The Ottawa Auditorium was a 7,500-seat arena located in Ottawa, Ontario. It was located in Downtown Ottawa at the corner of O'Connor and Argyle Streets, today the site of the Taggart Family YMCA. Built primarily for ice hockey, the arena was also used for sports events, assemblies and musical concerts.
It was built in 1923 with a 10,000-person capacity (seated and standing) to be the home arena of the NHL's Ottawa Senators by the Ottawa Auditorium Limited, a consortium controlled by T. Franklin Ahearn and Senators' owners Edgar Dey and Tommy Gorman. It replaced The Arena, built in 1907. The first NHL game held there was played on December 26, 1923, between Ottawa and the Montreal Canadiens, before 8300 fans, in which Howie Morenz scored his first NHL goal.[3]
The building was state-of-the-art for its time. For performances and assemblies, the arena had a concert stage that would be assembled at one end of the rink, facing the length of the rink. The shape of the ice was not quite orthogonal, it is described as being somewhat 'egg-shaped' with semi-circular end boards, rather than the straight end boards with rounded corners of today's ice rinks.[4] This design matched the shape of the rink at The Arena.
At the time of construction, the consortium took over the ownership of the hockey club as well. In 1924, Dey sold his share of the consortium and exited the rink business ending the Dey family's ownership of ice rinks in Ottawa dating back to the 1870s. In 1925, Gorman exited hockey in Ottawa, moving to New York to manage the New York Americans. Gorman sold his share to Ahearn, picking up ownership of the Connaught race track in Aylmer, Quebec. By 1930, the Auditorium was losing money as the Ottawa Senators losses increased. The Auditorium Limited debts to the Ahearn family would lead to the Senators NHL team suspending operations, then starting up again when capital was raised in 1932. By 1934, the Senators NHL franchise was moved to St. Louis, Missouri, becoming the St. Louis Eagles. The Senators were continued as a senior amateur hockey team playing out of the Auditorium. The move to St. Louis was not a success. The franchise was still a drain on the Auditorium and was folded by the NHL in 1935. In 1936, the Auditorium went into receivership and was controlled by the Royal Securities Corporation until 1945, when Gorman returned and purchased the building and the Senators. Gorman would remain an owner until he died in 1962.
The arena was demolished in 1967 and replaced at that location by the YMCA-YWCA building (180 Argyle Avenue). Its replacement, the Ottawa Civic Centre (arena) opened in 1967. It is located on Bank Street in The Glebe in Lansdowne Park.
Sports use
Auditorium in 1953. Senators game and Minto Follies upcoming events
Ice hockey
It was the home arena of the original NHL Senators from 1923 to 1934. In 1923, the Senators were the defending Stanley Cup champions and they opened the Auditorium on December 1, 1923, with an exhibition game against the Edmonton Eskimos, the team Ottawa had defeated to win the Stanley Cup. The game was attended by the Governor General Lord Byng and Lady Byng.
The Senators won the 1927 Stanley Cup in the Auditorium, the decisive game on April 13, 1927, against the Boston Bruins. The April 13 game at the Auditorium was the last Stanley Cup finals game in Ottawa until the June 2, 2007, game played at Scotiabank Place between the modern Senators and the Anaheim Ducks. It is known that one fan, Russell Williams, attended both games, both won by Ottawa.[5] It also held the final game of the 1924 Stanley Cup Finals between Montreal and Calgary because of its then state-of-the-art artificial ice, and the Montreal Forum had not yet been built.
Ice hockey players in the Cradle League, ages eight to seventeen, at the Ottawa Auditorium in 1964
After 1934, the NHL franchise relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, and the Ottawa Senators became a senior amateur team, first playing in the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association's 'Montreal Group.' The club won the Allan Cup Canadian amateur championship in 1949. From 1945 until 1954 the team played in the Quebec Senior Hockey League, becoming a professional team again in 1952. After the Senators folded in 1954, attributed to the rise of televised ice hockey matches, the professional Hull-Ottawa Canadiens played in the Auditorium.
The last hockey game ever played at the Auditorium was a Junior "B" playoff game in which the Hawkesbury Combines defeated the Ottawa Astros 6–5 in overtime to take a 2–1 lead in games. The ice came out the very next day on April 3, 1967.[6]
Ottawa radio station CFRA's first broadcast was from the auditorium on May 3, 1947, with a concert by Percy Faith and his 40 piece Orchestra, and a 60-voice choir to an audience of more than 10,000 people. Ottawa Mayor J. E. Stanley Lewis proclaimed the station "officially on the air".[10]
On April 3, 1957 Elvis Presley performed two shows. Along with a pair of performances in Toronto the previous day, this marked the first time he performed outside the U.S. More than 200 members of Parliament failed to turn up for an evening session in the House of Commons that day: most went to see Elvis instead.[11]
On April 24, 1965, The Rolling Stones performed one show at the Auditorium, by then owned by the YM-YWCA, attended by "3,400 screaming teenagers."[12][13][14] The band did not perform again in Ottawa until 40 years later on August 28, 2005, at Frank Clair Stadium.[15]
The Auditorium was also the site of dance performances. On April 23, 1924, actress Louise Brooks appeared as one of the dancers of the Denishawn Dance Company at the Auditorium.[16]
The Auditorium was also the site of political conventions and election campaign rallies.[7]
The Auditorium contained a shop run by Hermes A. Proulx who hand-made hockey sticks to order. The sticks would be used by NHL players, and one exists from the 1934 All-Star Game.[17] Proulx, who had first made sticks in 1912 for the Hurd Company sports shop, went into business for himself in 1920. In 1925–26, he worked with the expansion New York Americans, before setting up his shop in the Auditorium in 1926. He hand-made sticks and sharpened skates at the shop until he retired in 1944. While he primarily worked for the Senators; the Bruins, Maple Leafs and Red Wings all used his sticks.[18]
Closing
The Auditorium held its final event on October 1, 1967; a concert by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.[19] The building was demolished and a YMCA complex took over the location. The Ottawa Civic Centre opened in December 1967.
