Jubilee Rink - East End home to Canadiens and Wanderers burned a century ago today

   One century ago today a historically notable but totally-forgotten Montreal hockey arena burned down.
   The Jubilee Rink,  onetime dockworker Patrick Doran's arena on St. Catherine East, was lost ending a now-forgotten hockey rink legacy in Montreal's East End.
   The arena was at northeast corner of Ste. Catherine and Marlborough (now Alphonse Roy), it was opened on 15 Dec. 1908 on the site of a former military barracks.
  It's now a forlorn stretch of warehouses and factories just east of the bridge.
  The arena could seat 3,500 and could house about 5,000 including standing-room only spectators. 
  Faulty electrical wiring caused a blaze started at 4 pm on 23 April 1919 and quickly took down the wooden structure. Damage was evaluated at $25,000 and was covered by insurance. the fire also damaged adjacent industrial properties going all the way up to Notre Dame Street.
    Doran was already deceased by this time and his widow Annie Curran was the owner. 
   The rink was natural ice, so cold weather was required to keep the facility going. Off season activities appear to have been minimal, as no mentions are made in newspapers concerning the place that don't have to do with hockey games.
   The last reported game at the arena took place on 16 March 1919 and saw St. Anne's defeat St. Bridgit's of Ottawa 5-2 to defend the Ross Cup for the second time that season.
  The Montreal Canadiens played their first-ever game at the Jubilee on 5 January 1910. They moved to the Montreal Arena at Wood and St. Catherine the next season, as it had a bigger seating capacity. That arena burned down 2 January 1918 and the the Habs then moved over to the Jubilee to play the rest of the season including a game which saw Newsy Lalonde smash an opponent in the face with a stick on 13 Jan 1918.
  The Habs continue to play at the Jubilee until soon before it closed.
   On 10 Feb 1919 The Canadiens played to a full house at the Jubilee, beating the Ottawa Senators 4-3, with Westmount thug Odie Cleghorne fighting Benedict.  They hosted Ottawa again at the Jubilee on 22 Feb 1919.
   Doran owned the Montreal Wanderers for some time and they too played at the Jubilee for part of their storied history.
   Star Wanderer player Jimmy Gardner sued Doran for $200 in 1911, demanding the championship bonus promised to him in his $1,000 annual contract. A judge dismissed Gardner's complaint, as Doran's assistant Boon had written it in without the owner's consent, so this suggests that Doran still owned the team at that time.
    Doran, according to his widow, built the arena because it would be bigger than a previous arena he owned somewhere on Craig St. (now St. Antoine) east. I don't know where that rink might have been but perhaps it was somewhere near the old barracks that once sat across from Champs de Mars behind City Hall.
   The dawn of the Montreal Canadiens started at the Jubilee as in 1909 the Wanderers agreed to meet a collection of the best French-Canadian players at the Jubilee. It was a dry run for the Montreal Canadiens, an experiment to see if a team of flying Frenchmen could compete in the ECHA league. The Wanderers, who were reigning champs, beat the National 10 to 9 in front of 1,000 spectators.
   Many other teams played at the Jubilee, including the Green Mountains and CPR (1911)  of the City and Suburban leagues (1911). The Sunday School Hockey League, including The Ebenezers, St. Martins, St. James St Lukes Centenary (1913).
     The Jubilee's low seating capacity led to difficulties, as other teams in its league realized that revenue sharing profits were diminished due to its low gate potential. The Wanderers were invited into the ECHA in March 1909 but booted out on 26 Nov. 1909, leading star player Art Ross, from Westmount, to bolt to a rival league.
   Doran sent hockey star Gardner to meet with Ambrose O'Brien who owned several Ottawa-area teams and the Wanderers then hooked up to join the NHA in a meeting held at the Windsor Hotel.
   Doran died suddenly while helping prepare the ice at the Jubilee around 8 Dec. 1912.
   Management continued without Doran and included a variety of legal disputes. In 1913 the Jubilee ownership threatened to sue the City Hockey League after it voided its agreement to play all of its games at the arena.  They sued to evict Lucien Riopel, who had rented the Jubilee for a mere $150 per month from Dec. 1917 to Dec. 1918.
   Now nothing is left to mark the site as for its contribution to hockey history.