The Pavilion Rink / Winter Garden / Iceland

Sutter at Pierce St. | map |

Opened: It had originally been a roller skating rink called the Pavilion Rink, opening in September 1906. The rink was operated by Frank Maestretti and his partners.

It was on the southeast corner of Sutter and Pierce. It was in the same block as the as the Dreamland Rink and the National Theatre. Opening in 1907 on the block was the Alcazar Theatre, the house that ended up as the Uptown. See a 1913 map lower on the page.

 

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this grand opening ad in the September 1, 1906 SF Call via the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.  

 

 

 

The "PAV.." on the back of  the Pavilion can be seen on the far right of this postcard view. Anthony Bruce shared it on the San Francisco History to the 1920s private Facebook group. A copy of the card from the Greg Gaar collection appears on the site SF Memory.  

 

Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting Anthony's post. He comments: "This is Hamilton Square, elevated view northwest, with the Laurel Hill cemetery in the distance and the Pavilion skating rink at far right at Pierce and Post."

 

A detail from the card.

The building was leased for a fight in October. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this story in the October 16, 1906 SF Call: 

"Leases the Big Pavilion for the Berger-Kaufmann Contest - By William J. Slattery - The fighting trust is busy once more promoting its own fight. The spirit of unrest which has marked the progress of the organization since its infancy is being felt even more keenly right now than for months. Promoter Coffroth hurled a bombshell right into the breastworks of enemy Graney yesterday afternoon by securing the commodious Pavilion skating rink for the Berger-Kaufman fight on the last day of the month. 

"Behind the trick turned by the wily promoter there lies a tale. The story goes that Eddie Graney, rore [sic] at the matching of the heavies, stealthily cut in and secured a personal lease on the Dreamland rink, the stronghold of the fighting trust. When Coffroth learned this he was naturally provoked. Things began to look bad. He did not see a likely looking place in which to hold the fight. The Pavilion rink was talked of and referred to again and again, but as the men behind the place refused several times to allow the fight magnates to intrude the chances of securing the place were rated at about 100 to 1. 

"But at all events Coffroth put one over yesterday. He rounded up Frank Maestretti and the other powers in control of the rink and before the shades of night had descended the deal was closed and Coffroth was assured of a place to pull off the big heavy-weight battle. The Pavilion rink is just about two and a half times the size of the Dreamland and is bettter fitted in every particular for a prize fight. Coffroth Is congratulating himself upon securing it. He feels sure that the fight will draw in the neighborhood of $25,000 and figures that he can accommodate the crowd nicely In the larger place."

Rink owner Frank Maestretti had been a member of the Board of Public Works. He was mentioned in an October 30, 1906 SF Call article about an attempt to organize the municipal employees into a Tammany Hall organization. There had been speculation that a meeting was to be held at the Pavilion Rink but it was to be at the Dreamland Rink instead. 

Intrigue! Maestretti was part of a sting operation at the Pavilion involving two city supervisors who were taking bribes regarding a skating ordinance. Unless they got some money, they would have passed an ordinance banning unaccompanied girls under sixteen at the rink! Art Siegel located the dirt in a March 20, 1907 SF Call story: 

"Maestretti Smiles With Satisfaction - Although he will not make a direct statement of the facts, Frank A. Maestretti, former president of the Board of Public Works and now proprietor of the Pavilion Skating Rink, knows practically the inside of the setting of the trap in which Supervisors Lonergan and Boxton so deftly caught by Burns at Maestretti's amusement place. At first Maestretti refused to talk at all but later on he said enough to confirm the story that he had aided in the trapping of the Supervisors. Maestretti is aware also of the fact that the Supervisors were bent on injuring his business by passing an ordinance prohibiting girls under 16 years of age from entering skating rinks unless accompanied by parents or guardians. It was this measure that worked the downfall of Lonergan and Boxton.

"Maestretti beamed with smiles yesterday. He seemed to realize that the end of the criminal career of his once stanch friend and now arch enemy, Abe Ruef, was close at hand. A broad smile lighted up the face of the former Works Board president as he reflected: 'I am running a legitimate business here,'  he said. 'I am not afraid of the Supervisors, the Mayor, Ruef or any one else. They can't hurt me, for the reason that I have nothing to fear.' 'Is it not a fact that Boxton and Lonergan were caught in a trap by Burns in your skating rink when they were handed money for fixing their votes on the skating-rink question?' was asked.' 'Well, now. I do not know anything about that. Yes, I believe that something of the sort did happen, although I am not familiar with the facts, and know nothing more about it.' 

"And Maestretti smiled significantly. 'How about that plot on the part of the Supervisors to pass the ordinance and injure your business?' 'Yes, I believe there was something of the sort on foot, but it did not worry me. I had nothing to fear from any of them.' Maestretti and Morris Levy of the fight trust were in earnest conversation yesterday afternoon at the rink. Levy is still on Ruefs calling list, while Maestretti's name has not appeared there for some time, so those in a position to know are of the opinion that something significant lies behind the confabs between the pair."

 

Major improvements were announced in this ad that Art Siegel found in the March 29, 1907 Jewish News of Northern California. 

