Skate World 413 West Tyler Avenue, West Memphis, AR. Taken in 2016. This is pretty much the same appearance since 2007ish for Google. This was taken in 2013. Not much changes though. Source: Google Map. (Thanks to a spotter fan of my site, the photo was mixed up. Sorry for the mixed up. I recalled this building and I know I did uploaded the correct one. There are some photos get mixed up on my website. So, I am trying to correct them.. So, this is the building! Thank you for correcting!)
Skate World 413 West Tyler Avenue, West Memphis, AR
Skate World was at 413 West Tyler Avenue, West Memphis, Arkansas. It is right off of Tyler Cove though, end of that street.
A Facebook fan page on this rink said of the 80s and 90s so I assume the rink was in operations during the 1980s till 1990s. At this rink a well note of history that Kimberly Derrick was the Olympic speed skating medalist. Congrats, Kimberly! Good job!
Unfortunately for that fan page, not much. Someone even asked when it closed up.
They had a very good accessible for anyone with walking and biking.
The building was sold in February 25, 1997 for 300,000 USD but the next owner sold it again in June 14, 2019 for 920,000 USD. Clearly the previous owner from 1997 to 2019 ran for about 22 years. They renovated the interior from skating rink to offices and classrooms. Likely this was of a day care or pre-school by the looks of the photos. I do not know what the current status on this building to become of. Originally the school was selling for 1.1 Million USD.
Clearly the rink closed in February 1997.
UPDATE! --
I received an email this past weekend about this rink and I am copying and pasting what this person, Kelly has to say. She skated there back the day. Here is what she has to say--
The 'in' and 'out' doors were both on the SE corner of the building. VERY narrow hallways in both directions. They weren't very long, though. That's the ONLY design flaw I can come up with.
When you entered, the ticket booth was immediately to your right. Glass window with a semi-circle slot in the bottom. There was a typical glass-wall door to the left of it. You could get a 'skate' ticket or an 'arcade' ticket. They're pretty self-explanatory. The 'skate' ticket lets you rent skates, the 'arcade' ticket just lets you in.
Either way, after everybody got their tickets, they buzzed open the glass-wall door. Make a quick right through the door, and the aroma is floor wax, particle board, new carpet, pizza and hot dogs. Strange combination. I agree... Haha!
There was an awesome arcade and concession stand to the left, and skate rental to the right. Beyond skate rental were the bathrooms.
If you made a left just beyond the bathrooms, you entered the skating rink. There were shoe cubbies on the wall to your right, and several 'mushroom' benches to sit on to put on your skates. The mushrooms [I assume they were round benches I call them "high wire spool seating"] and floor were brown carpet.
I'd put on my beige skates with orange wheels and toe-stops, and troddle across the brown shag to the edge of the hardwood rink. It was almost like jumping into a pool when those orange wheels hit that hardwood!
It was awesome.
I'll get those diagrams and stuff to ya. It was a great place.
Kelly.
Wo, thank you so much Kelly for very detailed information regarding this rink.
UPDATE AGAIN! --
Kelly emailed me again after a discovery.
My sister found a video on YouTube of Skateworld in 1993. It starts after the guy in the bunny costume. By 1993, it looks like some changes were made. It looks like they had removed the stools and shoe cubbies, and added lockers. Also, the paint is different. Back in the day, the walls around the rink were beige. The lights and speakers seem to be the same. There were 4 asterisk-shaped stars on the ceiling with circus lights [Starburst lights]. I can't tell from the video if the mirror balls were still there. Each star had one hanging from the center, lit with pinspots. The 4 Klipsch speakers were in a cluster in the center.
Thank you Kelly. I watched a 30 minutes long video and from my understanding it was not about the rink. It was about one of biggest mysterious child murder cases called "WM3" - West Memphis 3 murder case. In comment section the crime armchair investigators or big fans of crimes said one of the three were seen in the video. With his girlfriend whom he got her pregnant according to Wikipedia. I will not involve this case further and no video shown. Wikipedia did not mention anything about the rink but perhaps was mentioned in the trial as they trace them day by day. But the murders occurred on 5 May 1993 and the video was filmed on 14 May 1993, 9 days after the disappearances of the boys.
