by Jashvina Shah/Staff Writer (@icehockeystick)
The original Matthews arch
(Reunion image above … Kneeling, from left: Jerry Keefe, Jim Madigan, Mike Levine, Paul Cannata, Bill O’Neill, Dick DeCaprio, Keith Allain, Joe Bertagna, Dick Umile, Bill Bowes, Bob Bertagna, Bob Deraney, Larry O’Donnell, Scott Borek, Matt Harlow, Zach Helfant. … Standing, from left: Ben Smith, Gerry Boyle, Mahoney-Wilson, Tim Flynn, Paul Kinnally, Jack Parker, Stu Irving, Richie Green, Mike Gilligan, Steve Cedorchuk, Bob DeLeo, Ted Donato, Brendan Sheehy, Peter Cahill, Jerry York, Brian Durocher, Jim Higgins, Jim Stewart, Bruce Crowder, Jocko Connolly, Bob Leonard, Bernie Corbett, Bill Cleary, Marty Pierce, Mike Milbury, Bill Cleary III, Dave Flint, Todd Lampert.)
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December 13, a legend will come to an end.
Built as a state-of-the-art facility and indoor ice rink for Boston in the early 1900s, Matthews Arena will host its last hockey game Saturday night. This building has housed over a century of history – for Northeastern, for the city, for the state, for the country and even for the world. And it goes far beyond sports.
“The arena is somehow even more special than we realize with how we look at it, because it is a central pillar to everything that we’ve come to enjoy about sports in Boston, and it’s been a conduit for pop culture, political and social experiences nationwide, and people don’t even realize it,” Mike Davis, Northeastern alum and one half of the Northeastern Hockey Blog, said.
To honor the moment, this week has already been full of nostalgia, joy and emotion. Monday, anyone who’s ever coached or played a hockey game in that building was invited for one more chance to skate and come together. It was a Who’s Who (see above). This weekend, it will continue with over 100 former Northeastern players.
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The historic rink is the oldest multipurpose sports facility in the world. Built in 1921, Matthews — originally Boston Arena — is a replica of the original building, built in 1910, that burned down in 1918. (Thanks to the 1918 fire, the world’s oldest hockey arena still standing is actually the Calumet Coliseum in Michigan, built in 1913.)
This “ice palace,” crowned by the Boston Arena Company, was meant to be a jewel of the city – and the country.
Prior to being built, Harvard played at makeshift locations like Brae Burn Rink or Bulloughs Pond, or played down at St. Nick’s or the Brooklyn Ice Palace in New York City. The new arena’s construction gave Harvard a home, and spurred the creation of the other city programs.
In fact, Boston Arena was the site of the first-ever matchup between rivals BC and BU, a 3-1 win for the Eagles on Feb. 6, 1918, which was also BU’s first-ever game and BC’s first against another college. Boston Arena also hosted the first Beanpot tournament in 1952 and the NCAA Tournament in 1960.
The Arena went on to be famously known as the original home of the Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics, and hosted the first-ever NHL game played in the United States.
So much of Boston hockey culture was established and nurtured in that arena. Most of those aforementioned coaches played high school games there, with everyone who was anyone playing with or against everyone else.
“Back in the 1950s and ’60s, the ice surface at the arena was short, and it was shaped kind of like a football,” Ben Smith, former Northeastern head coach and Harvard alum, told the New York Times in 2009. “So we’d come in and play BU, back when they were using the arena as their home ice, and I’d go back to touch the puck for icing, and here comes little Jack Parker from BU chasing after me. And I’d get my stick stuck in the boards in those narrow corners, and it’d stab me in the stomach and knock the wind out of me. Everyone thought Jack, who weighed 150 pounds, had knocked me out. I weighed about 200.”
Aside from hockey, the building hosted boxing, track, rock concerts and more. It has been a temporary home for athletes, musicians and dignitaries from across the country, including John F. Kennedy, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. Reggie Lewis’ memorial service was held there. Muhammad Ali trained in the building before the second Sonny Liston fight. Babe Ruth even once skated there.
