The 80 year old Mount Royal Arena, gutted by fire on Feb. 29, 2000. The Montreal Canadians used to play there, and so did the Montreal Maroons, before old Forum was built.
The two-story 60,000 ft. brick building, on Mount Royal St. between Clark St. and St.Urbain, was originally built in 1911 and had 3000 seats.
It was rebuilt - at a cost of $300,000 - in less than six months in 1919, and was offically inaugurated as the Canadians' new home in January 1920. The building seating capacity had increased to 10,000 seats.
This was the original playing field for the Canadian's Howie Morenz, Aurièle Joliat, George Vezina etal. That was the place where Newsy Lalonde scored 6 goals in January 1920 against Toronto" sports historian Jerry Rochon said.
Lalonde's effort, part part of a 14-7 win, set a Canadians team record for goals in a single game by one player that still stands.
In 1924, when the Canadians won the second of their 24 Stanley Cup titles, by beating Calgary 3-0 in a game played in Ottawa. Morenz goal proved to be the winner.
The arena was originally made with natural ice, which eventually proved to be one of reasons, the Canadians moved to the Forum, on Atwater Ave. The Canadians played a Stanley Cup final on March 25,1924 against the Calgary Tigers in Ottawa, because the Mount Royal Arena wasn't good enough. The Forum was built for the Montreal Maroons, but the Canadians played the first game there. The Canadians moved from the Mount Royal Arena to the Forum in 1926. The arena was converted to a commercial building in 1938. All that remains of it, is twisted iron and piles of bricks dirt, concrete, dirt and glass.
This is what I remember of the Mount Royal Arena. This was the area, that I lived in. The greater part of the Western part of Montreal, was still mostly farms. This was also the era of Trolleys & Streetcars.
When professional hockey teams moved out, the arena became the first indoor skating rink, opened to the public, in Montreal. This was also the original home of professional wrestling. When wrestling was wrestling. One of my cousins wrestled there. (No Kidding)
Mount Royal St. ran east and west, which also lead to the entrance of our Mount Royal Mountains, located in the center of the city and to Beaver Lake at the top.
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Most of the information that is used on this page, was copied from An article written by Amanda Jelowicki, for The Montreal Gazette. If there are any problems with copyrights or trademarks, please email me and I will change or remove them immediately.
8/24/01 7:32:13 AM