Camden Park Roller Rink

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The roller skating rink at Camden Park was destroyed by fire April 23, 1996.

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HUNTINGTON — The popular skating rink at Camden Park was destroyed in an
 April 23, 1996, fire. Camden's business office and Skee-Ball game,
 housed in the same building, also went up in flames.

"There was nothing we could do to save the building," Ceredo VFD Chief Johnny Robertson said.
"The fire started somewhere in the games area and spread to the roller rink. The wind was
 blowing from west to east, and it just sucked the flames through the building.
The best we could do was save the rest of the park. It's tough. All of
 us who live in this area have spent a part of our lives here."

Motorists stopped along U.S. 60 and Interstate 64 above the
 park to observe the fire, which raged for two hours.

Camden Park owner John Boylin estimated the total loss at $1 million
or more - and noted the building wasn't insured. "Insurance on an
 amusement park is astronomical," he said. "You have to pick
 and choose what you want to insure. And invariably
 you choose the wrong thing."

During the 1940s and '50s, the Camden rink was operated by Robert Black,
 who owned or operated several other rinks in the Tri-State Area,
 including the former Black's Roller Skating Rink in Ashland.

Ironically, the park's skating rink was built in 1959 to replace an earlier rink
that burned the previous year. Another major fire in the 1960s destroyed
 the park's large horse stable area. The park had been the long-time
 site of the annual West Virginia State Championship Horse
show, sponsored by the Huntington Junior League.

Camden's skating rink was not rebuilt.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Apr. 30, 2018.

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