WOODLAND ROLLER RINK / GREAT LAKES ROLLER RINK FIRE
JANUARY 25, 2007

If you have lived in Ypsilanti over the past 70 years you have probably heard about if not visited Woodland Skating Rink as a kid.  On January 25, 2007 a fire totally destroyed this Ypsilanti landmark.  As Ypsilanti Township Firefighters left their station on Ford Blvd (just down the street) they could already see flames in the air.

1940s roller rink goes up in flames

A fast-burning fire Thursday night destroyed a World War II-era roller rink, home to more than 60 years of memories in Ypsilanti Township. The owner of the Great Lakes Roller Rink, at 2041 Ecorse Road, smelled smoke at 11:30 p.m. and alerted Ypsilanti Township firefighters, whose station on Ford Boulevard is only a quarter mile from the rink. But the blaze burned so quickly that flames were shooting through the roof before the firefighters arrived, Capt. Vic Chevrette said this morning. Firefighters could see the fire from their station, he said. Owner James Edwards evacuated residents of six small apartments in the building before firefighters arrived, Chevrette said. No one was injured in the blaze.

The building's bowstring construction, in which the upper half of the building is a dome with no central support trusses, hampered efforts to fight the fire, as did temperatures near zero. Three fire hydrants and fire equipment froze, but Chevrette said he did not believe that changed the outcome. Fire Marshal Phil Stachlewitz, who was still on the scene at 8 a.m. today, said firefighters could not go into the building to fight the fire.

Chevrette said in buildings with bowstring construction "the trusses weaken very fast, and the whole roof comes down.'' He said layers of paint and flammable varnish on the 12,000-square-foot wooden rink accelerated the fire. Chevrette said the facility, formerly known as the Woodland Roller Rink, was built in 1943 in the West Willow subdivision, which was constructed during World War II to house workers at the Willow Run bomber plant.

It was moved in the 1950s, Chevrette said, to its current location north of the subdivision. The rink was still heavily used and sent its last school party home at 9 p.m. Thursday. Six small studio apartments were added to the building in later years, where long-time owners Pete and Donna Padis used to live, and where subsequent owner Freddy George lived part-time before he sold out recently to Edwards. George purchased the rink in 1995 from the Padises, who owned it while George was growing up and dreaming of owning it one day. None of the current or former owners could be reached this morning. Edwards and the apartment tenants are being housed in an area hotel by the American Red Cross, Chevrette said.

A few houses on nearby Ohio Street had to be evacuated for a few hours because of smoke and because the power was out, Stachlewitz said. The Willow Run school district's Thurston Elementary School was used as a temporary warming shelter for those evacuated, school officials said this morning. Chevrette said he believes the fire was accidental, but Stachlewitz said he may never know what touched it off, because the building was destroyed, and the evidence of the fire's cause with it.

The building met fire code standards when it was constructed, Stachlewitz said, but was not required to meet current codes. The building had no sprinkler system. He said Edwards intended to expand the building, and planned to bring the entire building up to current codes, but had not yet begun construction. Chevrette said the township called in mutual aid from Augusta, Van Buren, Pittsfield, Superior and Ann Arbor townships, as well as Ypsilanti and Saline.

Damage was estimated at $600,000.

Grand days of roller rink recalled

The news pained Runelda Medrano when she heard Friday morning. "Mom, the rink burned down,'' said Medrano's daughter, Linda. Gone was the Great Lakes Skating Center, at 2041 Ecorse Road in Ypsilanti Township, destroyed in a Thursday night fire. Fire officials believe the blaze was accidental. "That was my life for so long, I was so upset,'' Medrano, 84, said Friday night, recalling nearly two decades when she oversaw one of the hot spots for Ypsilanti youngsters.

She had grown up skating in Detroit and then teaching skating in River Rouge when she began working some at Imperial Gardens. There Runelda, whose husband died in World War II, met Newton Clark, who owned the rink. The two married, beginning a 17-year run at the Imperial for Runelda. They lived in an apartment at the rink, where she gave lessons and oversaw skating shows that raised money for the March of Dimes and Easter Seals. It was a grand time, infused with the rush of youths having a good time doing something athletic. She remembers the Halloween parties, when 150 to 200 youngsters would come in costume. The rink would also hold New Year's Eve parties, when couples would skate around the rink in a grand march, then split and skate in fours. The big nights were Friday and Saturday, with weekend matinees held as well. Boys couldn't wear jeans except to the matinees and the girls usually had to wear skirts or dresses. "The boys were gentlemen, and the girls were ladylike,'' Medrano said. She said they had very little trouble with the youngsters, and remembers just one fight during her time at the rink. "I waded into them and broke it up,'' she said. Medrano, who remarried after she and Clark divorced, now lives in Ypsilanti Township and retains numerous photos and memories of the skating days.

Maryella Lanning, 72, of Ypsilanti, who began skating when she was 5, met her husband, Harold, at the rink. She said she first saw him when she was 12 and he was 17, on leave from the Navy. Both kept skating there and eventually married. "It's a place I'll never forget,'' Lanning said. "I can't believe it's gone.'' The rink was originally a dance hall. It was uprooted and transported to its present site somewhere around 1940 for the construction of I-94. Robert Wright, 71, whose family moved to Ypsilanti in 1937, grew up around the rink, skating there every weekend. "I spent most of my time in the place. It was half the kids in Ypsilanti, it seemed,'' he said Friday. Wright, who now lives in Flat Rock, recalls seeing the old rink put on rollers to move it to the present site. He recalled the rink as a good place to meet girls.

Clark sold the rink in 1962 to Pete and Donna Padis. Then came Freddy George and the present owner, James Edwards. The rink was also known as Woodland, Xanadu and Great Lakes. It continued to play host to parties and events, including on Thursday night. "I cried,'' Lanning said of hearing the news. "You can't believe how grand it was to have a place like that.''

Geoff Larcom can be reached at glarcom@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6838.