Top two courtesy of Whimsical Tales and Honorable Tributes. Both are Black-and-White photos likely taken in 1960s. Like to see them in color! Anyone?
A patch and decal courtesy of fans of the rink.
Newspaper clipping, The News Journal 1948.
Part of the newspaper article regarding the new complex proposed and approved by town in November 1985. But that did not materialize.
Merryland Skating Rink Rt. 40 (2800 Pulaski Highway), Glasgow, DE
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center Rt. 40 (2800 Pulaski Highway), Glasgow, DE
This rink perhaps a sister rink to the other Merryland Skating Rink in Maryland. But this one was a very neat rink by the look of the exterior. The building looked more like town arena or stadium or even convention center than a standard roller rink. It appeared much larger than it looks and had very modern authentic design to the building from the Mid-Century (20th Century). It differ from the standardization of architectural design of such building. Back in Mid-Century, the architecture of the norm was Googie or Abstract design. More common you would find are at McDonalds, Burger King, Denny's, or even the old Holiday Inn signs and the motels along back road highways. Googie is that was named after Googie's Restaurant in Los Angeles because it was the first of a kind of really different appearance (the original Googie's has long since demolished).
Skating rinks from mid-20th Century were very basic design (from what I have worked on about 800 rinks, they were all very basic in appearance). Rarely they would display Googie. Not even Sports-O-Rama in Mattydale, NY was a Googie except for its sign which was proudly displayed a Vegas style sign "Sports-O-Rama Plaza" among the name of a steak house and saying Roller Skating on it. That is Vegas Googie Architecture.
But here in Merryland Skating Rink, it displayed at least twenty years advanced in architecture design to that of early 1970s look of a stadium rather than a standard small Arched-Curve Roof roller rink. It had in fact, stands! This building reminds me of a local building in my hometown, the Onondaga County War Memorial. The conceptual of such design is similar. Arched-Curved roof where the rink is located and the extensions on both sides are interpreted as where the stands are along with snack bar, rest rooms, etc. Those extensions are Flat roof. This gives an Alpha-shaped roofline. Both the War Memorial and the Merryland Rink are similar in design with the roof but Merryland is slightly smaller as I can compare in the photo of both complex. The War Memorial has 7,000 Seating for the AHL Syracuse Crush games. In comparison, Merryland appeared to have less than 1000 seating, a seventh of its size according to an old Black-n-White photo. However, the building appeared to be about half of the War Memorial if you want to compare. And lower as well. The exterior appeared taller than it really is.
It appeared to be Concrete poured built building. The stands are surrounded the rink. A photo showed it has Maple wood floor with Log-Cabin format layout.
I am unable to find color photos of the rink though. Anyone has them, please by all means send it to me at [email protected] and I will be happy to add and credit you for submission.
For now, I have the Black-N-Whites.
The era when they opened this was in February 12, 1949, ironically, both War Memorial and Merryland were opened in same year! But the War Memorial still there and still is War Memorial. Unfortunately for Merryland, they closed for good in 1988. However, they did come back as Hound's Pound Family Fun Center, an other roller rink but focused on Roller Hockey.
There were much history between those two rinks. It all began with the suicide by the owner, John E. Paxton Jr. it has to do with a domestic dispute. Anyway, After that, clearly the widow wanted to sell the property immediately after her husband death. There was a developer- a team of 5 investors wanted to purchase the 132.5 acres and use 25 acres for their entertainment-recreation complex including half season of a roller rink, and other half being futbol (You call that "Soccer") and that was supposed to run from May to October and from October to May as a roller rink. Also as a 24-lanes bowling center there as well as having outdoor softball field, futbol fields, a Putt-Putt® Miniature golf course, and water slides on a 25.5 acres.
That was proposed in November 22, 1985 and they were about to reopened on October 1, 1986 as Merryland Roller Rink but seemly all fell through by Monday May 9, 1988 when the widow sold to another couple who bought it for 2 Million Dollars. The new owner turned it to another set of wheels on that said property.. not roller skating but antique cars. It became a museum December 1989.
But just in 1986, it was briefly an automobile dealership. A Buick dealership.