But, Matthews Arena has to go.
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When scaffolding popped up one season, rumors circulated that Matthews Arena was sinking into the ground; possibly because the land where Matthews Arena now sits is reclaimed, man-made land, as is a good portion of the city of Boston, and because an increase of rainfall due to climate change has altered the ground. Half of the upper bowl has also been closed off to seating for several years.
The final toll came In May 2024, when The Huntington News reported that asbestos, lead and other toxic chemicals were found within the soil.
“I grew up there. I graduated high school there,” Ashley Demirali, a Northeastern alum who used to run the Dog House student section, said. “For me, it’s everything. And you talk to people and they say this has been the lone constant in their life. To see it being taken is really tough for all those people who really value this place as a part of their heart.”
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“This will make it the largest and most modern structure of its kind in the country for the proper housing of all winter sports, such as skating, curling and hockey. It is to be known as the ‘Boston Arena.’ “ – Boston Sunday Post, August 29, 1909
Ground broke for the new building Oct. 11, 1909. At the time, indoor rinks were uncommon. The main building was set to be 160 by 350 feet with engineering and curling plants next to the building, featuring two 200-horsepower engines and a boiler and two 100-ton refrigerators. Construction crews needed 75 tones of steel for the arena, which also featured roof trusses that weighed 23 tons each. The metal piping used to feed the ice surface measured 860 feet laid out.
Construction wasn’t without its quirks; there was the time a man fell asleep on one of the steel trusses and his coworkers thought he was dead (he was alive). Delays pushed back the opening from late December to April, forcing some local schools to forfeit parts of their hockey season.
The grand opening of the arena took place April 25, 1910 with an ice carnival, although an article appearing in the April 16, 1910 edition of the Boston Post indicated an earlier opening for fans to skate.
The ice carnival featured a hockey game between the Harvard freshmen and Newton High, followed by Harvard’s varsity team against the Crescents, “the fastest team in the Greater Boston league,” the Boston Post reported.
On December 18, 1918, at 5 a.m., a fire ripped through the Boston Arena and destroyed the building. The Boston Daily Globe reported damages of $250,000, worth around $5,377,483.44 today. The refrigeration plant and offices were largely unharmed. On August 16, 1919, a fire broke out in the ruins.
The fate of the arena after the fire seemed uncertain until January 1920, when the Boston Evening Globe reported the Boston Arena would be rebuilt, dubbed the “new Boston Arena.” When the company rebuilding Boston Arena took over, it sold the salvaged previous building materials and items like the folding chairs and door, selling them to the public.
The building reopened Jan. 1, 1921, for 7,000 patrons, despite there being no ice in the rink. To prevent further fires, the new building permit called for concrete bleachers instead of wooden bleachers like in the original arena. That did not stop another fire in 1948, but the damage was not widespread. The arena also featured a system whereby ice could be removed in a night, which had previously not been available in New England, the Boston Globe reported in 1920.
“It is a big improvement over the old structure. The sides are of glass, and this will permit the freezing of the ice more readily than under the old conditions, when the walls were of brick.” – The Boston Globe, December 29, 1920.
The first NHL game played in the United States was a Dec. 1, 1924 contest between the Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Professional basketball came to the arena in 1925, and the Boston Celtics began playing at Boston Arena in 1946 before shifting full-time to Boston Garden in 1955.
Throughout this time, the building also hosted political rallies, concerts, receptions and graduations.
In 1979, Northeastern University purchased the building and renamed it Matthews Arena in 1982.
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Externally, Matthews Arena looks similar to 1910. The iconic arch remains (possibly the original from 1910 or more likely the replica from the rebuild in 1921), although now encased in a square brick roof. Internally the rink looks very different, thanks to several major renovations funded by Northeastern, including monumental upgrades for the original building’s 100-year anniversary and a new jumbotron measuring half the ice.
Now belonging to the school, the teams, and by default, the fans, the arena’s legends passed down through fans and alumni of local schools.
