Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens

There is a peculiar quiet about Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens now, or at least the silence where the name used to be. For decades it was simply the Memorial Gardens. The name changed only recently, after a drilling services company bought the rights, but the building itself has not moved an inch.

It sits on Chippewa Street West. If you stand outside, you might not guess at the size of the thing inside. The capacity is modest by modern standards, around 4,250 for hockey, which is to say it fits the town without overwhelming it. The surface is natural ice, cut to the standard dimensions, which means the players have to play on the ice as it is, not on a carpet laid over it.

The arena has seen its share of winters since it opened in nineteen fifty-five. It hosted the North Bay Battalion for a while, and before them the Centennials. It has seen curling championships where the crowds grew so large they had to be counted over a week rather than a single game. The record attendance is high, but that is because the event lasts several days, not because one night fills the place.

There is nothing spectacular about the architecture. It is a functional box, built for a town that needed a place to put on a show in the cold months. The renovation in twenty thirteen gave the interior a fresh look, but the bones are the same. It is not a temple of sport; it is a community hall with a rink in the middle. When the game is over, the lights go off, and the ice is left to sit in the dark until someone needs it again.