This 2½-storey wood frame and wood plank siding, Victorian Romanesque Revival-style building was at the southeast corner of York Avenue and Garry Street in Winnipeg. Measuring 80 feet by 200 feet, it was designed by architect Walter Chesterton and built between 1898 and 1899 by contractor Sinclair Balsor Ritchie at a cost of about $20,000, for the Auditorium Rink Company Limited, managed by Frederick William Heubach. It was used as an ice skating rink and was financed by prominent businessmen Edward Lancaster Drewry, Frederick William Stobart, James Henry Ashdown, and Augustus Meredith Nanton.
Built with an initial seating capacity of about 2,000 people, the building was used primarily in the winter months for ice hockey, and primarily in the summer months as a theatre hosting horse shows and professional boxing matches. The facility also contained a coat check room, a ladies' room, five dressing rooms, and in the basement under the ice were four bowling lanes. Later renovated and expanded to hold over 3,500 people, in 1912 additional extensive alterations were designed by architect David William Fair Nichols and completed at a cost of about $5,000. It included expanding the seating capacity to 4,100 people, new entrances and exits, new change rooms, a new clubroom, a spacious new press room, the provision for a new bandstand, new washrooms, a new penalty box, and lowering of the ice surface by a foot.
The Auditorium Rink was used by the Manitoba Hockey Association as the home rink of the Winnipeg Victorias, Winnipeg Hockey Club, and Winnipeg Rowing Club. In 1902, it was used for the Stanley Cup challenge series between the Winnipeg Victorias and the Toronto Wellingtons and again in 1907 between the Kenora Thistles and the Montreal Wanderers.
In 1918, the building was acquired by William James “Billy” Holmes who, in 1922, installed artificial ice making it the first Western Canadian rink to be so equipped, the second being in British Columbia. It was destroyed by fire on 14 March 1926 and the site is now occupied by a multi-storey office tower.
Auditorium Rink (circa 1900)
Source: Art Work: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Part 9 by William H. CarreSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.88973, W97.13799
denoted by symbol in the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Walter Chesterton (1845-1931)
Memorable Manitobans: Sinclair Balsor Ritchie (1855-1933)
Memorable Manitobans: Frederick William Heubach (1859-1914)
Memorable Manitobans: Edward Lancaster Drewry (1851-1940)
Memorable Manitobans: Frederick William Stobart (1859-1935)
Memorable Manitobans: James Henry Ashdown (1844-1924)
Memorable Manitobans: Augustus Meredith Nanton (1860-1925)
Memorable Manitobans: David William Fair Nichols (1881-1951)
Memorable Manitobans: William James “Billy” Holmes (1871-1951)
Manitoba Organization: Victoria Hockey Club
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Winnipeg Auditorium / Archives of Manitoba / Manitoba Legislative Library (200 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg)
The Canadian Contract Record, “Winnipeg, Man.” Volume 9, 9 November 1898, page 3.
The Canadian Contract Record, “Contracts Awarded” Volume 9, 16 November 1898, page 3.
“Auditorium Rink - For Sale” Manitoba Free Press, 27 April 1902, page 2.
Winnipeg fire insurance map, #2, August 1906, Library and Archives Canada.
Winnipeg fire insurance map, #2, December 1910 - revised May 1914, Library and Archives Canada.
“Work to Start on Auditorium Rink” Manitoba Free Press, 12 October 1912, page 25.
“Building Permits.” Manitoba Free Press, 15 October 1912, page 19.
“Winnipeg Hockey League Stands by Auditorium” Manitoba Free Press, 21 November 1912, page 5.
Winnipeg fire insurance map, #123 February 1918, City of Winnipeg Archives.
“Auditorium Rink Rased by Fire Sunday Morning” Manitoba Free Press, 15 March 1926, page 1.
“Auditorium, Historic Hockey Rink, Burns” Winnipeg Tribune, 15 March 1926, page 13.
Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Henderson Directories Limited, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.
Property Details [242-244 York Avenue / 125 Garry Street], Winnipeg Assessment and Taxation.
This page was prepared by Jordan Makichuk and Darryl Resch.
Page revised: 15 August 2026
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