But the automotive museum did not last. It closed and sold and it became another good time to roll. This time a small children playground indoors. It was bounce ball house and mini-golf course, and other simple recreation activities in the former rink. They opened in November 14, 1993. That did not last either. Around 1999, new owner brought back roller skating and this time called it Hound's Pound Family Fun Center however, the owner of the property wanted a different tenant- this time a known department store to be established there. It was a controversy because of termination notice was not send and the other side says they did. That forced the rink to close. It was designed for Roller Hockey league to play there.
They closed on Sunday February 18, 2001. Funny, I am writing this profile on Tuesday February 18, 2020. That was exactly 19 years to the date! The owner I felt should have not done this to the league and should be aware of this is different. He had the entire 132 acres to make room for the department store!
Unfortunately the owner is bit greedy and the department store was also greedy and had the beautiful Alpha Roofed free-span steel poured concrete building torn down for a very common boring cookie cutter design of this free-standing department store. (I heard the department store is controversial itself as well).
It will take another owner of the property to get rid of the department store and have the property rebuilt as a rink because that cookie cutter building is a column supported Flat roof building that is not suitable for a rink. Nice going owner of property and department store!
To do so would cost about 10 Million Dollars in 2020s.
Rink Size: 90' X 210' Floor: Clear Polyurethane Coated White Maple
Floor Layout: Log Cabin
Building Size: N/A Built: N/A
Demolished: 2001 by owner of property making way for a department store that
wanted to have building there.
Type of Building: Free Span Steel Poured Concrete Alpha Roofline Building.
Roof: Alpha Roofline (Arched-Curved with Flat roof on each side of Arch
making Alpha symbol shape).
Acres: 132.5 Acres (largest skating rink property ever in the US)
Operated:
Merryland Skating Rink: February 12, 1949 to Monday May 9, 1988.
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center: c. 1999 to Sunday February 18, 2001.
Reason for Closure:
Merryland Skating Rink: Widow wanted to get rid of her late husband's assets.
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center: Forced out of business by property owner. It was leased.
Wanted: Information regarding color photos of both interior and exterior of Merryland but also from Hound's Pound Family Fun Center.
Sources: Whimsical Tales and Honorable Tributes, The New Journals 1948, 1988,
© 2019 - 2020 Dead Rinks. All Rights Reserved.
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center Rt. 40 (2800 Pulaski Highway), Glasgow, DE
This rink perhaps a sister rink to the other Merryland Skating Rink in Maryland. But this one was a very neat rink by the look of the exterior. The building looked more like town arena or stadium or even convention center than a standard roller rink. It appeared much larger than it looks and had very modern authentic design to the building from the Mid-Century (20th Century). It differ from the standardization of architectural design of such building. Back in Mid-Century, the architecture of the norm was Googie or Abstract design. More common you would find are at McDonalds, Burger King, Denny's, or even the old Holiday Inn signs and the motels along back road highways. Googie is that was named after Googie's Restaurant in Los Angeles because it was the first of a kind of really different appearance (the original Googie's has long since demolished).
Skating rinks from mid-20th Century were very basic design (from what I have worked on about 800 rinks, they were all very basic in appearance). Rarely they would display Googie. Not even Sports-O-Rama in Mattydale, NY was a Googie except for its sign which was proudly displayed a Vegas style sign "Sports-O-Rama Plaza" among the name of a steak house and saying Roller Skating on it. That is Vegas Googie Architecture.
But here in Merryland Skating Rink, it displayed at least twenty years advanced in architecture design to that of early 1970s look of a stadium rather than a standard small Arched-Curve Roof roller rink. It had in fact, stands! This building reminds me of a local building in my hometown, the Onondaga County War Memorial. The conceptual of such design is similar. Arched-Curved roof where the rink is located and the extensions on both sides are interpreted as where the stands are along with snack bar, rest rooms, etc. Those extensions are Flat roof. This gives an Alpha-shaped roofline. Both the War Memorial and the Merryland Rink are similar in design with the roof but Merryland is slightly smaller as I can compare in the photo of both complex. The War Memorial has 7,000 Seating for the AHL Syracuse Crush games. In comparison, Merryland appeared to have less than 1000 seating, a seventh of its size according to an old Black-n-White photo. However, the building appeared to be about half of the War Memorial if you want to compare. And lower as well. The exterior appeared taller than it really is.
