"The Rink" | |
 1901 pleasure skating | |
  St. Nicholas Rink Location within New York City | |
| Address | 69 West 66th Street |
|---|---|
| Location | Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°46′23.68″N 73°58′49.32″W / 40.7732444°N 73.9803667°W |
| Type |
|
| Surface | Artificial ice |
| Opened | November 7, 1896 |
| Closed | May 28, 1962 |
The St. Nicholas Rink, also called the St. Nicholas Arena, was an indoor ice rink, and later a boxing arena in New York City from 1896 until 1962. The rink was one of the earliest indoor ice rinks made of mechanically frozen ice in North America (others included the North Avenue Ice Palace in Baltimore and the Ice Palace in New York, both opened in 1894), enabling a longer season for skating sports.[1] It was demolished in the 1980s.
As a rink, it was used for pleasure skating, and the sports of ice hockey and skating. It was an important rink in the development of both sports in the United States. As a boxing arena, it was one of the first legal venues for boxing and remained a busy venue until its closing, although as the popularity of boxing grew, the sport outgrew the capacity of the arena to hold title fights. The arena hosted live boxing on television.
- ^ Kirsch, George B.; Harris, Othello; Nolte, Claire Elaine (2000). Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 215. ISBN 0-313-29911-0.