Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Art of Rollerskating #19: Sholes Riverview - Dorchester, Massachusetts

Sholes Riverview - Dorchester, Massachusetts by What Makes The Pie Shops Tick?


Sholes Riverview Roller Rink was located at Gallivan Boulevard and Neponset Circle in Dorchester (Boston), Massachusetts.

Here's a little history from the Dorchester Atheneum:

On April 30, 1932, the Winter Garden organization opened the Winter Garden Rollerway at 725 Gallivan Boulevard, located approximately where the Expressway off-ramp is now located between Staples and the gas station at Hallet Street? maybe set as far back as the Expressway itself. Every summer beginning in June,1933, the roller skating activity moved to Nantasket to allow the use of the facility in Dorchester as the Riverview Ballroom where many traveling name bands performed, including Rudy Vallee, Fred Waring, Isham Jones, Cab Calloway, Larry Clinton, Gene Krupa, Fats Waller, Ina Ray Hutton, Tommy Dorsey and many others. Note, however, that "jitter-bugging" was never permitted at Riverview, while the Old Time Dance Tempo of Ed Andrews caught on and became popular with dancers of all ages.

The Winter Garden Rollerway celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1942 with the publication of a booklet with photographs of many of the personnel of the organization as well as many of the skaters. The Winter Garden Tattler was published here until 1936 when its name changed to Roller Skater's World Tattler. By 1942 this weekly publication had a circulation of 7,500 each week with demand coming from all over the country. Fred and Lou Freeman managed the entire organization.

The Winter Garden organization opened a second rink in a building at 11 Rhoades Street that was known formerly as The Morton Arena. This building was located at approximately where the police station on Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street is located in 2003. The Annex Rollerway operated at this location from Feb. 1, 1936 through Dec. 25, 1938, when it became the Chez Vous Rollerway.

The Chez Vous operated at least into the 1950s. The Gallivan Boulevard facility was known at some point in its history as the Sholes Rollerdrome.

Here's what the site looks like right now:



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