In 1895, Pittsburgh officials, constructed the Schenley Park Casino which featured the first artificial ice-making plant in North America.

On December 30, 1895, the Pittsburgh Press made mention of a “great international hockey and polo tournament” opening game at the Casino.

No score or records were reportedly kept but the paper did note that the team from Queen's University outplayed the Pittsburghers, who had never played the game before.

The Keystones were instrumental in changing the league from amateur to professional, and were the first WPHL team to recruit heavily from Canada.

The league lured players from Canada with promises of high-paid employment and small cash incentives, which was around $30 a week.

[11] As a result, the Pittsburgh teams were able to get many great players such as future Hall of Famers Alf Smith, Hod Stuart and Riley Hern.

[16] The next season, Portage Lakes continued to play Pro exhibition games, but raided Pittsburgh's teams for top players like Riley Hern and Bruce Stuart.

That year Garnet Sixsmith, who played in the WPHL, became the first hockey player to use aluminum skates, after he noticed that they were used by speed skaters.

[16]Within two years of play, professional leagues were now popping up all over Canada and most of the great players went back home for a better pay day, so the IHL folded.

It was decided to revive the four team WPHL for the 1907–08 season, which started several weeks before the Canadian leagues, since there were no artificial ice rinks in Canada until 1911.

[18] A bigger trade occurred on January 27, 1908, when the Pirates sent James MacKay, Edgar Dey and Dunc Taylor to the Bankers for Joseph Donnelly and Bert Bennett.

[20] By the 1908–09 season, the WPHL found that it could no longer rely on salaries as novelty to attract Canadian talent, since professionalism had spread into Canada.

The start of the season brought promise, with Alf Smith, Arthur Sixsmith, Lorne Campbell and goalie James MacKay in charge of the four teams, but by late December fully one-third of the league's players had accepted offers to play in different leagues.

Many players initially signed up for the WPHL because the league played all of its games on Duquesne Garden's artificial ice and was not dependent on cold weather to provide a naturally frozen surface.

[citation needed] As winter began and Canadian rinks became available, some players flocked north to teams closer to home.

In 1915, the WPHL's Arthur Sixsmith managed an ice hockey team for Pittsburgh's Winter Garden at Exposition Hall.

[14] On November 16, 1935, Garnet Sixsmith dropped the ceremonial first puck, honoring the WPHL, at Duquesne Garden, for the inaugural home game of the Pittsburgh Shamrocks of the International Hockey League.

[23] Teams that played in the WPHL include: * Disbanded during season The following players are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame: