IN THE QUIRKS


By Glen Mikkelsen, CFE


Photo provided by Glen Mikkelsen, CFE


Imagine your ice arena as the social centerpiece of your communi- ty, but where the social interactions occur on the ice and not in the     society, and imaginations intermingled to create remarkable skating masquerades.   Club Rink, opening in Quebec City, in 1852. It featured natural ice and was the inaugural rink to be built in North America during the Victorian era. Ten years later, the Victoria Skating Rink opened in Montreal, be- coming the model for future ice rinks. A two-story brick building, it featured a natural-ice surface of 200 x 85 feet, ultimately becoming the standard rink dimensions for the National Hockey League still      a place to sit and socialize for skaters and spectators alike. Windows illuminated the building for daytime skating, and hundreds of gas and then electric lights provided evening illumination. Music was an integral feature of mid-19th century indoor skating rinks. The skating rink in Quincy, Illinois, built around 1868, included


34 Facility Manager Magazine


   the Chicago Skating Rink of 1860 had a bandstand built directly on the ice. Around the indoor rinks’ perimeters were large open areas designed


    the Quincy rink’s promenade was seven-feet wide, with two rows of seats that could accommodate almost 600 people. It was within these rinks, on the ice, where winter’s most celebrated


social events took place. The most beloved of these were the fancy costume skating balls, or skating masquerades. Throughout the era, a common escape for Victorians from all lev-


          dressed up for theatricals, parlor games, and balls. Newspapers and their society columns commonly reported on both the people and their costumes at elaborate fancy dress balls. Costumes allowed men, but particularly women, an opportunity of


 -    when a woman has a better opportunity of showing her charms to 


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