Where we live
Gregory of Dayton’s Bluff: “Subject: The forgotten Ice Palace.
“There have been many Winter Carnival Ice Palaces built since the first one was constructed in 1886. We see pictures of them every year at Winter Carnival time — but one is usually forgotten, probably because it didn’t look like any other Ice Palace before or since. It was the Ice Court of 1938, built in Dayton’s Bluff.
”The 1938 Ice Court consisted of an Art Deco design with an ice throne in front of two huge disks, the taller being 60 feet in height. An ice-skating rink in front of the grand ice staircase measured 100 feet by 300 feet.
“The Ice Court’s location is often misstated as being either in Indian Mounds Park or in the Bluff Playground. It was actually located in a large empty lot at Plum Street and Mounds Boulevard. The construction of I-94 destroyed most of this area, but the actual spot where the Ice Court was built survived and has since been annexed to Mounds Park.
“Here are three postcards of the 1938 Ice Court — showing it in daylight, at night, and in a tinted version of the night photo, although according to a newspaper article from the time, the artist took considerable liberties with the colors.”
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