If you want to see it, search on YouTube about this rink, Skate World.
It is now a medical office complex.
The Interior.
Entire information about the interior is above as written by Kelly in italic.
The Exterior.
The exterior was a Gable roofed exposed Steel Truss Light Brown Brick walled Warehouse-like building with some Off-White Steel-sheet walls above the front door around the entire complex.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Particle. Floor Layout: Particle standard.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A (1998, However, I believe that was renovation Year). Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel and Cinderblocks-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gabled.
Acres: 1.92 Acres.
Architect: N/A.
Contractor: N/A.
Interior Designer: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Air Hockey Tables: N/A.
Foosball Table: N/A.
Basketball Speed: 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.
Theater (movie/stage): None.
Dance Center: None.
Picnic Grove: None.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1978 to likely February 1997.
Reason for Closure: N/A to likely February 1997.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Also send me any updates such as reopening, sold, name changes, or whatsoever occurred with this rink or any rinks. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Rink-History©. Before you email, please state this rink name AND THE CITY AND STATE (or COUNTRY) so I can know where or what rink you are talking about. Thank you. We welcome both active and defunct rinks.
Sources:
Facebook fan page.
Realtor.
Realty Trac.
Xome.
Email - 25 October 2021.
Email - 01 November 2021.
Email - 09 August 2023.
Date of Issue: 2019
Update: 25 October 2021.
Update: 01 November 2021.
For Office Only: 1.
Worth to visit:
None.
DISCLAIMER:
International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© (formerly known as 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.
Dead Rinks is now International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© because many former names have become new names at the same rinks that are still active and due to much confusion, We have decided that International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© fits better for all rinks including defunct, closed, inactive, rebooted, and rinks that are still active today. For short on this site, it is International Roller Skating Rinks History© Bear with us as we change the entire site page by page each day. 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. Since we are rebooted to allow alive rinks, active rinks, we welcome those active rinks as well. It will be described.
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 International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© are not the property of International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group and/or International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved become property of International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© 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: Disclaimer.
© Copyrighted by International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation©, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 17. Deut. 32:7.
A Facebook fan page on this rink said of the 80s and 90s so I assume the rink was in operations during the 1980s till 1990s. At this rink a well note of history that Kimberly Derrick was the Olympic speed skating medalist. Congrats, Kimberly! Good job!
Unfortunately for that fan page, not much. Someone even asked when it closed up.
They had a very good accessible for anyone with walking and biking.
The building was sold in February 25, 1997 for 300,000 USD but the next owner sold it again in June 14, 2019 for 920,000 USD. Clearly the previous owner from 1997 to 2019 ran for about 22 years. They renovated the interior from skating rink to offices and classrooms. Likely this was of a day care or pre-school by the looks of the photos. I do not know what the current status on this building to become of. Originally the school was selling for 1.1 Million USD.
Clearly the rink closed in February 1997.
UPDATE! --
I received an email this past weekend about this rink and I am copying and pasting what this person, Kelly has to say. She skated there back the day. Here is what she has to say--
The 'in' and 'out' doors were both on the SE corner of the building. VERY narrow hallways in both directions. They weren't very long, though. That's the ONLY design flaw I can come up with.
When you entered, the ticket booth was immediately to your right. Glass window with a semi-circle slot in the bottom. There was a typical glass-wall door to the left of it. You could get a 'skate' ticket or an 'arcade' ticket. They're pretty self-explanatory. The 'skate' ticket lets you rent skates, the 'arcade' ticket just lets you in.
Either way, after everybody got their tickets, they buzzed open the glass-wall door. Make a quick right through the door, and the aroma is floor wax, particle board, new carpet, pizza and hot dogs. Strange combination. I agree... Haha!
