All of Google Map. Bottom was modified to remove that "Wrong way" sign that was cutting off part of the slides. Good job removing! All three were part of King's Roller Rink.
King’s Roller Rink 4033 Jacksonville Hwy (also known as 4033 Memorial Drive) Waycross, GA
(Exact address to find it is 3800 Memorial Drive/US-1, Waycross, GA)
The Rink of Waycross 3800 Memorial Drive/US-1, Waycross, GA (reopened!)
(Exact address to find it is 3800 Memorial Drive/US-1, Waycross, GA)
The Rink of Waycross 3800 Memorial Drive/US-1, Waycross, GA (reopened!)
King's Roller Rink was one of the two King's. The other rink is also called King's Roller Rink that was in Blackshear, GA. Owned by the same man, James B. King along with his wife, Ruth of 33 years. James passed away in 2019 but he began this rink in Waycross in year 2000 according to Manta. But I think longer before that. Manta was wrong.
The actual address is 3802 US-1, Waycross, not 4033 Memorial Drive because it may have been messed up by Google or owners' private residence. This is common problem that when states have you to register your new business, you have to provide your residence, not the location of business. I do not like that. That is a problem. Both the mappers and the states. Need to have a real big time fix. Many rinks I find are residential site of owners, not the rink's actual address.
He sold it in mid-2000s. Likely 2016.
UPDATE: Thanks to another fan who wrote me an email stating exactly where and I had to pinpoint a corner as he described and found that corner then went down and I found the bowling alley and the rink next door and see next to the rink was the water slides. Looked like three part-entertainment section. Was the bowling place and water park under same management? I see no signs for those 2 other businesses. Just huge sign saying KINGS ROLLER RINK.
This is from the skater who skated there long ago--
The roller rink structure is a rectangular industrial 'steel building' type structure. I have not been inside it since 1985. I recall that back then the main rink took up about 2/3 of the building and was enclosed by walls about waist high which were indeed covered with shag carpet. The building walls and ceilings themselves were covered by about 2" thick of a grey-colored spray-on type insulation.
There was a snack bar counter serving hamburgers, hot dogs, microwaved pizzas, french fries, chips, candy bars, and fountain drinks.
There were at least 4-6 pool tables and 6-10 pinball machines and arcade video games.
There was a large (~24") disco ball at center rink with pinspot spotlights, strobe lights, various starburst type lights, fog machine, and blacklights as well. The sound system was adequate and used commercial type sound reinforcement speaker cabinets. The volume level on a Saturday night between the music and the noise from the rink floor was enough to need to lean close and shout to communicate with others.
That I was afraid of.. shaggy carpet on half walls and walls. Haha. Groovy!?
It had bowling alley and a water slide next door--actually the rink sandwiched between both of them.
Here is more from a skater who knows more about the rink and 2 other venues on same property that was part of King's.
The Bowling Alley was the core of the business in later years. I believe they kind of went through periods of closure and reopening through the years. But their 'heyday' was definitely over with. The Rink and the Bowling Alley was 'the place to be' in the late 70's early 80's. Of course you surely know this. The rink would be so jammed it was hard to skate, and everyone you knew from school was there. It seemed the energy of the place wound down (and it's not just because I aged out of it) I live not too far from there and drive by it all the time. The large crowds of the 70's and 80's just quit the place at some point. In general, parenting changed somewhat and it became unfashionable to just 'drop the kids off' somewhere and leave them to their own devices for hours on end.
Someone on Facebook said the Waycross's King's Roller Rink was behind the other building as you can see on the map.
UPDATE! (28 June 2021)
Once again another update and this time this rink that was closed in 2000s has returned like a phoenix rising. It is set to reopened on Friday, July 2, 2021! They are back after about 30 years hiatus! Welcome back! And Congrats to the owners of this rink that is open on Friday, July 2, 2021. This is exciting! Woo!
UPDATED AGAIN!
Someone send me an email yesterday that this rink is back. Of course, M. It IS back! And thanks for the info.
*This was an Entertainment Complex! King's Rolller Rink, King's Bowling Alley and King's Water Slide, operating during the 1970's and 1980's, was a major entertainment source for Ware and surrounding counties. Many of the permanent employees were relatives of the Kings. I recall seeing Mr King, his son Jimmy and daughter, Debra, working at the rink often. They were all very nice and personable, but would in act discipline against any patron if and when needed too!
*The floors were painted and polished concrete, not wood.
*The waste high walls outlining the rink, beginners rink, benches and gaming areas, were covered in green shag carpet from the 1970's.
*The rink played a variety of music from the time and had special skates (couples, backwards skate, wheel barrows and chariots, and even trick skating performances too!
