On Thursday, Philadelphia City Council approved the $1.3 billion proposal for a controversial 76ers arena in Center City. The team wants to begin demolition in 2026 and open 76 Place in time for the 2031-32 NBA season.
By the time that construction on the proposed 76 Place would be underway in 2030, it will have been 120 years since the opening of Philadelphia Arena.
While not the oldest indoor gymnasium in the city, The Philadelphia Ice Palace and Auditorium would open its doors in February of 1920 at 4530 Market Street in West Philadelphia with a college hockey game when 4,000 spectators showed up to see Yale defeat Princeton by a score of 4–0 — seven years before the historic Palestra.
The first team to make Philadelphia Arena home was the Yale Ice Hockey Team for the 1920 season and subsequently in 1920–1921, Penn and Princeton would join them to call Philadelphia Arena home.
Philadelphia Arena was the home to Philadelphia Quakers in their only NHL Season, the Philadelphia Warriors, and even the 76ers when the Philadelphia Civic Center could not be utilized for home games. It also was a major attraction for boxing and wrestling in Philadelphia including matches for the NWA and the 1973 WWWF Championship and saw boxing appearances from Jack Delaney, Sugar Ray Robinson, as well as Joe Frazier.
Philadelphia Arena made its own history as well. It saw Olympic Figure Skater and ten-time world champion Sonja Henrie perform there in 1936, legendary Roy Rogers used the venue for his first rodeo in 1943, and even a funeral for a young cowgirl who had died falling from a bronco in 1946. It housed the mayoral inauguration parties and even a Charles A. Lindberg speech just prior to World War II.
During the 1970s, after a slow decline to other major Philadelphia sports venues — Philadelphia Arena was utilized less and less. In 1977, it was auctioned and proudly renamed for Martin Luther King, Jr. It closed for good in 1981, a result of an arson fire that according to legend was set by one of its owners. Flames would finally take the rest of the building in 1983.
Michael Thomas Leibrandt is member of the York Road Historical Society and lives and works in Abington Township.
