page_title: Winter Garden at Exposition Hall
section_title: Move to the ice
hierarchical_section_title: Winter Garden at Exposition Hall / History / Move to the ice
caption_attribution_description: English: Winter Garden at Exposition Hall-External photograph showing both Exposition Hall and Exposition Park, located in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1915. The rollercoaster and amusement park associated with the building can be seen in this photo.
context_page_description: The Winter Garden at Exposition Hall was a multi-purpose facility, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was designed by Joseph Stillburg. It stood on the current site of Point State Park. The facility consisted of three buildings: Main Hall, Music Hall and Machinery Hall. The Exposition was originally supposed to be a place for social gatherings where ideas and goods could be freely exchanged; however, the facility later became Pittsburgh's premier indoor ice hockey rink.
context_section_description: Around 1914, public interest in ice skating was growing in Pittsburgh and that interest served as the focus for converting the Main Hall into the Winter Garden. Hockey was a growing sport in Pittsburgh and had been played at the Duquesne Gardens, which was located in the city's Oakland neighborhood. However ice time at the Gardens was scarce while the demand for hockey was growing.
   In 1915, chiller pipes and concrete were added to the floor of the Main Hall to create an impressive ice surface. The Winter Garden used the latest technology to produce hard, dry ice. The refrigeration plant was located in Machinery Hall almost 500 feet away and circulated a brine solution through 125,000 feet of pipe below the ice surface. The ice-making system used the latestest technology and pumped an ice-making solution at a rate of 15,000 gallons every minute to produce a minus 30 temperature on the floor.
  In 1915, Arthur Sixsmith became the manager of the Winter Garden's hockey team. The team was based at the Winter Garden. However, the team only lasted one season, before disbanding in 1916. Meanwhile, Roy Schooley, the manager of the Duquesne Gardens, began putting together his "Duquesne Garden hockey team". A feud soon began between the two clubs. The Duquesne and Winter Garden teams each played out-of-town opponents, often on the same night, and in direct competition of one another. Many of the other teams that used the Winter Garden were members of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which included teams such as the Pittsburgh Keystones, Pittsburgh Duquesne and Pittsburgh Lyceum used the Winter Garden for matches. Soon after one of Pittsburgh's earliest women's league formed at the Winter Garden. The size of the playing surface used for the Exposition's hockey games was 300 feet (91 m) x 140 feet (43 m) and was bigger than today's international size rinks. By comparison, today's National Hockey League rinks measure 200 feet (61 m) x 85 feet (26 m). The increased size wore down visiting opponents and heavily favored the home teams. On January 23, 1916, the Winter Garden hockey team played a two-game series against the Sudbury All-Stars, who were considered to be one of the best teams in Canada. The Winter Garden team defeated Sudbury, 2-0, in the first game. During the opening game, the Sudbury players were reportedly overwhelmed by the size of the Garden's ice surface. However, the Winter Garden team would go on to drop the series' second game to Sudbury, 3-1.
  On March 24, 1917, the biggest hockey match in the Winter Garden's history took place, featuring Hobey Baker. A star football and hockey player from Princeton, Baker and an all-star group of amateur hockey players from Philadelphia played against an all-star team from Pittsburgh's amateur leagues. The Philadelphia team would go on to defeat Pittsburgh in overtime by a score of 3-2, with Baker scoring all three Philadelphia goals. Baker's goal tally included the game winner in the third overtime period. However, this would be the final hockey game and goal of Baker's career. He later died in France during a routine military flight, weeks after World War I ended. The last local hockey match at the Winter Garden, was played in the spring of 1920.
caption: Exposition Hall, with its rollercoaster shown in 1915. In the background is Exposition Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates
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