Historians call it Canada's oldest standing indoor hockey arena. What's next for the Stannus Street Rink?

Windsor, N.S. has long-claimed to be the 'birthplace of hockey.' Local historians believe the game has roots in the town, located in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

Windsor, N.S. has long-claimed to be the “birthplace of hockey.” Local historians believe the game has roots in the town, located in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

It’s not the only place in Canada thought to be an incubator for the sport. The International Ice Hockey Federation said in 2008 that the first organized game of ice hockey took place in Montreal in 1875, and so-called "stick-and-ball" games have been played since the beginning of recorded history, including by Indigenous peoples of North America. 

But in Windsor stands an epitaph to the beginnings of the sport as we know it today. Decades of hockey history took place inside the Stannus Street Rink, which opened in 1897.

"It's a landmark,” said Windsor Hockey Heritage Society Director Danny Dill. “It is amazing a buiding that old that is still standing."

According to Dill and his fellow society directors, it is the oldest standing indoor arena in Canada and maybe even North America, although its hockey-hosting days have long passed.

“It is a quintessential 'old barn,'” said Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame President and CEO Bruce Rainnie. “It is a word we like to use when we refer to old arenas in Canada, the ‘old barn.’ The wood smells old, it feels old, but the stories it tells are immense.”