In 1896, telegraph wires were connected at the Rink to do simultaneous score-by-score description of a Stanley Cup challenge series between Montreal and Winnipeg, Manitoba teams, a first of its kind.

Surpassed by other facilities, including the Montreal Forum, the rink was sold in 1925 and today the site is occupied by a parking garage.

Designed by Lawford & Nelson, Architects, the building was a long (252 by 113 feet [77 m × 34 m]), wide, two-storey brick edifice with a 52-foot-high (16 m) pitched roof supported from within by curving wooden trusses, which arched over the entire width of the structure.

Tall, round-arched windows punctuated its length and illuminated its interior, while evening skating was made possible by 500 gas-jet lighting fixtures set in coloured glass globes.

It was surrounded by a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) platform, or promenade, which was elevated approximately 1 foot (30 cm) above the ice surface and upon which spectators could stand or skaters could rest.

At the time of its construction, the rink's location at 49 Drummond Street (now renumbered to 1187), placed it in the centre of the English community in Montreal, in the vicinity of McGill University.

Across the street to the east, the Windsor Hotel, a long-time centre of social life and meeting place of several sports organizations, was built in 1875, and was the site of the founding of both the Montreal Canadiens (1909) and the National Hockey League itself in 1917.

The Victoria Skating Club was incorporated on June 9, 1862, with a sizable capitalization of $12,000, for the purpose of buying the land and building the rink.

[10] By about 1880, membership in the Victoria Skating Club had reached 2,000, mostly drawn from Montreal's upper classes, who enjoyed considerable leisure time and could afford to participate in such events as the fancy-dress balls, which were a regular feature at the rink.

[3] A quote from the 1870s that appeared in the book Montreal Yesterdays captures the essence: When many hundred persons are upon the ice, and with every variety of costume, pass through all the graceful figures that skaters delight in, the scene presented to the spectator is dazzling in the extreme.

In 1886, visiting Captain Willard Glazier described the scene: One of the principal points of attraction in both winter and summer is the Victoria Skating Rink, in Dominion Square.

The place is lighted by gas, and men and women, old and young, with a plentiful sprinkling of children, on skates, are practicing all sorts of gyrations.

The spectators sit or stand on a raised lege around the ice parallelogram, while the skaters dart off, singly or in pairs, executing quadrilles, waltzes, curves, straight lines, letters, labyrinths, and every conceivable figure.

Now and then some one comes to grief in the surging, moving throng; but is quickly on his or her feet again, the ice and water shaken off, and the zigzag resumed.

It is the grand Montrealese pastime, and though the ice is sloppy, and the air chill and heavy with moisture, everybody has a good time.

[12]The Rink hosted pleasure skating and masquerade balls during the 1880s Montreal Winter Carnivals, which took place a city block to the east in Dominion Square.

[13] The match lays claim to this distinction because of several factors which establish its link to modern ice hockey: it featured two teams (nine players per side), goaltenders, a referee, a puck, a pre-determined set of rules, including a pre-determined length of time (60 minutes) with a recorded score.

In order to limit injuries to spectators and damage to glass windows, the game was played with a wooden puck instead of a lacrosse ball, possibly the first time such an object was used.

Some fears have been expressed on the part of intending spectators that accidents were likely to occur through the ball flying about in too lively a manner, to the imminent danger of lookers on, but we understand that the game will be played with a flat circular piece of wood, thus preventing all danger of its leaving the surface of the ice.

The Rink hosted the founding meeting of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) league in December 1886.

[19] By that time, the building had gained an elevated balcony for additional spectators and a projecting loge, precursor of today's luxury boxes.

Club honorary president Sir H. Montagu Allan and Lady Evelyn Grey were the first to appear on the ice.

[24] In 1890, an audience of 6,000 attended a benefit for Montreal's Notre-Dame Hospital featuring a performance by soprano Emma Albani, as well as pianist and composer Salomon Mazurette, violinist Alfred De Sève, and the Montreal City Band under the direction of Ernest Lavigne.

The programme included "singing by the children and by the Fisk Jubilee singers, and exhibition by a number of deaf mutes and also by several Indians from Algoma.

NHL hockey is played nearby at Centre Bell, the home arena of the Canadiens, located two blocks south.