timothy brian mckee

The Coliseum at North Lake Park: 1921-2005

In North Lake Park, there is a prominent knoll near the Fourth Street entrance that is today covered simply in grass.  But time and history in our town have seen that knoll covered deep in memories of past generations so sweet and melodious and filled with good times that the hill itself must still hum somewhere deep in its bedrock with the very joy of our community.

Places on our planet destined for laughter, optimism and well-being seem to have an irrepressible vortex of energy that circles the ground in a whirlwind of enthusiasm.  In one generation at the park, that racing exhilaration followed the tracks of a roller coaster going round and round the top of the hill.  In other generations—for most of the 20th century—that circle of dynamic spirit was traced on the globe by hundreds of thousands of roller skates.

This essay in photos documents the various forms of entertainment and delight that took breath in different decades of North Lake Park’s past, and the buildings that stood to contain those warm feelings on the site of the Coliseum.

The historic knoll rises from the twin roads at the park entrance.

Let the Good Times Roll

The story of the Coliseum begins with elm wood—which is to say the wood of elm trees.  That is what they used to lay the floor of the dance hall built on the lake knoll in 1904.  Accordingly, Elmwood Pavilion is what they called it—the most popular, the largest and by far the most hopping joint in town.  Later, Elmwood became the name of the little access lane leading to the Pavilion.

A year after it opened, the whole building was picked up and moved a few dozen yards south so the knoll could be repurposed for a new and more dynamic form of entertainment—the Luna Park roller coaster.

This rare glimpse of the Luna Park grounds from around 1907 captures both the Elmwood Pavilion and the Roller Coaster.
Dancing at the park became so wildly popular during the early years that the dance hall expanded twice. In 1909, the floorspace was doubled in size, and the new floor was laid in a brilliant layer of white maple wood. Not surprisingly, the place acquired a new name: the White Maple Dance Hall.

This particular image is scanned from a postcard belonging to a woman who was a daughter of the businessman who built the dancing establishment, the roller coaster, and the Coliseum. Look closely at the man on the right and above his head you’ll see where she proudly indicated her father: Rupert Cox.
From our perspective in the 21st century, the subject of this picture postcard is a roller coaster. In 1905, when it was built, the landmark was called a “Toboggan Ride.”

This 1913 photo gives appropriate prominence to the park knoll where all of the Coliseum history took place.

Rolling Along

The White Maple promoted Dance Night on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays with a variety of local military bands and dance orchestras.  During the daylight hours they opened their floor to the hottest rage sweeping the nation: roller skating.

In 1921, when the place burned down, the Mansfield News was quick to note that among the ashes were 500 pairs of rental roller skates.

The very night of the fire, the pavilion’s owner—Rupert Cox—assured the dancing public that he had plans to rebuild.  In fact, within days he advertised for sale all the materials comprising the roller coaster because his creative new scheme involved the prominent knoll where the coaster stood.

Cox had a clear vision of a center that was to become an essential aspect of Mansfield society and culture.  The city had nothing like a civic hall, so he pictured something large enough to encompass more than merely dancing: his grand pavilion would host automobile shows, cooking and flower expos, indoor circuses and minstrel shows, as well as sporting events like basketball.

And, of course, the most popular sport of all: roller skating.

Cox wanted a place with such perfect acoustics that “an eight-piece orchestra would perfectly fill the room.”  So, he modeled his hall on the one place in America known for its unbelievably acute acoustics: the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

The upper diagram shows construction layout of the Mormon Tabernacle, which is lightly superimposed on the layout of the Coliseum from a 1928 insurance map to show how closely the Mansfield landmark was based on the national landmark. The shape was altered enough to add a lobby and two towers to the front of the building, and one tower in the rear.
The central dance floor was designed for 500 dancing couples, with a surrounding wide aisle for roller skaters in a track 1/8 of a mile long. In rainy weather, the Mansfield High School Track Team practiced on the outer runway.
It was intended to resemble a seaside resort so that every visit was a little vacation for folks in Mansfield, and the 5,000 window panes made the inside brilliant on a sunny day. Sidewalks on the knoll were configured in both directions so as to accommodate easy flow of great crowds.
Shortly after opening, the Coliseum hosted a church convention to test its capacity in 1922. After lining up all the chairs, conventioneers carried in every park bench in town that was not fastened down. There were 3,600 admission tickets before the sermons began, and then the place filled up with standing-room-only.
For several decades, the Coliseum was Mansfield’s principal sports arena, drawing crowds from surrounding counties for fight shows, Depression-era 50-hour skating marathons, and a huge Silver Skates Speed Tournament which had its own Beauty Pageant.
The largest dance crowds to fill the Coliseum gathered every fall in the 1930s and ’40s for the annual Police Ball. The crowd was guaranteed the finest Radio Dance Band performers, with local talent interspersed, and a floor show at intermission.

