The daily sentinel., 1909-03-08
MEMORIES RECALLED BY
PASSING OF LANDMARK
Grand Junction Pioneers Had Merry
Times in Old Miller Building
Great Actors There-Has a
Tragic History Too.

The demolition of the old
Skating rink ON Main street be-
tween Fifth and Sixth streets
revives great many old mem-
ories of that place.
| The rink was built i'm fSS3 by
George f.. Haskell and william
A. Lynch, for the purpose of
establishing a skating rink. This
was successfully operated for
quite some time by these gen
flemen.
AT first the building was en-
tirely IA frame structure. but
iater, when II was used for an
opera house, it was filled in with
brick.
For many years the building vas
used as an opera house in this city.
Many of the most distinguished actors
and actresses of this country appear
ed In the building. Effie Ellsler. in
the height of her popularity played
IN that building and Emma Abbott.
the great lyric queen in comic opera.
In 1884 John H. Haverly's masta-
don minstrels occupied the stage for
great performance. One might go
on for an hour giving in detail some
of the noted performances there. Nct
re least OF them was Frank Daniels.
plays given there by the Grand juno
tion Dramatic club, which Included
Mrs. John w. Bridges. wife of
former postmaster here, Mrs. c. l..
Thompson, who recently died at Lit
Ileton. Mrs. Lorin Staley. the first
wife of the well known attorney, Mrs.
Orson Adams, Mrs. Edgar A. Rider
and host of other ladies. Among
tne gentlemen We're Messrs. Adams.
Rider, Bliss. Whitehead, Ben ]. Sny-
der. Lorin Staley, Edwin A. Haskell.
MANAGER of the Park opera house
The play was the Mikado and it's pre-
sentation was very fine.
Later on in the years '93-4-5.6 and
Sam Flint conducted his dancing
school in that building.
AT this school there were many
people, who long since have abandon
ed dancing. But the school was al
ways a great success. There we're
present at the afternoon and evening
session lawyers. doctors. merchants,
teachers and everybody who had a
longing for good time in those early
days.
An amusing thing regarding the af-
ternoon sessions of the dancing
schools was that. when the school
opened in the afternoon. business
conditions not being as acute then as
now, the business men and profess
sional men would close their offices
and business houses and go to the
dancing school for an hour of pleas
ure and instruction. AS nearly ev-
erybody participated, 1t was not
.-iought undignified or a lack of busi-
ness responsibility
Two men along the later nmeties
had tragic death in that building
They were farmers from the Plateau
country. They had brought grain
down from the Plateau and had sold
it at the rink. then being used for a
feed store. They came into town
late and asked porn ission to sleep
among the grain bags. ney threw
down their blankets and slept the
sleep of death. Some time during
the night. the great quantities of
grain stored roof high began to move
imperceptibly. Before these men
could be awakened they were cover
ed with "A great mass of the grain in
bags and smothered to death
OF late years the old rink has been
used as a store house by the J. A.
McCulloch Implement and Feed Co
AS ii is being torn down many old
timers look at the operations of dis
mantling and recall many odd and
pleasant scenes which occurred in
the building.
The old rink is to give way to
handsome new building to be erected
by the owner of the properly Mr.. A
A. Miller so that the mark of inn
provement has no respect for old
time memories and the old must give
way TO the new.