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~ ~ Second arena
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The second rink was built
in 1921. It was located on Kate Street, between Howard and Polson Street. This building
was originally used as an agricultural hall. In the summer it was used for an agricultural
exhibition and then turned into a rink in the winter. The Arena was built by volunteers;
most of the money was donated by the townspeople, but some was put in from the City.
The lumber for the rink was bought from the local mill yard, the Grindrod Sawmill, and
from various sawmills all over the Okanagan. They all made concessions in the prices. The
building was built under the foremanship of Mr. Grant.
The rink was started on November 12, 1921, and it was completed just before the new year.
The opening of the arena was celebrated on December 29,1921, and the first carnival was on
January 26, 1922.
There were season tickets for skating. They were two dollars for children ages fourteen
and under, three dollars for ladies, and four dollars for men. Family passes were also
available: eight dollars for a family under five people and one dollar for each additional
child.
George Green remembers when they had to make ice for the arena in the 1930's:
"The old Enderby Rink? Yeah, many a night I went down there. We'd spend the whole
darn night there on a volunteer basis with flooding the darn thing. You'd build up a layer
of ice and you'd throw a skating carnival or party or some thing and sure enough you'd
have a thaw without fail. An inch of water on the ice. And still run your darn carnival.
Used to go down there at night, a whole bunch of us kids, myself, Ian Patten, and Ted
Jones. We'd fire up the old barrel heater in the dressing room to keep them from freezing
and then we would go out and flood the thing, all night long. Then we would wait for it to
freeze, put on another flood, wait for it to freeze then go out there and put another one
on, then lose it all three days later."
In 1967, the Arena was rebuilt because the city of Enderby wanted a larger skating rink
and a bigger curling rink. So when the volunteers rebuilt the arena they built over the
old Arena, which later became the curling rink. In the year 1974, the Arena got artificial
ice.
Richard Purnell, Debi Case, Rob Sault
ALF School 1989