There was an awesome arcade and concession stand to the left, and skate rental to the right. Beyond skate rental were the bathrooms.
If you made a left just beyond the bathrooms, you entered the skating rink. There were shoe cubbies on the wall to your right, and several 'mushroom' benches to sit on to put on your skates. The mushrooms [I assume they were round benches I call them "high wire spool seating"] and floor were brown carpet.
I'd put on my beige skates with orange wheels and toe-stops, and troddle across the brown shag to the edge of the hardwood rink. It was almost like jumping into a pool when those orange wheels hit that hardwood!
It was awesome.
I'll get those diagrams and stuff to ya. It was a great place.
Kelly.
Wo, thank you so much Kelly for very detailed information regarding this rink.
UPDATE AGAIN! --
Kelly emailed me again after a discovery.
My sister found a video on YouTube of Skateworld in 1993. It starts after the guy in the bunny costume. By 1993, it looks like some changes were made. It looks like they had removed the stools and shoe cubbies, and added lockers. Also, the paint is different. Back in the day, the walls around the rink were beige. The lights and speakers seem to be the same. There were 4 asterisk-shaped stars on the ceiling with circus lights [Starburst lights]. I can't tell from the video if the mirror balls were still there. Each star had one hanging from the center, lit with pinspots. The 4 Klipsch speakers were in a cluster in the center.
Thank you Kelly. I watched a 30 minutes long video and from my understanding it was not about the rink. It was about one of biggest mysterious child murder cases called "WM3" - West Memphis 3 murder case. In comment section the crime armchair investigators or big fans of crimes said one of the three were seen in the video. With his girlfriend whom he got her pregnant according to Wikipedia. I will not involve this case further and no video shown. Wikipedia did not mention anything about the rink but perhaps was mentioned in the trial as they trace them day by day. But the murders occurred on 5 May 1993 and the video was filmed on 14 May 1993, 9 days after the disappearances of the boys.
If you want to see it, search on YouTube about this rink, Skate World.
It is now a medical office complex.
The Interior.
Entire information about the interior is above as written by Kelly in italic.
The Exterior.
The exterior was a Gable roofed exposed Steel Truss Light Brown Brick walled Warehouse-like building with some Off-White Steel-sheet walls above the front door around the entire complex.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Particle. Floor Layout: Particle standard.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A (1998, However, I believe that was renovation Year). Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel and Cinderblocks-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gabled.
Acres: 1.92 Acres.
Architect: N/A.
Contractor: N/A.
Interior Designer: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Air Hockey Tables: N/A.
Foosball Table: N/A.
Basketball Speed: 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.
Theater (movie/stage): None.
Dance Center: None.
Picnic Grove: None.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1978 to likely February 1997.
Reason for Closure: N/A to likely February 1997.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Also send me any updates such as reopening, sold, name changes, or whatsoever occurred with this rink or any rinks. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Rink-History©. Before you email, please state this rink name AND THE CITY AND STATE (or COUNTRY) so I can know where or what rink you are talking about. Thank you. We welcome both active and defunct rinks.
Sources:
Facebook fan page.
Realtor.
Realty Trac.
Xome.
Email - 25 October 2021.
Email - 01 November 2021.
Email - 09 August 2023.
Date of Issue: 2019
Update: 25 October 2021.
Update: 01 November 2021.
For Office Only: 1.
Worth to visit:
None.
DISCLAIMER:
International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© (formerly known as 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.
Dead Rinks is now International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© because many former names have become new names at the same rinks that are still active and due to much confusion, We have decided that International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© fits better for all rinks including defunct, closed, inactive, rebooted, and rinks that are still active today. For short on this site, it is International Roller Skating Rinks History© Bear with us as we change the entire site page by page each day. 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. Since we are rebooted to allow alive rinks, active rinks, we welcome those active rinks as well. It will be described.
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 International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© are not the property of International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group and/or International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved become property of International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation© 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: Disclaimer.
© Copyrighted by International Roller Skating Rinks History Foundation©, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 17. Deut. 32:7.