Ravina Gardens: The Lost Arena

For 7-year-old Bruce McDougall, hockey at Ravina Gardens in the early ‘50s was a thrill. He and his dad had a standing date at the hockey arena behind Humberside Collegiate Institute.

It was the heyday of the Industrial Hockey League. He remembers cheering on teams from Fruehauf Trailers, Gutta Percha & Rubber Manufacturing and National Cash Register. Jeering a few as well.

The Ravina rink had been home to amateur hockey since before World War I. In 1912 it was remodelled to hold 4,500 seats. For a brief shining moment in the 1920s, it hosted pro hockey probably because as of 1926 it boasted a spanking new artificial ice rink.

Kids played there, too, but you had to be 8 years old to play on any of the teams. Bruce moved away from the neighbourhood with his mother and sister to a house in Etobicoke before he was old enough.

The arena was demolished in 1961, after groundwater in the ravine damaged it.

Ravina Gardens is now a place for baseball. There are two diamonds on the parkland, which are often used by students from nearby Annette Public School, High Park Alternative School and St. Cecilia’s Catholic School.