Montreal Arena
| Westmount Arena | |
 |
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| Location | St. Catherine Street and Wood Avenue, Westmount |
|---|---|
| Owner | Canadian Arena Company |
| Capacity | 4,300, 10,000 people (temporary) |
| Surface | natural ice |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1898 |
| Opened | December 31, 1898 |
| Closed | 1918 |
| Demolished | 1918 |
| Tenants | |
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Montreal Canadiens (NHA,NHL) 1911–1918 Montreal Wanderers (NHA, NHL) 1904–1909, 1911–1918 |
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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.
Opened on December 31, 1898, it held 10,000 people, 4300 seated. It held a refreshment buffet and smoking rooms, with rugs available for rental to sit on. It is likely the third arena designed expressly for ice hockey, after the St. Nicholas Rink in New York City, and the Dey's Skating Rink in Ottawa, which both opened in 1896.
The ice rink ends were not squared-off, but rounded-off. The ends were somewhat semi-circular, possibly the first design of its kind. A puck could be shot along the outside rim, slide along the corners, pass behind the goal and come out the other side. This type of shot is common in hockey today, and is called "rimmed around." The rounded-corners design spread to other arenas. In 1902, after Ottawa's Dey Rink was demolished due to a storm, it was rebuilt with rounded ends to match the Montreal Arena. The fence along the ice surface was increased in height to 4 feet (1.2 m), an increase from the Victoria Skating Rink's one foot high boards. The first artificial ice-making plant in Montreal was installed in the Arena in 1915.
The owners of the Montreal Arena, the Canadian Arena Company, later built the Arena Gardens in Toronto, and operated the Toronto NHL franchise in 1917-18. Principals of the Arena Company, such as William Northey, would later be involved in the building of the Montreal Forum and the founding of the Montreal Maroons.
A fire started in the ice-making plant causing the arena to burn down on January 2, 1918. It began mid-day, when the only people in the building were the superintendent James McKeene and his family, eating in their apartment on the north side of the structure; all escaped safely but they lost most of their belongings, as well as a car stored in the annex. Damage was estimated at $150,000, including the uniforms and sticks of the Wanderers and Canadiens, with only 1/3 covered by insurance. The blaze led the Montreal Wanderers, already on shaky grounds, to disband within days and the Canadiens to move back to Jubilee Arena (it too would be destroyed by fire, the next year). In 1924, the new Montreal Forum was built one block to the east.
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