I am really bad at roller skating.
I got a pair of roller skates during my junior year of college in an effort to get outside more, but after trying them out in my dorm and later on my parents’ driveway, I realized that it might not be the sport for me.
I’m decent at ice skating, but that’s irrelevant.
Maybe if the roller-skating rink on Pleasant Street was still open, I’d have been able to hone my skills… or just develop them.
I actually did not realize there was a roller-skating rink in Marblehead at all, let alone right on Pleasant Street.
I only found this out by looking at the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map of Marblehead, on which I was searching for an interesting building. The thing is, I do not know what this building looked like.
By overlaying the Sanborn map onto a modern map on Google, I learned that the location of the roller-skating rink seems to be where 100 Pleasant St. is today.
However, the document about 100 Pleasant St. in the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System says nothing about this location ever having a rink of any kind.
To make things even more confusing, a note in the “Marblehead Matters” article in The Daily Evening Item from Sept. 1, 1882 reads, “Don’t forget the roller-skating rink opens tonight at Rechabite Hall.” But Rechabite Block is not at the location indicated on the 1885 map.
But it seems like more than just skating occurred at the rink — wherever it really stood.
In the Nov. 23, 1883 edition of the Marblehead Messenger, an article tells of a burglar being captured after breaking into the rink and another building on Pleasant Street.
Other editions of the Messenger talk about roller skating, from mentions in the “Brevities” section to an entire article on an English-made skating surface. Clearly, this was something on ‘Headers’ minds.
They were not alone.
According to a JSTOR Daily article, roller skating really kicked off in the late 1800s, 143 years after roller skates were invented to mimic ice skating in the theater.
The inventor, John Joseph Merlin, seems to have been quite a character, as the article states, “Unfortunately, his skates lacked brakes, and he lacked balance. As he attempted to skate through a masquerade party while playing a violin, he promptly plowed into a mirror, broke his instrument, and ended up with severe injuries.”
Fortunately, other inventors made alterations to the original design, like James Plimpton of Medfield, who in 1863 created the iconic quad skates. Not long after, in the 1880s, mass production of skates made the hobby more accessible, launching something of a craze.
Additionally, rinks started being built in the 1880s, with many of them in New England. In addition to Marblehead, Lynn, Nahant, and Saugus each had their own rinks.
Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately for me and my lack of roller-skating skills — there is no longer a rink on Pleasant Street.