New of the reopening was located by Art in a story appearing in the April 20, 1907 SF Call: 

"PAVILION RINK REOPENED - When the Pavilion skating rink, at Sutter and Pierce streets, reopens today after an almost entire reconstruction, the public will find as complete an establishment.of its kind as money can procure. More than $20,000 has been expended for the floor and decorations, 4000 additional electric lights having been installed. Besides the regular music there is an innovation in the shape of an orchestrion, which will be novel to rink patrons. Every convenience will be at the command of the folk who attend the pavilion."

More details appeared in the story the next day, in the April 21, 1907 SF Call: 

"POPULAR SKATING RINK OPENED - House Packed to the Doors With Joyous Throng - After an expenditure of $20,000 in thoroughly remodeling and rebuilding the Pavilion skating rink at Sutter street and Pierce the house was opened this evening in grand style. The immense hall, 270 feet long, was packed to the doors and the opening was a success in every particular. 

"The building is lined throughout with steel, the floor has been smoothed and polished until it is like marble. On either side, running the full length of the building, is a row of 14 arches, making 28 in all. In each arch is hung a profusion of red, white and blue incandescent lights. Across the building and supporting the roof are 14 large arches, each one of which.carries 240 white incandescents, a lighting effect that excels anything that has ever been in the city. 

"Mere words will not do it justice, the only way to appreciate it is to see for yourself. At one end of the hall stands a mammoth orchestrian [sic], which combines in one 496 instruments and fills the immense room with sweet strains of music in quality rivaled only by the gorgeous lighting effect. Professor Archer, who slides down a wire rope on skates a distance of 200 feet, is a special attraction and will give his wonderful exhibition every evening during the entire week."

 

Looking east on Sutter St. from Pierce in 1911. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this shot by John Henry Mentz in the SFMTA Photo Archive. The Pavilion is on the right. Art notes that down the block on the right after that house there's the Golden Gate Commandery Hall, a building used by a number of fraternal organizations. At the end of the block it's the Alcazar Theatre, at Sutter and Steiner. It had opened in 1907, would be called the Republic after December 1911, and ended up as a film house called the Uptown.

A detail of the Greek-temple entrance of the Pavilion from the SFMTA photo. The electric sign at the top of the image says "DANCING." The signage within the entrance is advertising their dances and notes a regular admission price of 5 cents.

The Pavilion Rink is on the left in this detail from sheet 277 of volume 3 of the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. The setback outline that we see on three sides reflects the size of the building's second floor. That's Pierce St. along the left of the image, Post St. at the bottom and Sutter St. across the top. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the Library of Congress collection.

In the upper center along Sutter is a house and then the Golden Gate Commandery Hall. In the upper right is the theatre that had opened as the Alcazar Theatre at Sutter and Steiner. By the time of this map it had been renamed the Republic. South of the Republic along Steiner is the long entrance mid-block for the Dreamland Rink, opened in 1906. 

The National Theatre is in the lower right at Post St. and Steiner. The Dreamland and National properties were the later location of Winterland. John Freeman comments: "There was only one dwelling, but the rest of the entire block was taken up with some variation of entertainment or fraternal secrecy!" 

The 1916 rebuild into an ice rink: The conversion into an ice rink called the Winter Garden was a project of well-known restaurateur John Tait. In addition to the ice surface, there was also a cafe and a dance floor. The reopening was October 10.

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this story regarding the progress of the construction that appeared in the September 20, 1916 SF Call:  

"Work Rushed on Winter Garden Ice Rink Work on the Winter Garden, the big ice rink at Sutter, Post and Pierce streets, is progressing rapidly and the new resort, with its skating surface of 90 by 210 feet, will be thrown open early next month. Manager Dunbar Poole, for ten years at the Glaciarium in Sydney, Australia, has engaged Baptie and Lamb, America's foremost exhibition and spectacular skaters, from 'Castles in the Air,' for the opening, with their corps of ballet girls. Norval Baptie Is known as the 'speed king,' while Gladys Lamb is renowned as the 'Pavlowa on Skates.'"

A pre-opening ad. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it. 

The opening show was an ice ballet titled "Castles in the Air." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding this photo that appeared in the October 8, 1916 issue of the Chronicle. 

 

Coverage appearing in the Examiner on opening day, October 10, 1916. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research.

 

 

A review of the opening appearing in the October 11, 1916 SF Call. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it.  

An ad appearing in the October 11, 1916 SF Call.

A 1924 ad in the "Douglas '20' Police Journal," a publication of the San Francisco Police Department. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding it on Internet Archive for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.  

The venue was later known as Roseland and the Iceland Pavilion. 

Closing: The building had a fire August 19, 1936. 

 

The Chronicle's coverage of the fire that appeared in their August 20, 1936 issue. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. 

A photo of the wreckage appearing in the August 20, 1936 issue of the Examiner. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research. The loss was estimated at $100,000. The building had been under renovation at the time of the fire. A fire chief noted that the department had been expecting the fire at the building for 20 years.  

Status: There's now housing on the site. 

More information: Also see the page on Winterland, the venue on the same block that started as the rink called Dreamland.

There was also a 2,000 seat pre-1906 venue called the Winter Garden, on Stockton between Post and Sutter. In the 1880s they were advertising that they were doing operas every night. 

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