hockman stayed on to work for Bob Rightnour (RMC Sports & manufacturing).
The Interior.
It was said to be wood and can see the floor itself was wood. Maple or Oak or something similar was used. It was sort of big and free span so no posts in the middle of the rink. Just the outskirts of the rink.
The Exterior.
It was a Free-Span Steel Trusses Wood - Walled Antique Rink Arena - like Building with Mixed Specialized Roof. (Segmental with Skirt). It was White on the wall and Rubberized roof material. It even had curved walls on all four corners. And the roof itself on top view showed it was curved corners, not sharp but curved making it unique.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: 1927. Renovations: N/A. (Few times) Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Wood - Walled Antique Rink Arena.
Roof: Mixed. (Segmental with Skirt), Specialized curve).
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Brand unknown but they had an organ.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: Number unknown. Carousel, Swings, boat rides (rowing), swim area.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: Possible but unknown number.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None. (possible they had though).
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming: Man made lake.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1927 to 2001 (Roller Rink and Park).
Reason for Closure: Owners had enough of rink becoming more like a baby sitting service than a rink.
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 - Bellefonte.com page.
Google Images
The Express - Saturday, 18 July 1942. (Shown above)
Centre Daily Times - Monday, 20 July, 1992.
Centre Daily Times - Tuesday, 19 November 2002.
Centre Daily Times - Saturday, 14 April 1984. (Shown above)
Centre Daily Times - Tuesday, 17 Mar 1987.
Centre Daily Times - Friday 27 September 2013. (Shown above)
Bellefonte Sports Academy at the Rink - Website.
Date of issue: 25 July 2022.
For office use only:
Worth to visit:
None. Unless you want to check in the facility to consider practicing your baseball or golf skills. FORE! Oh you got to learn how to swing right! Careful! Now, do not walk out crying you could not swing a golf club or actually crying that the rink is gone. Unless you can buy out the business and turn it back to a roller rink again! Haha.
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.