The Rideau Skating Rink was an indoor skating and

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

facility located in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. Consisting of a curling rink and a skating rink, it was one of the first indoor rinks in Canada. The Rideau Rink was scheduled to open on January 10, 1889, but unseasonably mild weather postponed the grand opening to February 1. It opened on January 25, 1889 for select V.I.P.s although this was a misunderstanding and should not have denied entry to season ticket holders. It was located on Theodore Street, (now Laurier Avenue) at Waller Street, at the present location of the Arts Hall of the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

, near the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

. Besides curling and recreational skating, the rink was also used for

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

and

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...

. It was the site of the first recorded organized women's

game on March 8, 1889. It was also the site of the first Ontario men's ice hockey championship game on March 7, 1891.

History

Skating was popular in the 1880s in Ottawa. Ottawans would skate on the Rideau and Ottawa rivers and the Rideau Canal, and at covered rinks such as the Royal and Dey's Rink. As in Montreal, costume skating carnivals were highlights of the social scene. By 1887, the Royal Rink had been converted into a roller rink and the demand for ice time on the Dey's Rink was greater than the rink could supply. Due to the lack of ice time available, the

Ottawa Hockey Club Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

became dormant. Local investors, together with the Capital Skating Club decided to build a new rink, finer than Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. The new rink was also to be used for curling, so the enterprise became known as the Rideau Skating and Curling Club. The project was sponsored by Lord Stanley, the Governor-General, who took shares in the project. The rink had separate skating and curling surfaces, and was laid out in an 'L' plan, with one entrance on Theodore and one on Waller. The entrance on Theodore had a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fr ...

. The roof was supported by high arches. The construction was not without incident and the incomplete building collapsed in a windstorm on November 16, 1888, but the building was ready for skating in January 1889. Lord Stanley participated in its formal opening festivities on February 1, 1889. The Rideau Rink hosted a small version of a Winter Carnival on its opening night which was a huge success. The 43rd band under the direction of James Carter, band master, gave an excellent programme. Organized ice hockey activities began with a game on February 14, 1889, played between members of the Ottawa and Rideau social clubs. James Creighton captained the Rideau team and P. D. Ross captained the Ottawa team. The next day Ross and Creighton would officiate at a match between civilian and military teams. In 1894, the rink was "improved and repaired" in time for an exhibition game on December 27, 1894 between the Montreal Hockey Club and the

, won by Ottawa 5–1. Starting in 1904, the rink was used by the Minto Skating Club. Several Canadian figure skating championships were held there by the Minto Club, although the first official Canadian championship took place in 1914 in Montreal. In 1907, a fire occurred at the rink, causing the cancellation of a planned Canadian figure skating championship. In 1916, the rink was taken over by the federal government for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

purposes. The curling club moved to Victoria Street, on the approximate location of today's Supreme Court of Canada building. In 1922, a new Rideau rink was built nearby on Waller Street, to the east of today's 'Rideau Centre' shopping centre. The new rink was eventually taken over by the Minto club exclusively and renamed the Minto Rink. The Minto Rink was destroyed by fire in 1949. The club would build a new rink on Henderson Avenue. The original Rideau Rink was demolished to build the Fine Arts Building of the

. The Rideau Curling Club eventually moved to a facility on Cooper Street, where it continues today and celebrated its 125th anniversary in November 2013.

Ice hockey

First recorded women's games

Played on March 8, 1889, ''Ottawa Evening Journal'' reported that the lineups were: * Government House—Miss Lister (captain), Mrs. Bagot, Hon. Isobel Stanley and Miss Kingsford * Rideau Skating club—Mrs. Jones (captain), Mrs. Crombie and the two Miss Scotts The ''Government House'' team won. The score was not reported. A seven-a-side game was recorded in the ''Ottawa Citizen'' on February 11, 1891 at the rink:

A ladies' hockey match was played at the Rideau Rink yesterday between teams as follows:
No. 1: Miss M. Mackintosh, captain; Miss L. Wise, Miss Munro, Miss A. Ritchie, Miss Cambie, Miss Jones, Miss White.
No. 2: Miss H. Wise, captain; Miss A. Mackintosh, Miss M. Ritchie, Miss McClymont, Miss Burrows and the Misses Gordon.
Number two team won by two goals to 0.McFarlane, pg. 18

First Ontario championship

The first championship game of the new

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

was held on March 7, 1891 between the

and Toronto St. George's. Ottawa won the game 5–0. The game was attended by 1,000 fans. The teams would play an exhibition two weeks later in Toronto, which Ottawa won 4–0 at the

Mutual Street Rink The Mutual Street Rink also known as the ''Caledonian Rink'' was a curling and skating rink located on Mutual Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the primary site of the sport of ice hockey in Toronto from the 1880s until 1912 when it was ...

. Ottawa would play the same day against Osgoode Hall at the Toronto Victoria Rink, winning 6–2.

Other hockey

The rink is known to have been used in

Amateur Hockey Association of Canada The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) was an amateur men's ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the second ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston, Ontario started in 1883. ...

men's play by the Ottawa Hockey Club from 1889 until 1895. The club also returned to it for one season in 1898. The

Ottawa City Hockey League The Ottawa City Hockey League (OCHL) was an amateur ice hockey league with junior, intermediate and senior level men's teams in Ottawa, Canada. Founded in 1890 by the local Ottawa Hockey Association (Ottawa HA), the OCHL was created to organize p ...

held matches at the rink. The

Ottawa College The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

also used the rink.

Notes

References

* * * * {{Ottawa landmarks Defunct indoor ice hockey venues in Canada Sports venues in Ottawa Demolished buildings and structures in Ottawa Ottawa Senators (original) arenas