United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Look at it again, folks. The difference is the letters are in Medium Gray for "Wayne, NJ". Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Wow, nice business card still in good shape! Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Admission ticket. Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Let's see. Oh no, the schedule is out of date! Haha. It was published in 1981 for that summer season. Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. Oh goodie!! Another schedule! Woo! Oh no! Wrong year again! This one is 1983. Oh well. I just graduated from high school! I was sad that summer that my rink, Empire Skates East closed for good. Source: Facebook group - USA Roller Skating Rink, Wayne, NJ.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall, Wayne, NJ. This showed the map long after the rink closed. Looked like taken in 1990s or early 2000s. Not sure. The name of the mall changed from West Belt Mall to Wayne Towne Center. This showed before they demolished the small stores section of the mall in between the two department stores seen in the map and they sure did demolished it. I do not know exactly where the rink was. Anybody? Can you copy the photo and circle it or point an arrow you can do with your Paint or Paint 3D or your art software. I would be happy to know. Thank you. Source: Labelscar website, a dead-mall website.
United Skates of America West Belt Mall Wayne, NJ
There was one of the franchise or affiliations of United Skates of America roller rink that was at a shopping mall called West Belt Mall in Wayne, New Jersey.
This roller rink, United Skates of America (or known as USA) in Wayne, New Jersey was one of many franchise under United Skates of America, Inc. (Cleveland OH). This company owns many rinks but also many were closed as well. (Can you find them on Dead-Rinks? Many more will be added so do not worry!)
I do not have the dates of opening nor closing but the closing was around in Mid-1980s after a few controversy was occurring. They had a huge gang fight on the West Belt Mall parking lot by the rink that has to do with the rink. I read several rumors and different stories on Facebook on how the rink was closed. I need true hard facts.
Rumors such as gang fights that caused the loss of skaters going to that rink. Another said about the gangs were actually from another rink in Willowbrook, the main competitor to USA. The owner from Willowbrook rink as one commented saying that rink send the gang and bought out the USA as way to eliminate the competition. Businesses do buy out other businesses every day!
Well, one another said because of the gang fights and troubles at the mall due to the rink, the owner from Willowbrook made an offer that the owner of the USA rink at West Belt Mall cannot refuse. When that happened, the owner of the USA rink shut down on the very day and never reopened. It was sold on a Saturday and on Sunday, one of the employee who said on Facebook that Sunday, he received a call saying he and the rest of the employees are terminated and not to come in. He checked in there and it was closed for good. That one is most plausible answer I believe. It has to do with the quick sale.
It is believed it was opened in the 1970s. Tons of photographs from skaters themselves at the USA rink in very late 1970s and early 1980s. Feathered hair, buttoned down shirts for the guys, even mullets. From what I seen, they are the funniest group I have seen on any dead rinks' Facebook groups. In fact this woman, Christy who skated at this rink send me emails really a riot. So funny!
You have got to add USA rink in Wayne, NJ. It closed abruptly one day in 1986 or so, but it was iconic in the 1970s and 80s. I just discovered a FB page dedicated to the kids (now in our 40s, 50s and 60s) that escaped from our crappy Jersey lives every weekend there. (See Sources below).
There are even articles written about it.... (See Sources below).
The thread on the FB page now is in part, about the huge fight in the parking lot one night in 1980.
Christy, I attempted to find that thread on Facebook page about the huge fight. I even looked for articles and none was shown. I am aware this rink was part of West Belt Mall with two major department stores sandwiched between two department stores. Was this skating rink inside the mall or what? I found photographs of the mall maps. One was likely in 2000s but the other a proposal map for revamped to make it a plaza again. But they did change once again which is now a three department store C-shaped plaza with the parking lot now where the mall interior was.
Christy or anyone know exactly where by telling me where on that map shown above in the email and I will copy and paste and point out.
Monday nights were Family Nights; Wednesday nights were “Whacky Wednesdays” that skaters would get in free if they came with a roll of toilet paper). (Toliet paper!? For what!? I think a canned food would be best suited for donation). And Friday nights were Rock Nights. They even had Disco Nights with Disco music playing which was much better suited for the rink says someone.
My commentary about this problem the rink had in the 1980s. Roller Skating Rink Owners Association already merged with other skating associations and you see, RSROA was formed to end violence and they were successful at stopping violence but they folded for some reasons I do not know and slowly violence was coming back at rinks in 1980s on. Some rinks I worked on had a violence past that did hurt the rink. A couple of rink operators got arrested for child molestation, one with mishandling a gun, and yes, there were gangs at rinks. One in Virginia or Maryland did face a big time violence that brought so many police cars and that was the last skating at that rink because of the violence. The owners had enough.
