Duquesne Gardens Duquesne Gardens was the main sports arena located in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA during the first half of the 20th century . It opened 3 years after a fire destroyed the city ' s prior sports arena , the Schenley Park Casino , in 1896 . The arena was the first hockey rink to use glass above the dasher boards . Developed locally by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company , Herculite glass was first tested in Pittsburgh . Most rinks were using wire mesh before the shatterproof glass was invented . The Gardens was the home arena of the AHL ' s Pittsburgh Hornets , NHL ' s Pittsburgh Pirates and the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League . History . Beginnings . Situated near the corner of Fifth Avenue and Craig Street in the city ' s Oakland neighborhood , Duquesne Gardens was constructed in 1890 as a trolley barn . Then in 1895 , Christopher Lyman Magee , a Pittsburgh politician , spent nearly $ 500 , 000 to purchase and renovate the building . He renamed the structure the Duquesne Gardens in 1896 , although it was always called it the " Arena " by the locals . The sports arena was designed to seat 6 , 500 people . In it ' s early days , the building hosted rodeos and the circus . The Gardens also featured Pittsburgh Golden Gloves boxing and housed a movie theater . However the facility ' s main attraction was the artificial ice surface . Pittsburgh was one of the first cities in North America to lure amateur Canadian players for what was a standard $ 30 a week stipend and a local job in the early 1900s . The manager of a Canadian team returned from a trip to the Gardens in 1902 and gave the following description to the Toronto Globe : " Pittsburgh is hockey crazy . Over 10 , 000 turned out for our three games there . The general admission being 35 cents and 75 cents for a box seat . . . the Pittsburgh rink is a dream . . . What a marvellous place it is . " It was that ice palace that helped make the city a professional hockey pioneer , much the way it had given birth to the first pro football players in the 1890s . Players in the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League ( WPHL ) were paid to play hockey before 1904 , but that is when the first professional league officially formed . The Pittsburgh HC joined Sault Ste . Marie ( Ontario ) , Sault Ste . Marie ( Michigan ) , Calumet ( Michigan ) and Houghton ( Michigan ) to form the International Professional Hockey League ( IPHL ) in 1904 . Other leagues popped up after that and the IPHL disbanded after the 1907 season . On January 24 , 1899 , the Gardens hosted its first hockey game in a match between the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and Western University of Pittsburgh ( University of Pittsburgh ) . The Fort Pitt Hornets , Pittsburgh Athletic Club and Pittsburgh Pro HC also played their games at the Gardens . However the Gardens featured many ice hockey games between the years 1910 to 1915 . In those days , games were mostly played at the Winter Gardens inside Exhibition Hall located near the city ' s Point . Therefore the Gradens was used mostly for recreational skating and amateur hockey matches for teams like the Fort Pitt Hornets . Then in 1911 , Lester Patrick started the Pacific Coast Hockey Association . To learn how to obtain proper refrigeration in order to generate artificial ice , he came to the Gardens to see how it was done . However in 1915 the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the United States Amateur Hockey Association was founded . The team evolved from being an amateur to a semi - pro franchise and was one the earliest organized sports teams in Pittsburgh . The Pittsburgh Athletic Associations ' s Seven , an amateur hockey club , as well as the Carnegie Tech hockey club and the University of Pittsburgh hockey team also played their home games at the Gardens in 1919 . Pittsburgh Pirates . In 1925 , the Yellow Jackets were sold to James Callahan and Bill Dwyer and were renamed the Pittsburgh Pirates . The Pirates then joined the NHL on November 7 , 1925 . Pittsburgh ' s first ever NHL game was played on December 2 , 1925 , with the Pirates taking on the New York Americans in front of 8 , 200 fans . The Pirates lost the game in overtime , 2 - 1 . The Pirates lasted until 1930 but were facing relocation to Philadelphia due to financial issues associated with the Great Depression . What helped make the city such a hotbed for hockey in the early part of the century , the Duquesne Gardens , ultimately helped doom the Pirates . The Gardens held slightly more than 5 , 000 fans , which was fine at the turn of the century but small by comparison in the late ' 20s to other arenas sprouting up , such as 18 , 000 - seat Madison Square Garden . The Pirates did not make very much money playing in the 5 , 000 seat Gardens . The team was so strapped for money that they traded Conacher to the New York Americans during the 1926 - 27 season for a journeyman player and $ 2 , 000 . Conacher had been the highest - paid NHL player at $ 7 , 500 a year . The Pirates later moved the team across the state to become the Philadelphia Quakers for the franchise ' s last season in 1930 - 31 . However the Gardens still witnessed ice hockey even during these dark financial times . In 1930 Roy Schooley re - acquired the rights to the Yellow Jackets . The Jackets played for two years before the team was purchased in 1932 by Pittsburgh theatre chain owner John Harris , the founder of the Ice Capades . Harris then went on to purchase a new $ 5 , 000 sanitary soda fountain for the Gardens and renovated a portion of the building to become one of the largest dance halls in America . Pittsburgh Hornets . On October 4 , 1936 , Harris purchased the Detroit Olympics of the International - American Hockey League and merged them with players from the Yellow Jackets and the IHL ' s Pittsburgh Shamrocks . The team was named the Pittsburgh Hornets and became a member of the American Hockey League . The Gardens would be home for the Hornets for the next 20 seasons . The Hornets played their first game at the Gardens on November 8 , 1936 , a 5 - 2 win over the Cleveland Barons . The franchise later won Calder Cups in 1951 versus the Providence Reds , and in 1955 , versus the Buffalo Bisons . Demolition . The Gardens was demolished in 1956 . On June 18 , 1998 , the intersection where the Gardens once stood was dedicated as " Billy Conn Blvd . " The Park Plaza Apartments and Duranti ' s Restaurant now stand on the site . Two sections of red brick wall from the Gardens form part of the restaurant ' s wall on Craig Street . The Gardens would be replaced as the home rink of the city ' s pro hockey teams . Construction of the Civic Arena began in 1958 , three miles to the west of the Gardens .