*The rink and bowling alley next door were often packed on Friday and Saturday nights, until 12am.
*The rink and bowling alley were frequented by adults, teenagers and children of all ages. Parents often just dropped off their kids for the evening, without concern or worry.
*The wooden waterside next to the roller rink was a later addition to the property, only open spring/summer, and lasted only about 4-6 years in the 80's.
*It all just shut down in the late 80's or early 90's, where it laid in abandoned condition until recently purchased and then resurrected in June of 2021.
Awesome! Glad to hear they are back! Good times are coming on the rink!
Thank you M.M.
The ribbon cutting ceremony was on July 2, 2021 at 2pm. They are back!
Jamie McQuaig purchased the closed rink from Ruth King whose husband owned the rink back then.
The Interior.
Someone said the walls had shaggy carpet! On the walls!? This is not your 1990s rink with Berber style black-light colors on black carpet. It was shaggy! Mix that with 1990s look called graffiti writing on the walls. Did time travel in there get fused? Pretty tacky I would have to say. I pray not they did not have carpets in the bathrooms! Yuck!
The skater who wrote me on January 18, 2021 said the rink was about 2/3rd of entire building.
The building walls and ceilings themselves were covered by about 2" thick of a grey-colored spray-on type insulation.
There was a snack bar counter serving hamburgers, hot dogs, microwaved pizzas, french fries, chips, candy bars, and fountain drinks.
There were at least 4-6 pool tables and 6-10 pinball machines and arcade video games.
There was a large (~24") disco ball at center rink with pinspot spotlights, strobe lights, various starburst type lights, fog machine, and blacklights as well. The sound system was adequate and used commercial type sound reinforcement speaker cabinets. The volume level on a Saturday night between the music and the noise from the rink floor was enough to need to lean close and shout to communicate with others.
The Exterior.
Free-Span Steel Truss Steel Walled Warehouse-like Building with Gable roof. It was painted in Sunburst Yellow.
It had a large parking space shared with the bowling alley and the water slides. If shared. I believe it was owned by the same owner.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Painted and a type of urethane coating, Concrete. Floor Layout: Standard.
Building Size: N/A, Built: N/A. Demolished: Still standing. Abandoned for 30 years. RESTORED! (2021)
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel Walled Warehouse-like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: 1976 to early 1990s, maybe 2000s. RESTORED July 2, 2021 to present.
Reason for Closure: Likely health because both had cancer.
Wanted: Information regarding photographs of the rink interior, exact dates of open and closed. Why close exactly?
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: James B. King - Obituary, Facebook, Manta, Zillow, Movoto, Yellowbot, MJH News- reopening;
Updated: 18 January 2021. Updated: 29 June 2021. Updated: 11 July 2021.
For Office Only: 5p (5 g).
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved.
The actual address is 3802 US-1, Waycross, not 4033 Memorial Drive because it may have been messed up by Google or owners' private residence. This is common problem that when states have you to register your new business, you have to provide your residence, not the location of business. I do not like that. That is a problem. Both the mappers and the states. Need to have a real big time fix. Many rinks I find are residential site of owners, not the rink's actual address.
He sold it in mid-2000s. Likely 2016.
UPDATE: Thanks to another fan who wrote me an email stating exactly where and I had to pinpoint a corner as he described and found that corner then went down and I found the bowling alley and the rink next door and see next to the rink was the water slides. Looked like three part-entertainment section. Was the bowling place and water park under same management? I see no signs for those 2 other businesses. Just huge sign saying KINGS ROLLER RINK.
This is from the skater who skated there long ago--
The roller rink structure is a rectangular industrial 'steel building' type structure. I have not been inside it since 1985. I recall that back then the main rink took up about 2/3 of the building and was enclosed by walls about waist high which were indeed covered with shag carpet. The building walls and ceilings themselves were covered by about 2" thick of a grey-colored spray-on type insulation.
There was a snack bar counter serving hamburgers, hot dogs, microwaved pizzas, french fries, chips, candy bars, and fountain drinks.
There were at least 4-6 pool tables and 6-10 pinball machines and arcade video games.
There was a large (~24") disco ball at center rink with pinspot spotlights, strobe lights, various starburst type lights, fog machine, and blacklights as well. The sound system was adequate and used commercial type sound reinforcement speaker cabinets. The volume level on a Saturday night between the music and the noise from the rink floor was enough to need to lean close and shout to communicate with others.
That I was afraid of.. shaggy carpet on half walls and walls. Haha. Groovy!?
It had bowling alley and a water slide next door--actually the rink sandwiched between both of them.
Here is more from a skater who knows more about the rink and 2 other venues on same property that was part of King's.