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TD Place Arena, originally the Ottawa Civic Centre, is an indoor arena located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Opened in December 1967, it is used primarily for sports, including curling, figure skating, ice hockey, and lacrosse. The arena has hosted Canadian and world championships in figure skating, curling, and ice hockey, including the first women's world ice hockey championship in 1990. It is also used for concerts and conventions such as Ottawa SuperEX.
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Thomas Patrick Gorman, known as "T.P." or "Tommy", was a Canadian ice hockey executive, sports entrepreneur and athlete. Gorman was a founder of the National Hockey League (NHL), won the Stanley Cup seven times as a general manager with four teams, and an Olympic gold medal-winning lacrosse player for Canada.
The Montreal Arena, also known as Westmount Arena, was an indoor arena located in Westmount, Quebec, Canada on the corner of St. Catherine Street and Wood Avenue. It was likely one of the first arenas designed expressly for hockey, opening in 1898. It was the primary site of amateur and professional ice hockey in Montreal until 1918.
The Ottawa Senators were an ice hockey team based in Ottawa, which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. The club, which was officially the Ottawa Hockey Club, was known by several nicknames, including the Generals in the 1890s, the Silver Seven from 1903 to 1907 and the Senators dating from 1908.
Dey's Arena, also known as Dey Brothers Rink, Dey's Skating Rink and The Arena, were a series of ice rinks and arenas located in Ottawa, Ontario, that hold importance in the early development of the organized sport of ice hockey in Canada. It was the home arena of the Ottawa Hockey Club, variously known as the Generals, the Silver Seven and the Senators from the 1890s until 1923, although it is known that games were also played at the Rideau Skating Rink in the 1890s and the Aberdeen Pavilion in 1904. The rink and arenas were built by two generations of the Dey family, who were prominent in Ottawa at the time, with a thriving boat works business serving the lumber business. The Dey family also played hockey.
The 1920 Stanley Cup Finals was contested by the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Ottawa Senators and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Seattle Metropolitans. The Senators won the series by three games to two in the best-of-five game series. Although all of the games for the series were scheduled to be played at The Arena in Ottawa, unseasonably warm weather and poor ice conditions forced the last two contests to be played on the artificial ice at Toronto's Arena Gardens.
Thomas Franklin "Frank" Ahearn was a Canadian businessman and politician. Ahearn is best known as an owner of the original Ottawa Senators National Hockey League (NHL) hockey club and a Canadian Member of Parliament.
Edwin Peter Dey was a boat-builder, ice arena owner, and hockey team owner. He was an owner of the Ottawa Senators men's ice hockey club from 1917 until 1923. He and his brothers Frank Edgar Dey and William Ernest Dey built the various Dey's Arenas where the Senators played until 1922–23.
The 1923–24 Ottawa Senators season was the club's 39th season of play and seventh season in the NHL. Coming off a Stanley Cup Championship in 1923, they had won three cups in the previous four seasons. The Senators moved into the brand new Ottawa Auditorium prior to the season. The club had an outstanding regular season, but lost in the NHL playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens.
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The Ottawa Senators, also known as the Ottawa Commandos and Senior Senators, was an amateur, later semi-professional, senior-level men's ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In 1934, the Ottawa Auditorium, owners of the Ottawa Hockey Association decided it could no longer operate the Senators of the National Hockey League in Ottawa due to mounting financial losses. The Association split its hockey operations, relocating the NHL franchise to St. Louis, and continuing the Senators as an amateur club. The club operated from 1934 until 1955, winning the Allan Cup Canadian men's senior ice hockey championship in 1943 and 1949. During the war years from 1942 until 1944, it operated as the Ottawa Commandos.
In Ottawa, Canada, ice hockey clubs date back to the first decade of recorded organized ice hockey play. The men's senior-level Ottawa Hockey Club is known to have played in a Canadian championship in 1884. Today, Ottawa hockey clubs are represented in all age brackets, in both men's and women's, in amateur and professional.
The Arena, also known as Dey's Arena was an arena for ice hockey located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was the home of the Ottawa Hockey Club from 1908 to 1923. It was the third in a series of ice hockey venues built by the Dey family of Ottawa. At the time of its building, it was Canada's largest arena.
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