Hockey History

The Hamilton Forum – chapter one
The Barton Street Arena gets a major makeover and a new name in 1953

Hockey teams were provided with new modern change rooms, which replaced the original cramped facilities shown here from 1948. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Crowds lining the sidewalk on Barton Street was a common sight before game time at the Forum. Car parking was always an issue. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Officially opened in 1913, the hockey arena on Hamilton’s Barton Street had received a couple of minor facelifts, but it was still called the “Barton Street Barn” or the Barton Street Igloo.” But that was to change in 1953 when local television and radio owner Ken Soble purchased the facility from Percy Thompson, the Barton Street Arena’s long-time owner.

According to newspaper reports in March 1953, Soble, who also bought a Senior OHA Hockey franchise at the time, had plans to rebuild and update the structure into a 6,000-seat, air-conditioned arena. His plan was to provide Hamilton hockey fans with a modern place to enjoy the sport. The building also received a new name, the Forum.

But Soble’s intentions were to use the Forum for other forms of entertainment along with hockey, such as concerts, dramatic shows, and other sporting events including boxing and wrestling. The Forum would also house automotive shows and the occasional circus, but hockey would be the main focus of the Forum.

The city was a little dubious at first, having been promised a new arena on two previous occasions, one in the Scott Park area in 1945, and another to be built in 1950 on the old dumping ground site west of Dundurn Street North where the present highway 403 is today. But once Hamiltonians saw the construction, it knew Soble’s intentions were serious.

The man who founded CHCH television asked for no taxpayer money or help from city government other than its support.

“The assistance I shall ask won’t cost the taxpayers a penny,” Soble said in a Hamilton News article from April of 1953. “I have sunk a good deal of my own money in the venture as a sign of good faith,” he continued. “But it will need the cooperation from everybody, including the general public, to make it a success.”

When the rebuilding took place, the original walls were retained. This circumvented the Hamilton bylaw issue that stipulated if a new building was erected on Barton Street, parking must be made available for up to 600 cars.

There were proposals to turn the Woodlands Park across Barton Street into a parking facility, but that did not happen, and the Forum was always hampered with a lack of car parking.
While the main building remained, a new modern entrance of glass brick was built on the front. Inside the facility received more seats, wider corridors and stairways, and new concession booths.

This is a rendering of a proposal for a new arena to replace the former Barton Street Arena. The old building was remodeled instead. Image courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

The dungeon-like dressing rooms were replaced with totally-new rooms offering the latest in conveniences. The potential of fire in the building had been greatly reduced with additional extinguishers and fire brick.

One of the biggest changes to the building was one the fans never saw. Nine miles of corroded pipe was ripped out of the floor of the playing surface, replaced with state-of-the-art plastic tubing to assist with the ice-making. This was the first new system of its kind in Southern Ontario.

The restoration took about three months, and by the end of September of 1953, the Forum was ready to usher in a new era of hockey in Hamilton.

“Close to 4,000 persons overflowed the seating capacity and several thousand other fans were turned away as the Hamilton Forum was officially opened last night,” said a October 2, 1953 Hamilton Spectator account. “The event marked the beginning of a new chapter in Hamilton’s sports and entertainment history.”

The article also mentioned that those in attendance were duly impressed with the work that had taken place.

“Although the defending NHL champions, the Detroit Red Wings, were advertised as the feature attraction, the eye-filling changes at the Forum were even more impressive to the fans who went away convinced that this city is finally back on the hockey map.”

While the Forum would be the home to many hockey events and clubs, including the Hamilton Red Wings and the Hamilton Fincups, the building never received the attention and updating it did in 1953, and was demolished in 1976.

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