Rolling back to when skating was a Princeton pastime By Bill Lamb
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n 1883, when the Apollo Theater (then the Apollo Hall) was being built in Princeton, it was erected solely for the purpose of a roller skating rink or hall as skating was the rage of the country at that time. Along with roller skating, the hall was used for other purposes also. Once in awhile, they usually had a small band or some musical instrument to play for the skaters. Many of the larger rinks in the bigger cities used the Wurlitzer band organ which used piano rolls to play. The sound was loud and beautiful and it carried well over the skate wheel noise and was thrilling to skate to. Skating was held at the Apollo for many years and gradually combined with vaudeville and later, movies — until the latter took over the interest of the public and roller skating was forced to move out. But, skating remained popular over the years and it seemed to go in cycles every 10 or 15 years, then seemed to die out then rejuvenate. Lloyd Fox had a skating rink in a tent in the early 1930s at the southeast corner of the fairgrounds in Princeton. He was there for one year when Jack Conant started working for him. Fox moved his rink to Kewanee and was there for one year. He eventually moved his rink in the winter of 1931-32 to Lone Tree, Iowa. There Jack met his wife-to-be, Mickey Green, where she worked at the rink. The rink had a small electric calliope with a small keyboard in the back of it where it could be played by hand. Mickey played the calliope for skaters in the Lone Tree rink. Jack and Mickey were married in 1933 and got out of the skating rink business for a few years. Buzz and Ione Lindeman owned and operated a brand new skating rink in a new tent set up at Alexander Park — a stone’s throw away from the swimming pool. They opened for business in 1938. The Conants moved to Princeton and started to work for the Lindemans in 1938. In 1940, the Conants
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A skating duo perform a trick in the rink at The Rollaro. bought the business from the Lindemans. In July 1945, during a late night skating party, a tornado went around Princeton and many of the families who were at the party were saved from awful weather that destroyed some of their homes. A few years later, the Conants retired from the skating rink business. In September 1949, James Borell, a former music teacher in Spring Valley, and his wife, Mary, brought the property on the east edge of town on Peru Street, next door west of the Lovejoy Home-
stead, and constructed a new skating rink. The building was 72-feet-wide by 200-feet-long. The rink was to be enclosed for yearround use. A committee of the new Princeton Exchange Club adopted the roller rink project as a step toward preventing juvenile delinquency. On March 25, 1950, Bureau County’s newest roller skating rink — the Rollaro — was open to the public. A snack bar sold sandwiches, ice cream, sodas, milk shakes and any flavor of brick ice ream. A stage was built later and plans were to have name bands play for dances at regular intervals. Living magazine
9/8/20 9:24 AM
