The Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink is a

roller rink A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of hardwood or concrete, used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located in ...

Oaks Amusement Park Oaks Park is a small amusement park located south of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in May 1905, it is one of the oldest continually operating amusement parks in the country. The park includes midway games, about two dozen r ...

, in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

's Sellwood neighborhood, in the United States.

History

The rink opened in 1905, and represents the long and rich story of a roller skating rink that survived the civil strife of the 1950-60s, development overtures and the musical whims of generations to become a rink gifted for perpetuity. Today, the Oaks Skating Rink remains America's largest and oldest under the umbrella of the Oaks Park Association, a nonprofit organization that manages both the rink and park attractions. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, admission prices were reduced so families could better afford skating. Additionally the park owner, Edward Bollinger, started the Junior Roller Skating Club which skated on Sunday afternoons. This led to the largest number of active roller skaters ever at Oaks Park Skating Rink. Built in a flood plain, in 1948, water damage from the same flood that destroyed Vanport required five months to repair. During rebuilding, engineers installed iron barrels under the rink floor so it could float above flooding waters in the future. The rink flooded again in the

Christmas flood of 1964 The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood in the United States' Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California between December 18, 1964, and January 7, 1965, spanning the Christmas holiday. Considered a 100-year flood, it was the wo ...

but it suffered some damage because workers could not immediately access the rink due to of flooding waters in the park. A day later and after four hours of effort, they severed the floor supports to allow it to float. Dale and Jeanne Pritchard were longtime instructors at the rink. The rink has served as a location for several films and TV shows including ''

Grimm Grimm may refer to: People * Grimm (surname) * Brothers Grimm, German linguists ** Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist ** Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm * Christia ...

'', ''

Portlandia ''Portlandia'' is an American sketch comedy television series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, set in and around Portland, Oregon, and spoofing the city's reputation as a haven for eccentric hipsters. The show was produced by Broa ...

'', '' Leverage'', '' Breaking In'' and ''

Untraceable ''Untraceable'' is a 2008 American psychological thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, and Joseph Cross. It was distributed by Screen Gems. The film was released in the United States on Jan ...

''. In addition, the rink also appeared in ''

Free Willy ''Free Willy'' is a 1993 American Adventure film, adventure Drama (film and television), drama film, directed by Simon Wincer, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jennie Lew Tugend, written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman from a story by ...

'' as the exterior to the tank where Willy was held captive. In 2017,

Damian Lillard Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Dame Time", he played college basketball for the Weber State Wi ...

and

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

released a version of his "Dame 4" shoe, called "Glow in the Park", which was inspired by the rink. Today, the Oaks Rink carries the tagline "Skaters Paradise" to accompany its 100 x 200 square foot (20,000 sq ft skating surface) Michigan maple floor and the last live Wurlitzer pipe organ to operate in a U.S. roller rink.

Organ

From 1905 until an organ was installed, a live orchestra played from the balcony above the skating rink. In 1922, a William Woods (a local builder)

theatre organ A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements of ...

was installed. It began as a 2/5: two manuals and five ranks (rows of 61 pipes of similar timbre, each one a different size and pitch) and eventually became a 4/18. It was moved to a military base's roller rink in 1955; as of 2003 it was in a private home in Newport, Oregon. Some parts may have been retained at Oaks Park. The current

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

was originally installed in 1926 at Portland's Broadway Theater, but had fallen into disuse since the early 1930s with the popularity of

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

s. It was relocated to Oaks Park skating rink in 1955. The organ is described by

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary public broadcasting, public media organization for the U.S. state of Oregon as well as southern Washington (state), Washington. It provides news, information, and programming via television stati ...

's April Bauer as "an impossible-looking hulk the size of a semi truck, hanging about twenty feet above the rink floor". Keith Fortune has served as the rink's organist and "unofficial curator". The rink is the world's only location where visitors can skate to music provided by a live pipe organ, as of 2009.

The Hangar

The roller rink has an annex, separate from the main rink, in a detached building roughly 200 feet east (and behind) the public rink. The oval flat track is used by the

Rose City Rollers The Rose City Rollers is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Portland, Oregon, operating as a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization, and is a founding member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). Est ...

(women's roller derby) for practice and some tournaments.

Gallery

File:Oaks Amusement Park - Roller Rink (6278719115).jpg File:Gay Skate at Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink, Portland, Oregon (2022).jpg, The Gay Skate event at Oaks Park, 2022 File:Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink (2019) - 2.jpg, Empty rink, 2019 File:Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink, 2018 - 1.jpg, alt= File:Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink, 2018 - 2.jpg, alt= File:Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink, 2018 - 3.jpg, alt=

References

External links

* * * {{Sellwood-Moreland, Portland, Oregon 1905 establishments in Oregon Buildings and structures completed in 1905 Buildings and structures in Portland, Oregon Roller skating rinks Oaks Amusement Park