The Victoria Skating Club was incorporated on June 9, 1862, with a sizable capitalization of , for the purpose of buying the land and building the rink. The directors included members of prominent families of the Golden Square Mile: John Greenshields, whose family owned the largest drygoods wholesale firm in Canada and James Torrance, whose family owned a prosperous provisions wholesale firm. The rink, one of the first and largest indoor rinks in
North America, was completed and opened on December 24, 1862. However, it was not the first indoor rink in Montreal. The first had opened in 1859, at the north end of
St. Urbain Street, for the Montreal Skating Club. It was the first of numerous ice rinks in Canada to be named after
Queen Victoria. The Rink hosted pleasure skating and masquerade balls during the 1880s Montreal Winter Carnivals, which took place a city block to the east in Dominion Square.
Ice hockey First game On March 3, 1875, the Rink hosted what has been recognized as the first indoor organized ice hockey game, between members of the Club, organized by
James Creighton, a member of the Victoria Skating Club and a figure skating judge. The match lays claim to this distinction because of several factors which establish its link to modern ice hockey: it featured two teams (nine players per side), goaltenders, a referee, a puck, a pre-determined set of rules, including a pre-determined length of time (60 minutes) with a recorded score. Games prior to this had mostly been outdoors, with sticks and balls, with informal rules and informal team sizes. In order to limit injuries to spectators and damage to glass windows, the game was played with a wooden
puck instead of a
lacrosse ball, possibly the first time such an object was used. The two teams, members of the Club, included a number of McGill University students. Sticks and skates for this game were imported from Nova Scotia, including Mic-mac sticks and Starr skates. This first game was pre-announced to the general public in the pages of the
Montreal Gazette newspaper: ;Announcement Victoria Rink – A game of Hockey will be played at the Victoria Skating Rink this evening, between two nines chose from among the members. Good fun may be expected, as some of the players are reputed to be exceedingly expert at the game. Some fears have been expressed on the part of intending spectators that accidents were likely to occur through the ball flying about in too lively a manner, to the imminent danger of lookers on, but we understand that the game will be played with a flat circular piece of wood, thus preventing all danger of its leaving the surface of the ice. Subscribers will be admitted on presentation of their tickets. By moving ice hockey game indoors, the smaller dimensions of the rink initiated a major change from the outdoor version of the game, limiting organized contests to a nine-man limit per team. Until that time, outdoor games had no prescribed number of players, the number being more or less the number that could fit on a frozen pond or river and often ranged in the dozens. According to
The Globe, "the vice-regal party was immensely delighted with it." The Rink would later host the
first Stanley Cup playoffs in 1894. By that time, the building had gained an elevated balcony for additional spectators and a projecting loge, precursor of today's luxury boxes. In 1896, the rink was connected by telegraph to distribute the Montreal-Winnipeg Stanley Cup series score immediately. This is considered the first ice hockey broadcast by wire. Victoria Rink was the home rink of
Louis Rubenstein, Canadian and world figure skating champion. Rubenstein first won the Montreal Championship in 1878, and won his first Canadian championship at the Victoria Rink in 1883. At the time, the Victoria Skating Club was considered "the most important one in the Dominion, if not on the continent." In 1887, the Club arranged for the formation of the
Amateur Skating Association of Canada, the first national governing body of skating in Canada. In 1906, the Victoria Skating Club sold the rink, dissolving the Club. Ice skating continued under the new ownership, and on December 19, 1908, the
Earl Grey Skating Club was founded at the Victoria Rink. In a ceremony at the rink, the club's patron,
Governor-General Albert Grey formally initiated the club. Club honorary president Sir
H. Montagu Allan and Lady Evelyn Grey were the first to appear on the ice. Mrs. Helen Joseph became the president of the Club. The Earl Grey Club would move to the
Montreal Arena by 1911.
Musical performances The Rink hosted many musical performances. In 1878, a benefit concert was held to aid
yellow fever victims in the southern states of the
United States, featuring soprano
Leonora Braham. In 1890, an audience of 6,000 attended a benefit for Montreal's Notre-Dame Hospital featuring a performance by
soprano Emma Albani, as well as pianist and composer Salomon Mazurette, violinist
Alfred De Sève, and the Montreal City Band under the direction of Ernest Lavigne. The rink is also known to have held performances of the Montreal Philharmonic Society, which existed from 1875 to 1899.
Other events The Rink was large enough to be used for conferences and exhibitions during the months that no ice was installed. From the 1860s onwards, the Rink hosted the annual Montreal Horticultural Society Exhibition each September. A description of the 1864 exhibition notes that "in addition to prizes for Agriculture, Horticulture, Poultry, Birds, Paint, etc., $200 is offered as prizes for the best band and best solo performer on bugle, fife and drum." The
Presbyterian Church in Canada held their inaugural meeting there on June 15, 1875, and other local assemblies, including an assembly of Sunday School students on October 1, 1887, in honour of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, attended by approximately 10,000 children. The programme included "singing by the children and by the Fisk Jubilee singers, and exhibition by a number of deaf mutes and also by several Indians from Algoma." In September 1891, the National Electric Association of the United States held its convention in Montreal, including demonstrations of electrical technology by
Thomas Edison and a public lecture by
Nikola Tesla. In August 1897, the British Medical Association held a medical conference with an exhibition of pharmaceutical preparations, surgical and medical appliances, and "everything that interests the physician" at the Rink.
Decline By 1906, the building needed repairs and rather than spend money on rebuilding the Rink, the Victoria Skating Club sold the site to J. William Shaw, a piano merchant, who planned to build a concert hall on the site. Shaw planned to rebuild the structure into an auditorium of 2,000 to 2,500 capacity, suitable for orchestra or opera concerts. Shaw deferred his plans due to the high cost of construction and a low expectation of profits. He continued the use of the building for skating and hockey matches, introducing a summer use for car parking. Smaller hockey leagues continued to use the Rink, such as the Commercial and Steamship League, the Inter-School Hockey League and the Manufacturers' League. McGill University also occasionally used the rink. The final game of any note reported by the
Montreal Gazette was a semi-final of the
Canadian National Railway Hockey League (CNR) between
Car Department and
General Office on March 3, 1925, exactly fifty years after the first game. The playoff final game of the CNR league was not held at the Victoria; it was held at the
Forum which had opened that season. The CNR game drew 1,200 spectators. During the summer months, dog shows, vaudeville performances, the horticultural show and various trade exhibitions continued at the Rink. By the 1920s, the building had deteriorated and the gallery became unsafe to use. Shaw sold the site in 1925 for to the Stanley Realty Corporation to build a parking garage. ==IIHF recognition==