Dartmouth Rink

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From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

This was Dartmouth’s first rink built entirely of spruce at a cost of $3,800. Its dimensions were 190 feet by 65, with an ice oval of 175 feet by 50 feet. It was the home rink of the famous Chebucto Amateur Athletic Club, Maritime hockey champions from 1887 to 1894.

Electric lights flooded the entrance on the grand opening of September 29, 1884, when 2,000 people crowded the building for an evening musical concert. Over the original tower fluttered colored flags and streams of bunting.

The new lighthouse section was inserted in 1903. In 1907 the light was removed to is present position on Synott’s Hill.

This local leaning Tower of Pisa was all that remained of wooden Dartmouth rink after the 1917 explosion. Standing as it did on the hilltop, without any sheltering houses on the east side of Windmill Road, the old rink was directly in the path of the terrific concussion that swept down from the Narrows. In pre-movie winters, the rink was a nightly mecca.

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