The event formally began every year with the “Grand March,” which was a massive promenade of everyone in attendance. All of the funds raised were allocated for “ammunition.”
There were a few years in the 1930s when the ballroom functioned as the city’s largest post-Prohibition party, advertised as the Coliseum Gardens Night Club. Even into the 1950s, the Coliseum drew some of the biggest names in Big Band and dance orchestra entertainment.
Vic Day was preparing the stage at the Coliseum for his jazz band around 1939 when he took a moment to set up his tripod and capture that charming hall for everybody generations later who never got to experience it.
From the day the Coliseum opened in 1921 until it’s sudden end in 1967, there was really only one primary activity it was known and loved for—rolling around in long circles one way until the organist said to change, and then rolling around back in the other direction to rotate your tires.
At some point in every skating session during the 1950s and ’60s, the floor was cleared of all except for those who were ready to Do the Hokey Pokey. Because, as is well known, That’s What it’s All About.
The grand old landmark gave life to the community until 1967 when it caught fire one night and went out in a great blaze that lit the sky of the whole North End. In the ashes there were 1,500 pairs of skates.

By then, there had been two full generations of Mansfielders giving the place a heartbeat.
The knoll didn’t stay deserted for long, and within months there was a new Coliseum.
It took the yellow pine planks from 244 bowling alley lanes to create the skating floor in the new Coliseum.
The new design included a second floor on the entry end of the building with windows looking out over the activity below. Originally, in 1967, the upper room was intended as a Chapel for church groups who convened at the Coliseum for outings and recreation. By the 1980s, the space had been converted into a Disco.
This is the view from the upper room during skating class in the 1990s.

For two whole generations of Mansfield kids and parents, this was the Coliseum they knew from 1967 until 2005, when the place caught fire in the night and all of that nice pinewood turned to charcoal.
Sifting through the ashes of the second Coliseum turned up a few Kodak slides to provide at least a little documentation of the places’s last decades.

E Pluribus Roll ’em

Skating at the Coliseum was Mansfield’s first successful experiment in societal equality: liberty and justice for all.  The place was joyful all the time no matter who was there—and they all were there.  People of every variable in America.

There were folks of all ages skating at the Coliseum, and they were from all the neighborhoods in town, people you would never run into anywhere else in town.  Sometimes literally run into. 

Smiling at strangers, strangers helping one another stay on their feet.  Strangers from other schools, from other churches, from entirely different frames of reference.

It was an introduction to the most truly universal community most of us ever experienced.  A sense of what the world is supposed to be.  Joined with strangers in fun.

Plus, after a couple hours of rolling around on those skates there was a kind of rumbling hum that remained in the soles of your feet that made life a little lighter, for a while, released from the strict dictates of gravity and feeling the rest of the day as a giddy kind of dance.

Thank You

Images in this article come from the collections of Emily Beard-Herrick, Phil Stoodt, The Sherman Room of Mansfield/Richland County Public Library, Jeff Sprang, Tom Root, Vic Day and Anne Sabri, Mark Hertzler, Richland County Chapter Ohio Genealogical Society, Hal McCuen, and probably a few other people I have never met.

Post Script:

In 2005, I had for the first time in my life an excellent camera to use, and I was driving through North Lake Park so I stopped into the Coliseum because I knew there was a painting in the lobby of the old original building that burned in 1967.

According to the date stamp on the photo file, that was on March 18. Exactly 46 days later the Coliseum burned again.

I have always figured that if it ever rises again on that knoll for another go-round, I will have this photo transferred onto a canvas so it can hang in the new place.

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