Description of Historic Place

The Vonda Rink is a Municipal Heritage Property situated on four lots within the Town of Vonda. The property features a large, two-storey, metal-clad, wooden structure.

Heritage Value

The Vonda Rink is valued for its use as a community rink and its role as a central gathering place in Vonda. The community purchased this building, a former aircraft hangar, from the Canadian government immediately following the Second World War. Community volunteers dismantled and re-assembled the building on its current location in 1947, adapting it for use as a skating rink. Several generations have since used the rink for winter recreational activities, such as figure skating, ice carnivals and hockey tournaments and as a gathering place for residents in and around Vonda.

The Vonda Rink is also valued for its association with the training of Commonwealth pilots during the Second World War. The structure was originally built as an aircraft hangar for use by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). The BCATP was a nation-wide program during the war that trained pilots and navigators from Canadian and Commonwealth air forces. Between 1942 and 1945, this hangar housed several aircraft at the BCATP base in Davidson, home to No. 23 Elementary Flight Training School. Elementary Flight Training Schools taught basic flight techniques to thousands of commonwealth pilots during the war as part of the broad BCATP program. Elements related to the building’s original use as a hangar are still found throughout the rink.

Source:

Town of Vonda Bylaw No. 99-2.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Vonda Rink resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements associated with its use as a rink and community gathering place, such as the building’s orientation on its original lot;
-the elements associated with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, such as the architectural elements typical of BCATP aircraft hangars, including its large rectangular shape; numerous, large trusses and absence of columns that support the roof; any remaining iron work that was used to operate the hangar doors; and numerous large windows on the upper level.