The Bowling Alley was the core of the business in later years. I believe they kind of went through periods of closure and reopening through the years. But their 'heyday' was definitely over with. The Rink and the Bowling Alley was 'the place to be' in the late 70's early 80's. Of course you surely know this. The rink would be so jammed it was hard to skate, and everyone you knew from school was there. It seemed the energy of the place wound down (and it's not just because I aged out of it) I live not too far from there and drive by it all the time. The large crowds of the 70's and 80's just quit the place at some point. In general, parenting changed somewhat and it became unfashionable to just 'drop the kids off' somewhere and leave them to their own devices for hours on end.
Someone on Facebook said the Waycross's King's Roller Rink was behind the other building as you can see on the map.
UPDATE! (28 June 2021)
Once again another update and this time this rink that was closed in 2000s has returned like a phoenix rising. It is set to reopened on Friday, July 2, 2021! They are back after about 30 years hiatus! Welcome back! And Congrats to the owners of this rink that is open on Friday, July 2, 2021. This is exciting! Woo!
UPDATED AGAIN!
Someone send me an email yesterday that this rink is back. Of course, M. It IS back! And thanks for the info.
*This was an Entertainment Complex! King's Rolller Rink, King's Bowling Alley and King's Water Slide, operating during the 1970's and 1980's, was a major entertainment source for Ware and surrounding counties. Many of the permanent employees were relatives of the Kings. I recall seeing Mr King, his son Jimmy and daughter, Debra, working at the rink often. They were all very nice and personable, but would in act discipline against any patron if and when needed too!
*The floors were painted and polished concrete, not wood.
*The waste high walls outlining the rink, beginners rink, benches and gaming areas, were covered in green shag carpet from the 1970's.
*The rink played a variety of music from the time and had special skates (couples, backwards skate, wheel barrows and chariots, and even trick skating performances too!
*The rink and bowling alley next door were often packed on Friday and Saturday nights, until 12am.
*The rink and bowling alley were frequented by adults, teenagers and children of all ages. Parents often just dropped off their kids for the evening, without concern or worry.
*The wooden waterside next to the roller rink was a later addition to the property, only open spring/summer, and lasted only about 4-6 years in the 80's.
*It all just shut down in the late 80's or early 90's, where it laid in abandoned condition until recently purchased and then resurrected in June of 2021.
Awesome! Glad to hear they are back! Good times are coming on the rink!
Thank you M.M.
The ribbon cutting ceremony was on July 2, 2021 at 2pm. They are back!
Jamie McQuaig purchased the closed rink from Ruth King whose husband owned the rink back then.
The Interior.
Someone said the walls had shaggy carpet! On the walls!? This is not your 1990s rink with Berber style black-light colors on black carpet. It was shaggy! Mix that with 1990s look called graffiti writing on the walls. Did time travel in there get fused? Pretty tacky I would have to say. I pray not they did not have carpets in the bathrooms! Yuck!
The skater who wrote me on January 18, 2021 said the rink was about 2/3rd of entire building.
The building walls and ceilings themselves were covered by about 2" thick of a grey-colored spray-on type insulation.
There was a snack bar counter serving hamburgers, hot dogs, microwaved pizzas, french fries, chips, candy bars, and fountain drinks.
There were at least 4-6 pool tables and 6-10 pinball machines and arcade video games.
There was a large (~24") disco ball at center rink with pinspot spotlights, strobe lights, various starburst type lights, fog machine, and blacklights as well. The sound system was adequate and used commercial type sound reinforcement speaker cabinets. The volume level on a Saturday night between the music and the noise from the rink floor was enough to need to lean close and shout to communicate with others.
The Exterior.
Free-Span Steel Truss Steel Walled Warehouse-like Building with Gable roof. It was painted in Sunburst Yellow.
It had a large parking space shared with the bowling alley and the water slides. If shared. I believe it was owned by the same owner.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Painted and a type of urethane coating, Concrete. Floor Layout: Standard.
Building Size: N/A, Built: N/A. Demolished: Still standing. Abandoned for 30 years. RESTORED! (2021)
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel Walled Warehouse-like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: 1976 to early 1990s, maybe 2000s. RESTORED July 2, 2021 to present.
Reason for Closure: Likely health because both had cancer.
Wanted: Information regarding photographs of the rink interior, exact dates of open and closed. Why close exactly?
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: James B. King - Obituary, Facebook, Manta, Zillow, Movoto, Yellowbot, MJH News- reopening;
Updated: 18 January 2021. Updated: 29 June 2021. Updated: 11 July 2021.
For Office Only: 5p (5 g).
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved.