Sixty years ago, the Washington Figure Skating Club became a full-fledged member of the United States Figures Skating Association, following a year as a probationary organization. The organizer, and first president, was Dr. Christopher Meyer. Skating sessions were held in the Riverside Stadium, located on a site near where the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts now stands. It was an outdoor, artificial surface. The refrigeration, interestingly enough, came from the Christian Heirich Brewery located just across the street, now a maze of roads.
A year later (1939), the rink was enclosed and the club staged its first carnival. Scrapbooks reveal that approximately 2,000 people attended it. After its enclosure, Riverside Stadium became the Washington D.C. stop for the Ice Follies, one of the major traveling ice extravaganzas. Little did we know at that time, that one of its headliners, Osborne Colson, Champion of Canada, would exert his considerable influence on the Club when he joined the coaching staff in 1946.
That same year, the Chevy Chase Ice Palace was constructed on Connecticut Avenue. The ice surface (somewhat smaller in size than the surfaces to which we are now accustomed) was located on the second floor along side a furrier. The building also contained two floors for bowling.
In 1941, the Washington Figure Skating Club moved its headquarters to the Ice Palace, absorbing members of the Skating Club of Washington to become in the fullest sense, the Washington Figure Skating Club Inc. This merger brought into the fold many dynamic personalities and talents that contributed greatly to the club's development and success.