It appeared to be Concrete poured built building. The stands are surrounded the rink. A photo showed it has Maple wood floor with Log-Cabin format layout.
I am unable to find color photos of the rink though. Anyone has them, please by all means send it to me at [email protected] and I will be happy to add and credit you for submission.
For now, I have the Black-N-Whites.
The era when they opened this was in February 12, 1949, ironically, both War Memorial and Merryland were opened in same year! But the War Memorial still there and still is War Memorial. Unfortunately for Merryland, they closed for good in 1988. However, they did come back as Hound's Pound Family Fun Center, an other roller rink but focused on Roller Hockey.
There were much history between those two rinks. It all began with the suicide by the owner, John E. Paxton Jr. it has to do with a domestic dispute. Anyway, After that, clearly the widow wanted to sell the property immediately after her husband death. There was a developer- a team of 5 investors wanted to purchase the 132.5 acres and use 25 acres for their entertainment-recreation complex including half season of a roller rink, and other half being futbol (You call that "Soccer") and that was supposed to run from May to October and from October to May as a roller rink. Also as a 24-lanes bowling center there as well as having outdoor softball field, futbol fields, a Putt-Putt® Miniature golf course, and water slides on a 25.5 acres.
That was proposed in November 22, 1985 and they were about to reopened on October 1, 1986 as Merryland Roller Rink but seemly all fell through by Monday May 9, 1988 when the widow sold to another couple who bought it for 2 Million Dollars. The new owner turned it to another set of wheels on that said property.. not roller skating but antique cars. It became a museum December 1989.
But just in 1986, it was briefly an automobile dealership. A Buick dealership.
But the automotive museum did not last. It closed and sold and it became another good time to roll. This time a small children playground indoors. It was bounce ball house and mini-golf course, and other simple recreation activities in the former rink. They opened in November 14, 1993. That did not last either. Around 1999, new owner brought back roller skating and this time called it Hound's Pound Family Fun Center however, the owner of the property wanted a different tenant- this time a known department store to be established there. It was a controversy because of termination notice was not send and the other side says they did. That forced the rink to close. It was designed for Roller Hockey league to play there.
They closed on Sunday February 18, 2001. Funny, I am writing this profile on Tuesday February 18, 2020. That was exactly 19 years to the date! The owner I felt should have not done this to the league and should be aware of this is different. He had the entire 132 acres to make room for the department store!
Unfortunately the owner is bit greedy and the department store was also greedy and had the beautiful Alpha Roofed free-span steel poured concrete building torn down for a very common boring cookie cutter design of this free-standing department store. (I heard the department store is controversial itself as well).
It will take another owner of the property to get rid of the department store and have the property rebuilt as a rink because that cookie cutter building is a column supported Flat roof building that is not suitable for a rink. Nice going owner of property and department store!
To do so would cost about 10 Million Dollars in 2020s.
Rink Size: 90' X 210' Floor: Clear Polyurethane Coated White Maple
Floor Layout: Log Cabin
Building Size: N/A Built: N/A
Demolished: 2001 by owner of property making way for a department store that
wanted to have building there.
Type of Building: Free Span Steel Poured Concrete Alpha Roofline Building.
Roof: Alpha Roofline (Arched-Curved with Flat roof on each side of Arch
making Alpha symbol shape).
Acres: 132.5 Acres (largest skating rink property ever in the US)
Operated:
Merryland Skating Rink: February 12, 1949 to Monday May 9, 1988.
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center: c. 1999 to Sunday February 18, 2001.
Reason for Closure:
Merryland Skating Rink: Widow wanted to get rid of her late husband's assets.
Hound's Pound Family Fun Center: Forced out of business by property owner. It was leased.
Wanted: Information regarding color photos of both interior and exterior of Merryland but also from Hound's Pound Family Fun Center.
Sources: Whimsical Tales and Honorable Tributes, The New Journals 1948, 1988,
© 2019 - 2020 Dead Rinks. All Rights Reserved.