Second of all, having a roller rink or any entertainment centers at a shopping mall are a magnet for attracting violence. A combination-- entertainment center such as a roller rink plus a mall equals to violence because of Mall Rats even gangs are at the mall.
This mall I live near has a lot of entertainment centers in the mall and still, they do have a lot of trouble hanging out there. I hear that every other month on my local news website. That is a bit troubling.
The Interior.
Beautiful Polyurethane coated Hardwood Maple Floor Layout: Straight Log Cabin, looks like Rectangular shaped rink. It had very Americana patriotic theme inside with Red-White-Blue colors of the United States of America. In fact, the walls have Red rails and matching height on the full wall but has White above the Red as Blue stripe wrapped around the place above that White Stripe above the Red and then White the rest all the way up to the ceiling. They had Red colored lockers.
Even patriotic colors at the Skate Rental area. I could not display any of the photos because those photos on the Facebook are focused on the teenagers of the 1970s-early 1980s (by the look of hairdos and clothing as I myself personally recalled. Hey, I was exactly their age at the time. I Graduated from high school in 1983).
The Exterior.
Basically it was part of a shopping mall, I do not have any photos of the interior where the rink was. I am referring to the photo of the shopping mall from that time. It is said to be next to where Dick's Sporting Goods was supposed to be.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Beautiful Polyurethane coated Hardwood Maple Floor Layout: Straight Log Cabin, looks like Rectangular shaped rink.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: 2013 to make way for a "Towne Center/Lifestyle Center", aka plaza. Therefore, reduced the mall into a plaza. That included the former rink.
Type of Building: Free-Span Column Posts Steel Trusses Cinderblocks - Walled Shopping Mall.
Roof: Flat (shopping mall)
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Likely not.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: 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..
Operated: (Overall)-- N/A to likely early 1980s.
Reason for Closure: Several including gang fights outside of the rink. It was the owner of another rink--Willowbrook that send gangs, violence, problems to USA Rink and that drove the rink out of business and be sold to the very same owner of Willowbrook! I found out that Willowbrook was also the name of a mall too. That mall is near Westbelt Mall as well. The battle of the two malls at the time.
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 - USA Roller Rink Wayne NJ.
Mary Anne Mistresetta - Her experience at USA rink.
Labelscar - Their version of Dead-rinks. That site deals with Dead-retail/mall. Speaks of West Belt Mall where the rink was. Yes, it is mentioned all the way to the bottom in year 2013 someone commented about that rink. PDF
Email - Christy.
NYT - At the Skating Rinks, Good Times Roll article mentioned the USA rink in Wayne, NJ as well as others.
Email - 26 July 2022.
Date of issue: 08 February 2022.
Update: 26 July 2022.
For office use only: 7.
Worth to visit:
None.
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.
This roller rink, United Skates of America (or known as USA) in Wayne, New Jersey was one of many franchise under United Skates of America, Inc. (Cleveland OH). This company owns many rinks but also many were closed as well. (Can you find them on Dead-Rinks? Many more will be added so do not worry!)
I do not have the dates of opening nor closing but the closing was around in Mid-1980s after a few controversy was occurring. They had a huge gang fight on the West Belt Mall parking lot by the rink that has to do with the rink. I read several rumors and different stories on Facebook on how the rink was closed. I need true hard facts.
Rumors such as gang fights that caused the loss of skaters going to that rink. Another said about the gangs were actually from another rink in Willowbrook, the main competitor to USA. The owner from Willowbrook rink as one commented saying that rink send the gang and bought out the USA as way to eliminate the competition. Businesses do buy out other businesses every day!
Well, one another said because of the gang fights and troubles at the mall due to the rink, the owner from Willowbrook made an offer that the owner of the USA rink at West Belt Mall cannot refuse. When that happened, the owner of the USA rink shut down on the very day and never reopened. It was sold on a Saturday and on Sunday, one of the employee who said on Facebook that Sunday, he received a call saying he and the rest of the employees are terminated and not to come in. He checked in there and it was closed for good. That one is most plausible answer I believe. It has to do with the quick sale.
It is believed it was opened in the 1970s. Tons of photographs from skaters themselves at the USA rink in very late 1970s and early 1980s. Feathered hair, buttoned down shirts for the guys, even mullets. From what I seen, they are the funniest group I have seen on any dead rinks' Facebook groups. In fact this woman, Christy who skated at this rink send me emails really a riot. So funny!
