I heard about a new roller skating rink opening in Coney Island. Is this true and was there ever one here before? – Gretchen Godmundsdotir

Roller skating has always been popular in Coney Island, dating back to the Sea Beach Palace Roller Rink of the 1890s. The Palace, located on Surf Avenue at West 8th Street, was transformed from a railroad terminal into a rink that hosted roller dancing and roller racing events (see engraving). There were also rinks at Dreamland, Luna Park, and Steeplechase. There are photos of Babe Ruth, dressed like a farmer, whirling around the Steeplechase Pavilion on roller skates.

Culver Terminal
Click to enlarge

The Coney Island Roller Rink (see decal and picture) operated in the old Culver Terminal building on the north side of Surf Avenue at West 5th Street during the 1930s-1940s. The Culver terminal was demolished around 1960 to make way for Brightwater Towers.

The Coney Island History Project is working on a skating documentary with Dianna Carlin of Lola Staar, who will be opening a roller rink in the boardwalk Childs building this month. We’ll also have a display at our exhibit center under the Cyclone.

Sea Beach Palace
Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Development, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.