Skating palace will be razed

It’s the end of the road for the Rollaway.

The roller-skating rink at 1203 Idaho St. in Lewiston has been closed since last year. CHAS Health, a Spokane nonprofit, bought the building and its adjacent parking lot in April with tentative plans to remodel the old structure into a new home for its Lewis & Clark Health Center.

That clinic currently operates at 338 Sixth St. in space leased from St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. But Kelley Halverson, vice president for administrative services at CHAS Health, said the company evaluated the building for several months before deciding it couldn’t suit its needs.

“The space that existed was actually more square footage than what was needed for the clinic,” Halverson said, noting that a smaller building also will allow for more parking. “Parking is always a consideration when we’re looking at new clinics.”

Work is expected to begin early next year, with completion sometime in the summer. The clinic bought the building for a verified sale price of $425,000, according to Nez Perce County Assessor Dan Anderson. The sale was for two parcels, including the building lot and the adjoining parking lot.

Anderson said much of his time growing up in Lewiston was spent skating at the Rollaway, drinking 10 cent sodas, eating Tootsie Rolls, meeting girls and — if he got lucky — maybe even holding hands.

“We lived it there,” he said wistfully. “I must have put in a million miles going around and around and around.”

Gathering spots like the Rollaway used to be common, and Anderson lamented that many of them are gone.

“We had the roller rink, two free-flowing rivers, and the beaches in Lewiston and Clarkston were just packed,” Anderson said before nostalgically cataloging all the local hotspots from his youth. They are now all long gone, and the Rollaway will soon join them in the landfill of history.

Anderson may even be able to credit his very existence to the rink. His parents met there back when it was called Skateland.

“Come on down to Skateland and put wheels on your heels,” he said, reciting the rink’s old ad.

The building went through several iterations since its original construction in 1947 or 1948, with the owners modernizing sporadically over the years, Anderson added. It was even briefly a discount retailer in the 1970s.

Former owners Thomas and Mary Williams of Auburn, Wash., had various people manage the rink, with varying levels of success. They put it up for sale about 13 years ago, but took it off the market in 2015 when a new couple wanted a shot at keeping the business going.

Thomas Williams, son of the rink’s founders, promised not to sell the building while they were giving it a try. But that ended when the Rollaway closed in June 2017 due to an electrical problem.

It never reopened.

City officials have suggested the building might be a suitable place for a homeless shelter because it’s close to resources like transit, social and government services, medical care, financial institutions and retail establishments. Last year the Lewiston City Council even drew boundaries for zoning districts that allow homeless shelters to include unused downtown commercial buildings like the Rollaway.

Though, the building won’t become a homeless shelter, it can help serve that population. CHAS Health treats all patients, regardless of whether they have insurance or ability to pay. Patients who can pay at least some of their costs for care are charged on a sliding scale.

Halverson said the existing clinic has outgrown its location and a new site will allow the treatment of more patients with more exam rooms, a larger on-site pharmacy and increased behavioral health space. A new, custom-built space also will allow architects to design for more patient-centered workflow.

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266.