Halifax’s first covered ice-skating rink to be discussed at free public lecture

A lecture later this week will explore the history of a Halifax skating rink from the late 1800s.

Under the Halifax Public Gardens will detail archaeologist Jonathan Fowler's search for the Victorian-era ice surface located in what was Halifax's Horticultural Gardens.

Fowler told NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show the Horticultural Gardens were established around 1840 and were the southern half of what we now know as the Halifax Public Gardens.

“So where the gazebo is, that line of two great paths across from east to west, everything from there south to Spring Garden Rd. was the garden,” explained the Saint Mary's University associate professor.

“The land to the north … believe it or not was still part of the Common, and some of that area was just being used as kind of a city dump. You can imagine the joys of going to the gardens and just over the wall is steaming heaps of trash.”

With the help of old maps and records, Fowler was able to pinpoint the approximate location of where the skating rink once stood.

Thanks to a bursary, he and a team of students spent last summer and early fall using technology like ground penetrating radar and magnetic sensing equipment to look for its structural remains, and it appears they were successful.

“I've got to keep my powder dry a little bit for Thursday night but … we do have evidence, I believe fairly unambiguous evidence, of architecture down there,” he said.

Many have claimed the skating surface was the first covered rink in Canada, but Fowler said that may not be the case.

“I think Montreal might have scooped us on that … the date on this structure looks to be 1862, it was built toward the end of that year and opened officially in January of 1863,” he explained. “But it appears, and this might have been a climate advantage, that people were already skating in a covered rink in Montreal a few months earlier.”

At some point the building was renovated and plans indicate indoor washroom facilities were added. 

“That gets the archeologist excited because then you start thinking about plumbing and all sorts of infrastructure so we should have a fairly complex picture underground there, and that seems to be the case given what we've seen in the geophysics.”

Public restrooms were a rarity at that time when chamber pots were still the norm.

The facility also was equipped with lighting powered by gas, which allowed them to hold night skates.

It's said the building was the centre of social activity in Halifax, but Fowler said it wasn't public like the Emera Oval.

“It was a private club, the Halifax Skating Club operated it as I understand, so you had to buy a season ticket,” he said. “I've got the rules from the rink from 1863, which I'll be sharing with people on Thursday night, and they're pretty interesting.”

Thursday's free public lecture will be held at SMU's Burke Theatre A. Those interested are asked to arrive by 7 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. event.