For more than 100 years, folks of all ages have come to the Mount Gretna Roller Rink for the simple pleasure of skating to music in a building that predates movies, televisions, and video games.
Certainly, changes have occurred: Roller blades have become the favorite footwear; rules — such as no cellphones while skating — have been added; and the music is most often the Top 40.
But the allure of gliding, weaving, and spinning around a wood floor has remained constant, drawing families for generations.
“We always brought our kids here to skate — we’d come on the weekends,” said Eunice Heist, who owns and manages the business with her husband Brian. “We had our son’s birthday party here when he turned 11 — 21 years ago.”
Shortly after buying the business in April 2018, the Heists brought in new skates and added roller blades. They also installed extra lighting and new ceiling fans to help with airflow.
But otherwise, the rink looks and operates much the same as it has for decades.
Read More: Roll models: Remembering Lebanon roller rinks of decades past
Floor guards dressed in black-and-white shirts make the rounds, ensuring everyone’s safety and helping skaters who have fallen. The guards also run a variety of old-fashioned games, including relays with tricycles, washtubs, and rocking horses — all on wheels — and the traditional limbo when skaters stoop, crouch, and hunch down to see “how low they can go.”
While the rink has a sound system for requested tunes, it still has an operational Hammond B3 organ installed in the 1960s to provide live music. On a recent afternoon, Ben Schaffer played a medley of holiday songs as homeschoolers skated.
“I started skating here when I was 9,” said Schaffer, who became the rink organist after Kathy Long Collins retired two years ago. Collins had succeeded her father Ray Long, who started playing in the early 1960s, when the organ provided all the music for skaters.
“Skating is something for families — every age can do it,” said Schaffer, who has been a floor guard for 16 years as well.
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are “public skate times” open to anyone. Admission price varies from $4 to $8 depending upon the day and the time. Skate rental is extra.
The Heists also host private events. One time the rink was rented by a country singer who recorded a music video about his first kiss, the Heists said. Another time a bride-to-be held a bachelorette party at the rink.
Invented in 1743, roller skates became popular in the 1860s when James Plimpton redesigned them with two sets of rollers, one under the ball of the foot and the other under the heel. This quad skate, which Plimpton patented, made it easier to change direction.
Plimpton also popularized public roller rinks, establishing the first one in Rhode Island in 1865.
Pennsylvania’s first rinks were built in the mid-1880s, according to the Cumberland County Historical Society. Lebanon had two short-lived rinks in the mid-1880s, followed by the Casino Roller Rink built in 1928 and the Lebnadrome Roller Rink in 1939. Both no longer exist.
Unlike those rinks built, the Mount Gretna rink was originally the exhibition hall of the Farmers’ Encampment started in 1890. A year after relocating to Harrisburg in 1916, the building became a skating rink and dance hall, according to ads in local newspapers.
Read More: Before the Pennsylvania Farm Show, there was the Mt. Gretna Farmers’ Encampment
Since buying the business — they rent the building from owner Eastern Enterprises — the Heists have documented the rink’s past. Photos of the Mount Gretna Tigers, a men’s roller hockey team that played in the rink in the 1930s, line the walls above the benches along with a wooden hockey puck lodged in the rink’s rafters discovered by roofers.
Also framed are two wooden tokens promising “Good for 5¢ in Trade, Mount Gretna Roller Rink” along with an enlarged image of them.
The Heists also have a collection of antique skates, one with two wheels, a couple with three wheels, and most with four wheels, along with keys used to tighten the metal pieces onto shoes. These are on view above the exit door.
Skating is a part of the Heists’ family history as well. Eunice’s father started her skating when she was 4 or 5, and Brian began as an 8-year-old. The couple’s first date was at the Casino rink in Lebanon.
They also have involved their families in the business. A grandson works as a floor guard from time to time, and a granddaughter is often in the concession stand, Brian said.
“It’s awesome to see families having fun,” said Brian who estimated he puts in as many as 60 hours a week between skating as a floor guard and maintenance. “My favorite thing is seeing kids from years ago who come back with their own kids.”
Commemorate a piece of Mt. Gretna history with LebTown’s Mt. Gretna Hockey Club Varsity Sweatshirt
Mt. Gretna Hockey Club Varsity Sweatshirt
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