It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Although it wasn’t Huntsville’s first skating rink, this arena was the first to be built at the current location of the municipality’s twin rinks at the Canada Summit Centre, adjacent to the Muskoka River.
It was preceded by a skating rink at the current site of the King William Plaza between Hanes Street and Fairy Avenue. By 1925, hockey teams were refusing to play in Huntsville because players kept hitting their heads on the rink’s structural braces.
At about the same time, Memorial Park, which included today’s Camp Kitchen, was being developed. The North Muskoka Agricultural Society decided to shift the agricultural park, which had been on the north side of the river, to Memorial Park on the south side of the river. The $2,500 raised by the sale of their property went toward a combination agricultural hall and skating rink. The arena, pictured here ca. 1944, cost $15,000 to build and opened on December 17, 1930.
But within a couple of decades, the success of Huntsville’s sports teams had pushed the new arena to its limits. It needed more seating capacity to cope with the crowds and, in April 1953, town council planned an expansion. They later decided to tear down the old arena and build a combination area and community hall. The Huntsville Memorial Community Centre opened in February 1955. It had room for 1,400 spectators—1,100 seats plus room for 300 to stand—and cost $124,000 to build.
It was renovated and a second, Olympic-sized ice pad was added prior to the G8 Summit, which was planned for 2010 in Huntsville but eventually moved to Toronto when it became a G20 Summit instead.
Photo: CN Images of Canada Collection; details courtesy of Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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There is no mention of the name jack bionda arena. I feel this is wrong. He was a name in sports here
Isn’t that the old arena that my mom told me was sold to sundridge or south river? I don’t remember the reason she said it was sold.
In 1986 we renovated the facility and added the swimming pool. The cost was about 3 million dollars.
A lot of history in that photo. In grade school, every fall fair, we would march from the Huntsville Public School, along Brunel Rd., then turn down the section of Park Drive in the center of the photo. Past the building on the left of the road where Mr. Mathews made doors and windows and Mrs. Mathews baked cakes and cookies.
We marched across the little bridge that spanned Cann Creek and up the hill to the arena. Then we would stand and fidget while somebody made a few announcement. Then we were set loose and it was let’s see how much a dime can buy!
Inside that old tin shed were animals and vegetables and baking and everything that people could raise and grow and cook. All in the same building! What health department?
It was on that ice sheet, when the arena opened, that my Great-grandfather, Ace Markle, won a turkey. My Dad said the prize was offered to the oldest man on the ice. With borrowed skates and a “By the great Caesars. Here’s to the other end” he was off. Down and back and the winner of a bird for Christmas dinner. He had celebrated his 80th birthday the previous April 15.