You have got to add USA rink in Wayne, NJ. It closed abruptly one day in 1986 or so, but it was iconic in the 1970s and 80s. I just discovered a FB page dedicated to the kids (now in our 40s, 50s and 60s) that escaped from our crappy Jersey lives every weekend there. (See Sources below).
There are even articles written about it.... (See Sources below).
The thread on the FB page now is in part, about the huge fight in the parking lot one night in 1980.
Christy, I attempted to find that thread on Facebook page about the huge fight. I even looked for articles and none was shown. I am aware this rink was part of West Belt Mall with two major department stores sandwiched between two department stores. Was this skating rink inside the mall or what? I found photographs of the mall maps. One was likely in 2000s but the other a proposal map for revamped to make it a plaza again. But they did change once again which is now a three department store C-shaped plaza with the parking lot now where the mall interior was.
Christy or anyone know exactly where by telling me where on that map shown above in the email and I will copy and paste and point out.
Monday nights were Family Nights; Wednesday nights were “Whacky Wednesdays” that skaters would get in free if they came with a roll of toilet paper). (Toliet paper!? For what!? I think a canned food would be best suited for donation). And Friday nights were Rock Nights. They even had Disco Nights with Disco music playing which was much better suited for the rink says someone.
My commentary about this problem the rink had in the 1980s. Roller Skating Rink Owners Association already merged with other skating associations and you see, RSROA was formed to end violence and they were successful at stopping violence but they folded for some reasons I do not know and slowly violence was coming back at rinks in 1980s on. Some rinks I worked on had a violence past that did hurt the rink. A couple of rink operators got arrested for child molestation, one with mishandling a gun, and yes, there were gangs at rinks. One in Virginia or Maryland did face a big time violence that brought so many police cars and that was the last skating at that rink because of the violence. The owners had enough.
Second of all, having a roller rink or any entertainment centers at a shopping mall are a magnet for attracting violence. A combination-- entertainment center such as a roller rink plus a mall equals to violence because of Mall Rats even gangs are at the mall.
This mall I live near has a lot of entertainment centers in the mall and still, they do have a lot of trouble hanging out there. I hear that every other month on my local news website. That is a bit troubling.
The Interior.
Beautiful Polyurethane coated Hardwood Maple Floor Layout: Straight Log Cabin, looks like Rectangular shaped rink. It had very Americana patriotic theme inside with Red-White-Blue colors of the United States of America. In fact, the walls have Red rails and matching height on the full wall but has White above the Red as Blue stripe wrapped around the place above that White Stripe above the Red and then White the rest all the way up to the ceiling. They had Red colored lockers.
Even patriotic colors at the Skate Rental area. I could not display any of the photos because those photos on the Facebook are focused on the teenagers of the 1970s-early 1980s (by the look of hairdos and clothing as I myself personally recalled. Hey, I was exactly their age at the time. I Graduated from high school in 1983).
The Exterior.
Basically it was part of a shopping mall, I do not have any photos of the interior where the rink was. I am referring to the photo of the shopping mall from that time. It is said to be next to where Dick's Sporting Goods was supposed to be.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Beautiful Polyurethane coated Hardwood Maple Floor Layout: Straight Log Cabin, looks like Rectangular shaped rink.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Renovations: N/A. Demolished: 2013 to make way for a "Towne Center/Lifestyle Center", aka plaza. Therefore, reduced the mall into a plaza. That included the former rink.
Type of Building: Free-Span Column Posts Steel Trusses Cinderblocks - Walled Shopping Mall.
Roof: Flat (shopping mall)
Acres: N/A.
Organ: Likely not.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: 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..
Operated: (Overall)-- N/A to likely early 1980s.
Reason for Closure: Several including gang fights outside of the rink. It was the owner of another rink--Willowbrook that send gangs, violence, problems to USA Rink and that drove the rink out of business and be sold to the very same owner of Willowbrook! I found out that Willowbrook was also the name of a mall too. That mall is near Westbelt Mall as well. The battle of the two malls at the time.
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 - USA Roller Rink Wayne NJ.
Mary Anne Mistresetta - Her experience at USA rink.
Labelscar - Their version of Dead-rinks. That site deals with Dead-retail/mall. Speaks of West Belt Mall where the rink was. Yes, it is mentioned all the way to the bottom in year 2013 someone commented about that rink. PDF
Email - Christy.
NYT - At the Skating Rinks, Good Times Roll article mentioned the USA rink in Wayne, NJ as well as others.
Email - 26 July 2022.
Date of issue: 08 February 2022.
Update: 26 July 2022.
For office use only: 7.
Worth to visit:
None.
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.