Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. This was taken in 1982. It is the silver colored Gabled roof building right next to the Chevron shaped plaza. Source: USGS.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Really beautiful rink floor. You can see it is non-painted, Polyurethane coated (or Epoxy coated) Log Cabin. Also noticed the spider like Starburst lights. Similar to another rink with that layout which was I believe.. Cardinal Skate Rink (not sure if name is correct) in another state. Source: Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink Facebook group/Brian S.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Really beautiful rink floor. You can see it is non-painted, Polyurethane coated (or Epoxy coated) Log Cabin. With colored lights on. Also noticed the spider like Starburst lights. Similar to another rink with that layout which was I believe.. Cardinal Skate Rink (not sure if name is correct) in another state. Source: Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink Facebook group/Brian S.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Mascot greeting children of all ages from toddler to teenagers as you can see in the photo. Faces are blurred out. I admit the kid in white shirt with curly hair and jeans.. dressed just like the way I dressed. Same hairdo, pulled up sleeves. Popular style at the time but I was exactly like that kid. Source: Brian S. Copyrighted Digitally Remastered by Dead-Rinks (faces blurred out due to laws and safety of children's identity).
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. A stunt. Jumping like a frog or something. Source: Brian S. Copyrighted Digitally Remastered by Dead-Rinks
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Mascot greeted a nervous looking little skater. Source: Brian S. Copyrighted Digitally Remastered by Dead-Rinks (faces blurred out due to laws and safety of children's identity).
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. This newspaper clipping was from February 1980. Source: Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Summer passes for Summer 1985 (must be just issued made before the tornado. Source: Top O' The Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. On that fateful day of Friday evening at 7:05Pm, the tornado struck the rink and the plaza as seen in this photo on 31 May 1985. The rink was just behind that plaza as you can see the tornado hitting the rink. Both the plaza and the rink were flatted and destroyed. Source: Top O' The Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. On that fateful day of Friday evening at 7:05Pm, the tornado struck the rink and the plaza on 31 May 1985. Both the plaza and the rink were flatted and destroyed. The rink is the one with the most debris than the plaza that the tornado wiped clean the concrete slab at the plaza. The wood color you see in the photo was Maple wood floor! The floor survived by not being torn out. Unfortunately the entire facility was flatted off by maybe 30 feet toward the right of the photo. You can compare the size of the facilities with 2 passerby people on the left side of the rink or rear of what was once the roller rink. They said they made the plaza the center of rescue quarters just for this emergency in the entire area. Source: Top O' The Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. After the clean up, the plaza was rebuilt, and the rink was no more and now the AAA offices are on its place. The original plague was on a flagpole but it was detoring so the new owner ordered 2 new plagues. The owner of the plaza made a memorial with two plagues that most of the victims were from that plaza alone. 7 out of 9 victims were from the plaza alone. Others were from outside of the plaza but in the county. Dozens were killed by this deadliest storm of its time. Source: Top O' The Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. After the clean up, the plaza was rebuilt, and the rink was no more and now the AAA offices are on its place. The owner of the plaza made a memorial with two plagues that most of the victims were from that plaza alone. 7 out of 9 victims were from the plaza alone. Others were from outside of the plaza but in the county. This was the second part of the two parts plagues from that storm. There was a flag flying above it. Easy to find is you go to the parking lot of the plaza and find that flag, that is where you will find them. Dozens were killed by this deadliest storm of its time. Source: Top O' The Strip Roller Rink Facebook group.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH. Source: Cleveland.com
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, OH.
Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink was located at 937 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, Ohio before it became a victim of an infamous F5 Niles-Wheatland Tornado that hit on 31 May 1985. That was a Friday. 9 people were killed at the plaza.
Before that happened, this rink was operational for a time. It was a popular after-school hangout for students. In fact, it was really started to get popular just before the tornado hit.
There is no information about the rink before the tornado but with the tornado, yes, there were heavy news focus on the main F5 Niles-Wheatland Tornado that plowed through the Niles Park Plaza.
This occurred on a Friday evening that day 31 of May 1985 at 7:05pm just before a skating session which I think began at 7:30 pm. You see, the tornado came just before skaters were to arrive at the rink to skate. ONLY ONE person was inside the rink about to open up the rink for that evening. By the way, she survived the mean twister flattened the rink. Articles I see were very broad talking about many places including the rink but did not say more about the rink on that fateful day.
I believe there were a few people were at the plaza when the tornado hit.
They never rebuilt the rink but the plaza was rebuilt. Someone did ask on Facebook why they never rebuilt the rink. Currently the AAA is located on the former rink.
Now there is a memorial on the parking lot where the US Flag is. Recommend you go there to pay respect.
The rink only opened on Saturday, 13 February 1981 only just 4 years of operations. Was there another rink before this date?
Randy Fox was the manager of the rink.
The Interior.
They had a Non-painted, Polyurethane-coated, Maple Hardwood floor with Spider-like Starburst lights in the center of the rink.
The Exterior.
The plaza and the roller rink was shaped like an I and a reversed L if you look west but from the road, US 422 which is also known as Youngstown-Warren Road, the shape you see looked like an I and a lowercase "r" or Chevron shape. It was close to each other.
The plaza itself addressed as 815 while the rink was 937. Big difference in address. You saw the after photo above.
