It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
By the early 1950s, Huntsville’s arena had been pushed to its limits, and needed more seating to deal with the crowds who came to cheer on local sports teams.
In 1953, council planned an expansion which included a community hall, but soon decided to tear down the old arena, which had been built in 1930, and start fresh. The new arena had seating for 1,100 people and standing-room capacity for 300 more. It cost $124,000 to build and opened in February 1955.
It was expanded into the current Canada Summit Centre and Active Living Centre prior to the 2010 G8 Summit, which had been planned for Huntsville, at a cost of about $20 million. It included the addition of a second, Olympic-sized rink.
(Photo courtesy of Muskoka Heritage Place, details from Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve by Susan Pryke)
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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It seemed all wrong that the only comment on that arena, mentioned its demise and not it having been. So might I elaborate.
That building sort of coincided with a perfect storm for sport in Huntsville. Look back to the names and photos of hockey and lacrosse teams that blossomed in the early 50’s. We, as players laboured under the eye of many good coaches and I can’t imagine how many balls bounced off those concrete block wall as players waited for their time on the floor.
We had some great hockey and lacrosse teams and it wasn’t just for playoff games that it became tough to be a spectator in there. Better to be a player on the floor or on the bench. The arena would pack, the din ebb and flow; the smoke thick enough to write on. I played lacrosse, and on some evenings, sweat made your equipment heavy and uncomfortable, but you ran hard regardless.
And it was all worth it when you could spot Ken Thompson breaking down the floor, stick up waiting for the pass and screaming “Ya want an assist?” Throw it perfect and you made the score sheet. Get it too high, strike a light and the game was delayed until they could get them back on again. It happened.
There was the certainty of a ride on the firetruck for champions and I don’t remember one player ever flinging him or herself under the tires to collect insurance.
We players often refereed and coached; myself I liked the referee part; watching ten little stars you could throw a blanket over, all chopping at the ball ’til it rolled away and then, once they noticed, they trailed it like a posse.
After a game, shower up and head to ‘Tastee Cream’; circle the lot, run up main street and back ’til you found a parking spot and got your order in, all the while enveloped in the rumble of souped-up older iron and the emerging new muscle cars.
I have watched my sons and grandsons skate and run on the same floor that I did. Have cheered when they were successful and consoled them when all did not turn out as we had wished.
I spent a lot of hours in that old building and if I was to try and score background music for the memories, could I do any better than Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days’.
Here’s to that old building, and to us, athlete, volunteer and spectator alike.
We parked many times in front of that building with our kids playing hockey, Lacrosse and ringette. The kids won many championships both in hockey and lacrosse in the 70’s and early 80’s.. This is where the great fight to have girls play hockey with Gail Cummings challenging the OHL began.. Great memories of the old building. I think if Don McCormick were here he would tell you that the station wagon parked there was his.
The structure that is shown in the picture was removed in the mid 1980s and replaced with substantially what is present today in that space. The pool was added then as well. The actual arena was retained at that time. That project was about 3.5 million.
The work for the G8 in 2009 included a new exterior on that part of the building to tie in with the major addition that was done then.
Great to see the old pictures each Wednesday!!