On this day: Maple Leaf Gardens opens, 1931

Maple Leaf Gardens opened at the corner of Carlton and Church streets in Toronto on Nov. 12, 1931, when the Maple Leafs hosted the Chicago Black Hawks in the first game at the new arena.

The building went up in roughly five months during the Great Depression. According to Wikipedia, construction took five months and two weeks, while The Pink Puck, a hockey history site, puts it at about five months. Conn Smythe, the Leafs’ managing director, led the project after buying the old Toronto St. Patricks in 1927 and renaming them the Maple Leafs, according to The Canadian Press.

Sources differ on the final bill. The Canadian Press has said the arena cost about $160,000 to build. Wikipedia and The Pink Puck both put the cost of the project at about $1.5 million, and Wikipedia says the land alone, bought from the T. Eaton Co., cost $350,000. This account uses the higher figure as the better supported, but the gap is large enough that readers should treat any single number with care.

Paying for it was a Depression-era scramble. Wikipedia says Smythe created Maple Leaf Gardens Limited and sold shares at $10 each, and that labour agreements were struck in exchange for stock. The Pink Puck says the project was still $25,000 short of the lowest construction bid when business manager Frank Selke offered the unions 20 per cent of their pay in shares. Both accounts agree that workers took part of their wages in stock. Wikipedia names the architects as Ross and Macdonald and the contractor as Thomson Brothers Construction of Port Credit.

The opening night itself was a ceremony before it was a game. The Pink Puck says the program began with speeches and remarks from the captains. Attendance is reported as 13,233 by The Pink Puck and 13,542 by Wikipedia, and the two sources do not explain the difference. The Pink Puck describes the crowd as a record for hockey at the time.

The result is also reported two ways. Wikipedia and The Pink Puck both say the Leafs lost 2-1 to Chicago. Canadian Stamp News, in a short On This Day item, says Toronto won by the same score. The two sources that agree, and that give a goal-by-goal account, point to a Chicago win. According to The Pink Puck, Chicago’s Mush March scored early, Charlie Conacher scored the first Toronto goal in the new building, and Vic Ripley got the last goal for Chicago.

The Leafs called the Gardens home from 1931 until 1999. Wikipedia says their last game there was a 6-2 loss to Chicago on Feb. 13, 1999, ending a 67-year tenure before the team moved to what was then the Air Canada Centre. The building still stands at 60 Carlton St. Canada News Media covers the current team, including its most recent loss to the New Jersey Devils.

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