Today it is something else and the plaza grew in size and still same layout perhaps using same foundation. There is a memorial. I recommend you go visit there. You can find it by seeing the US Flag flying above the light pole base. 9 victims were mentioned because they were in the plaza on a Friday evening when the skating session was operational when the infamous Tornado of 1985 hit. I did not see any articles mentioned there was a skating session.
It was a Gabled Roofed Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks Walled Warehouse - like building.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Non-painted, Polyurethane-coated, Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: F5 Tornado - 31 May 1985 at 7:05pm.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks Walled Warehouse - like building.
Roof: Gabled.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- Saturday, 13 February 1981 to Friday, 31 May 1985.
Reason for Closure: F5 Tornado destructed the building completely.
Wanted: Information regarding any other rinks before 1981, size of rink, and photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Facebook - Top O' The Strip Facebook group.
Tribune Chronicle - Rink Remembered. PDF version.
Tornado oral and photo memory - include the rink.
The Vindicator - Listed all the victims in area. 7 were killed were in that plaza area alone. 9 were killed in that county. Warning: descriptive explanation of what they were doing and how they were killed. The rink was mentioned.
Tornado Talk - Very descriptive about the tornados that occurred that fateful day in 1985 including the Niles Tornado which was the worst. Warning: Descriptive explanation and how they were killed. The rink was mentioned.
Tribune Chronicle - another article related to the rink and the tornado written in February 24, 2014.
Mary Manning - Blogger who talked about that tornado hit the rink.
Cleveland (newspaper online) - Tornado history on that day.
USGS.
WKBN 27 - New Memorial.
Penn Care - Many photos of the former rink.
Email - Brian S.
Date of issue: 24 November 2021. Update: 27 November 2021.
For office use only: 15.
Disclaimer: Brian S. asked me to post pictures of the skaters and the mascot and the stunt to be included. Faces are blurred/colored out for the protection of the identities of the children according to law.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.
Before that happened, this rink was operational for a time. It was a popular after-school hangout for students. In fact, it was really started to get popular just before the tornado hit.
There is no information about the rink before the tornado but with the tornado, yes, there were heavy news focus on the main F5 Niles-Wheatland Tornado that plowed through the Niles Park Plaza.
This occurred on a Friday evening that day 31 of May 1985 at 7:05pm just before a skating session which I think began at 7:30 pm. You see, the tornado came just before skaters were to arrive at the rink to skate. ONLY ONE person was inside the rink about to open up the rink for that evening. By the way, she survived the mean twister flattened the rink. Articles I see were very broad talking about many places including the rink but did not say more about the rink on that fateful day.
I believe there were a few people were at the plaza when the tornado hit.
They never rebuilt the rink but the plaza was rebuilt. Someone did ask on Facebook why they never rebuilt the rink. Currently the AAA is located on the former rink.
Now there is a memorial on the parking lot where the US Flag is. Recommend you go there to pay respect.
The rink only opened on Saturday, 13 February 1981 only just 4 years of operations. Was there another rink before this date?
Randy Fox was the manager of the rink.
The Interior.
They had a Non-painted, Polyurethane-coated, Maple Hardwood floor with Spider-like Starburst lights in the center of the rink.
The Exterior.
The plaza and the roller rink was shaped like an I and a reversed L if you look west but from the road, US 422 which is also known as Youngstown-Warren Road, the shape you see looked like an I and a lowercase "r" or Chevron shape. It was close to each other.
The plaza itself addressed as 815 while the rink was 937. Big difference in address. You saw the after photo above.
Today it is something else and the plaza grew in size and still same layout perhaps using same foundation. There is a memorial. I recommend you go visit there. You can find it by seeing the US Flag flying above the light pole base. 9 victims were mentioned because they were in the plaza on a Friday evening when the skating session was operational when the infamous Tornado of 1985 hit. I did not see any articles mentioned there was a skating session.
It was a Gabled Roofed Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks Walled Warehouse - like building.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Non-painted, Polyurethane-coated, Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: F5 Tornado - 31 May 1985 at 7:05pm.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks Walled Warehouse - like building.
Roof: Gabled.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- Saturday, 13 February 1981 to Friday, 31 May 1985.
Reason for Closure: F5 Tornado destructed the building completely.
Wanted: Information regarding any other rinks before 1981, size of rink, and photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Facebook - Top O' The Strip Facebook group.
Tribune Chronicle - Rink Remembered. PDF version.
Tornado oral and photo memory - include the rink.
The Vindicator - Listed all the victims in area. 7 were killed were in that plaza area alone. 9 were killed in that county. Warning: descriptive explanation of what they were doing and how they were killed. The rink was mentioned.
Tornado Talk - Very descriptive about the tornados that occurred that fateful day in 1985 including the Niles Tornado which was the worst. Warning: Descriptive explanation and how they were killed. The rink was mentioned.
Tribune Chronicle - another article related to the rink and the tornado written in February 24, 2014.
Mary Manning - Blogger who talked about that tornado hit the rink.
Cleveland (newspaper online) - Tornado history on that day.
USGS.
WKBN 27 - New Memorial.
Penn Care - Many photos of the former rink.
Email - Brian S.
Date of issue: 24 November 2021. Update: 27 November 2021.
For office use only: 15.
Disclaimer: Brian S. asked me to post pictures of the skaters and the mascot and the stunt to be included. Faces are blurred/colored out for the protection of the identities of the children according to law.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.