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One of the earliest rinks was in 1881. The rink was located in the Town Hall. The article in the local paper, written Feb 18, 1881, goes as follows: ìRoller Skating at the Town Hall under the management of W.O.Lee has been the attraction for the past week. It is a fine exercise for young men or young ladies either, and has the advantage of being practicable in a comfortable room instead of in cold wind and on cold ice. There seems to be but little trouble in learning to manage the skates, although when a boy begins to lose control of his feet, he is doomed to come down. The manager proposes to organize a permanent rink in this place.

The saga of Leeís place continues as he did indeed succeed in making the rink permanent. A later article from Nov 28, 1899 goes as follows: ìSince it has become known that the Lee skating rink was not likely to be run this winter, several students determined that rather than not have the rink available for use, they would run it themselves.

News of the final blow to the townís earliest venture into roller entertainment came in Feb 4, 1908. The Village Improvement Society purchased the land ìas the beginning of a public park system for Oberlin.î The rink was purchased by the Society, Presided over by Adelia A.F. Johnston, for donations from local citizens which totaled $1250. The article written was by Ms. Johnston herself. She states ìA public park along Plum creek, taken in connection with our college buildings, campus, arboretum and well-paved streets, will go far toward making Oberlin the finest residence village in Northern Ohio.î One, with inclinations similar to my own, might argue and point out the irony of attempting to improve a town by removing a roller rink, even if a park is inserted in its stay.

Another rink is mentioned in the paper on April 15 and May 6 1881. It opened up on East College in the Ingersoll Lot, managed by a Mr. Munson (from Baltimore). It was an open roof roller rink that was open 2-5, 7-9:30 everyday, weather permitting. It costs 10 cents to skate and 25 cents to rent skates to dance around to the live music popular in the day.

Yet another rink, reported on in Dec. 12 1884 was run by a Mr. W.E. Frear of Meadville, PA. The article about it says ìMr. Frear is desirous of making this a piece of innocent and healthful amusement for ladies and gentlemen. The Rink is the finest of its kind which the town has ever had.î It goes on to discuss the leasing agreement with Mr. Pettis, whose hall the rink is in, and the stipulation that Mr. Pettis reserve the right to refuse to allow the place to be used for ìany objectionable purposeî. This rink was located in Pettisí Block.

In 1885 roller skating on Oberlin sidewalks is banned by corporation authorities. An ice rink changed hands and was taken over by Frank Hovey as proprietor, who was the townís ìold reliable ice dealerî. Before you get too excited about the title, keep in mind that most people advertised themselves as ìold reliable somethingsî.

In the March 3, 1882 paper an article afforded Archie Taft his fifteen minutes of fame, by reporting his earning of the championship badge for winning the one mile skating race. The manager proposed a champion to be determined for the whole county, but no further mention of that was made.

In Nov 29 of 1894 it was reported that John D. Rockefeller ìafter expressing himself as greatly interested in physical development for young women as well as men, suggested to Mrs. Johnston that, if she would visit the skating rink at Vassar College, which he had recently built, and then come back to Oberlin and have a somewhat similar one constructed, he would be very glad to defray the expenses of such a building.î The rink was opened the week before the article was written. The rink was close to Hales Gymnasium, which was the womenís gym at the time. The building was 120 feet by 50 feet and was enclosed on all sides.