1893: Skating Away In Lafayette Park

Having won the first American championship in 1864, he went on tour and dazzled fans with an array of skated patterns. He courted the press, and even invented the first skate with a blade physically attached to a boot. Haines may also have been responsible for the glitz and glitter that somehow remains characteristic of the sport today. The result was that ice skating became a craze. Cities with any standing water and freezing temperatures moved to develop and maintain ponds for skating.

Lafayette Park discovers the ice

Leonard Hunt assumed the role of Lafayette Park Superintendent in 1871, and by all appearances, took his job very seriously. The 1874 Report of the Board of Improvement of Lafayette Park makes no mention of winter use of the park or its ponds. 

John Albury Bryan in his book “Lafayette Square” references an article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of November 17 1880. It revealed that the “duck pond” in Lafayette Park was frozen over “and being used as a skating rink by young men and maidens in the vicinity.” The park commissioners received credit for scraping the ice of snow, and adding a “snug little frame building with stove, chairs, etc for the special accommodation of the ladies.” It added that “ a police force was in attendance to keep order and prevent rude boys and roughs from interfering with the more genteel visitors.”

By 1883, St. Louis had fully contracted skating fever. Youthful crowds converged on the main lake in the Park, with many taking the city railways to get there. 

Superintendent Hunt worked to control a situation that mixed folks of various neighborhoods, levels of skill and enthusiasm in close quarters. He was sorely tested by a public that saw winter skating as their right and a duty of the city to provide. As a result, Hunt came under more than occasional heat from newspaper complaint writers:

The Post-Dispatch editor responded like a man frustrated as the writer by the park superintendent. And perhaps he was – the ice was the place to be in Lafayette Park. Styles of skating were created and analyzed to a remarkable degree in the papers. Local ice heroes caught the public’s attention for their daring and grace.

This, from 1886:

The rude boys move in

With time, the hooligans moved in. By 1888, the park banned some rougher games, and even prosecuted violations in local courts: In a rather typical case, the paper reported a group of men “catching hands, forming a line and swinging, the end man being fired along with the velocity of a cannonball”.

For the record, the court fined Cowan $5.00 and released him. 

The ice and the park in their heyday

In 1888, the paper noted that “the river seldom freezes solid, and the ice is rough and dangerous. It is dotted with treacherous holes, and the unfortunate skater who enters one of them generally remains in the river till spring.” It stated, “the only body of water accessible to people within two miles of the city center is the little lake in Lafayette Park. Even it is only convenient to people living to the south of the railroad tracks, though while skating lasts, it is visited by people from all sections of the city.”

The Post-Dispatch observed that “every afternoon and evening the pond at Lafayette Park is literally packed with men, women and children on runners. Other places have their quota of people, but the Park pond is the great central point to which a majority of the skaters gravitate. No sport or amusement affords such an opportunity for a display of grace as does the art of skating. There is no prettier sight than a skilled skater on ice…spectators will stand for hours at a time watching them.”

Going for the play by play

As St. Louis lacked film and television, the papers resorted to long, difficult to follow essays. These attempted to describe the nearly endless variations on skating technique: Here’s a short sample:

In addition , there was ‘spreading the eagle”, the “high dutch”, the “grapevine”, “mercury”, “panhandle”, and “leg of mutton”. A Post-Dispatch article from January 1888 introduced the reader to the year’s new move: 

And yes, locals skated their way into celebrity status. The article notes that “most of the clever skaters, both male and female, live in the vicinity of Lafayette Park.”

The newspaper profiled the skating skills of many, including Ernst Miller the singer, John Dillon, Lou Hayward, Dr Ernest Cole and his brother Amadee. There was also an old man, a regular attendee of the summer Thursday concerts in the park, known only as “Santa Claus.” No one knew “where he comes from or whither he goes, but his age, bearing, and gallant way of assisting a young lady on the ice, then skating away with her on his arm caused the young men to be jealous of ‘Santy,’ whom they denounce as the old masher”.  

The ice craze cools

By 1893, the paper bemoaned the lack of an extended ice season. It declared “The Gang’s Gone – An Old Timer Bemoans The Disappearance Of The Fancy Skaters.” A man of about 30 was “cutting eights and double eights on a little corner of the pond at Lafayette Park. Every moment or two he would look sadly around at the clumsy work of the would-be skaters and shake his head.” He was from a small class of skaters that “scorned the shinny and cross tag crowd,” and “floated about on a cross roll or a high dutch,” able to go through a crowd without a bump or jar. 

This article observed that before Forest Park became popular, Lafayette Park was the “meeting place of the skatatorial four hundred.” The writer missed the stylings of Otto Nedderhut, Ted Cavender, and William Ittner, gone due to a prolonged series of warm winters and newer venues. The paper analyzed various skating patterns in the story, like so:

It also attempted to give advice on how to be cool. One should hold his or her arms,“easily at the sides” and “in no case swung violently, or held akimbo”. Overall, the piece in the paper lamented the lack of skill from the current young skaters, and waxed nostalgic for the “good old days.” 

Cracking the whip

Two years later, in 1895, the Lafayette Park hooligans were still cracking the whip. By this time, it was a clear violation of city ordinance. 18 year old Adolph Methudy of 1800 Waverly Place faced the judge on a charge of skating in a chain of three or more individuals. Officer Humbrecht of the Second District skated the pond in uniform. As the paper put it, he was well-acquainted with the ordinances, but not in the use of skates. 

Before the judge, the defense attorney argued that the ordinance was written to read that skating in groups of three or more “will be prohibited,” rather than “is prohibited.” The judge sustained this defense, and Methudy was released. Pressing their luck, the young men told a reporter that they planned to have the officer brought up on charges to the Police Board, as his skating in the first place was a dereliction of duty.

The younger crowd was a boisterous set. They appear in the news a little later that winter, complaining about the park keeper. Superintendent Hunt was now in his 24th year as Lafayette Park superintendent and remained strict as ever. He closed the gates of the park at 6 p.m., refusing the privilege of skating after dark.

A fad winds down

On January 28 1895, the average temperature in St. Louis was nine degrees above zero. Perfect. It called for the city’s first recorded use of an equine Zamboni: 

In 1902, several years after the great tornado that razed the park, the lake was fit enough to host skaters again. The authorities, presiding over what was left, still had rules to follow and children to disappoint.  

So there you have it, right up to 116 years ago. For you sledding enthusiasts, thanks for tolerating all this skating; you all get your due in this essay: https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/?p=431. Happy landings!

Thanks to sources including:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch of January 10, and January 15, 1888, January 1, 1893, January 7, January 28, and February 11, 1895, and February 6, 1902

A good profile of Jackson Haines, early figure skating legend, is at Deadpan; February 16, 2018; Dvora Meyers; https://deadspin.com/the-father-of-artistic-figure-skating-is-a-new-yorker-w-1823086287