“Everybody has a story. Everybody you come in contact with at these games has a story about Matthews, whether they played there, they went to a game there, they had an academic session or they went to a concert,” Davis said. “You start talking to more and more people around the city, and you realize that it is a great unifier of a building, because more and more people have that connection.”
Because of the students, Matthews Arena has one of the most unique atmospheres in college hockey; the student section fills both ends of the upper level and yell “North” and “Eastern” back and forth.
“Matthews is the only place you can pull that off where it shakes the old barn,” Demirali said.
For Jim Madigan, the current Northeastern athletic director who served as a head coach from 2011-21 after playing at the school from 1981-85, his favorite memory was from 1982. The Huskies were hosting Bowling Green in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, back then coached by legendary Jerry York. Madigan helped on the overtime goal in the second game that sent Northeastern to the Frozen Four.
“The building went crazy,” Madigan said. “Our fans were jumping on the ice. Back then we had a spirit group that was called the Zoo Crew, which is what we now know as the Dog House. They’re all on the ice. Fans were on the ice. Everyone was dancing, celebrating.”
For Madigan, the decision is bittersweet. He too has his favorite memories from the arena, but also knew Northeastern needed an upgrade to stay competitive. The school has known for nearly a decade they would need a new rink.
“For myself and for not just myself, former players, my former teammates and young men that I coach, we are conflicted, right? Because the arena means so much to us, right? It’s unique,” Madigan said.
“This is where your conflicting needs are. … You need modern-day amenities to help attract, recruit and develop young men so that they can reach their goals and their aspirations of continuing hockey at a higher level. … We’ve expanded as much as we can in terms of providing those amenities. And now it’s time for a new facility to provide those new amenities. … You can’t get in the way of progress.”
Oddly enough, Northeastern’s renovations prevented the building from gaining historical status. The school stated that an evaluation by Epsilon Associates in 2023 revealed the “replacement of its historic features predating Northeastern’s ownership makes Matthews Arena ineligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.”
“Unfortunately, the president of the university’s priorities have never been with athletics, which is why you saw the construction of the the science center, the multiple super dorms and the purchase of multiple campuses outside of Boston, all prioritized for university funds, instead of doing something about the hockey arena,” Davis said.
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In March 2025, the school released plans for the new building, which will have to be built on the site where Matthews Arena currently sits. It will be 310,000 square feet, overlapping Matthews Arena and the parking lots adjacent to the rink. The hockey rink will seat 4,050 (it currently seats 4,666) expected to be completed in 2028. The plans are pending city approval.
Northeastern said the school is trying to achieve net-zero certification with several green initiatives, including using reclaimed materials and reusing rainwater for making the ice.
While the demolition is hard for fans, it very literally will leave both men’s and women’s hockey teams without a home for two and a half years. Northeastern released the 2026 portion of the men’s schedule in October, which features games at Boston University’s Walter Brown Arena, Harvard’s Bright-Landry Center, Massachusetts-Lowell’s Tsongas Center. The school now has a practice facility at the Boch Ice Center in Dedham where they are building locker rooms for men’s and women’s hockey.
“The university has made an investment into making sure our student athletes have the best amenities possible when we’re on the road,” Madigan said. “That gives us a home, and it’s not too far from where our where our field hockey team and our track team play,”
Madigan said the school has much to learn from the first foray into being a nomadic hockey team, but they might provide transportation for fans for games that are not close. Keeping a robust student section alive during the transition will be a challenge.
“We certainly hope that [they will help fans get to games], but until they do there will be skepticism,” Davis said.
While the new rink will likely not shake when the student sections cries their signature chant back and forth, Northeastern is hoping the magical memories will continue to exist at the new rink/
“The building might not be there anymore, but the nice part is it’s going to still exist on the same site,” Madigan said. “We’re not moving, so I think the moments and memories which we own and are going to be there forever. Those are ours. We’ll always treasure those, but those will even be as dramatic as impactful, because we’re going to be coming to the same site in the new facility.”
At the very least, Northeastern will keep the iconic arch that debuted in 1910.
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CHN Managing Editor Adam Wodon contributed to this story.
