The body of ice has remarkable smoothness and the excellence of its surroundings is unsurpassed anywhere on the globe.

At ice level, which was below ground, the rink was surrounded with three rows of hardwood benches with red velvet cushions. Each end of the rink featured 10 dressing rooms smartly furnished with oil paintings and floor-to-ceiling tapestries. The rooms were owned by politicians and capitalists from the banking, steel, coal and railroad industries and were used for winter carnivals, skating expos and political rallies. In all, the Casino’s management added $140,000 in amenities beyond the original construction cost.

The Casino had a quaint 400-seat theatre that opened into the main floor and could easily convert into a large concert or convention hall. The south end of the building had an elegantly appointed cafe that served theatre patrons.

The Casino also had a ladies’ reception room that was adorned with imported carpeting, lace curtains, stuffed leather recliners and “every other modern day device.” At the side of the ladies’ reception area was the childcare and play area with a matron in charge.

The primary attraction at the Casino, however, was the elliptical-shaped, 225 x 70 foot ice surface. (The standard rink size in the NHL today is 200 x 85). The main floor "bowl" was concrete mixed with a marble chip aggregate and was designed to hold water. The concrete was poured on top of a series of looping “chiller pipes” that carried ammonia gas from the Casino’s ice making room. The ammonia froze the concrete slab and one inch of water on the floor.

"Skating on ice is a pastime that perhaps no one in this city ever before indulged in at this period of year," claimed an article in a May 1895 edition of the Pittsburg Press. The article also praised the Casino: "The body of ice has remarkable smoothness and the excellence of its surroundings and is unsurpassed anywhere on the globe."

The Pittsburgh Post was equally full of praise about opening night: "The big ice skating rink was perhaps the best patronized party at The Casino. Hundreds of persons took advantage of the rare opportunity to skate on ice in hot weather, and they had plenty of amusement and excercise."

Public skating sessions were held only on weekdays.  The five cent admission included steel skate frames that strapped over a person’s winter footwear. One thousand pairs of skates were available. Saturdays were reserved for private parties and the Pittsburgh Hockey Club that evolved into the Pittsburgh Keystones – a group of local men from Western University (University of Pittsburgh) and Carnegie Tech.

While ammonia was the solution that enabled the Casino to be North America’s first artificial indoor rink, it also was the reason the building was destroyed.

In the early-morning hours of December 17, 1896, an ammonia pipe in the icemaking department began leaking. Firefighters believed the gas mixed with grease and created an explosion. The fire that ensued consumed the equipment room in the rear of the Casino and spread to the ladies’ dressing room. Cold December temperatures caused decreased water pressure for fire hoses, and limited access across the wooden Schenley Bridge gave the fire too much of a head start for the fire brigade.

Less than 40 minutes after the firefighters began attacking the blaze, a larger explosion of the main ammonia storage tank leveled the rear half of the building sending glass and timbers flying across the Schenley Bridge. Newspaper accounts told of flames “shooting hundreds of feet above the park.” The heat was so intense it melted glass at the Phipps Conservancy.

The dense smoke and heavy ammonia fumes forced firefighters to retreat from trying to save the main hall of the building. Adding water to the ammonia only exacerbated the lingering cloud of poisonous gas. The building was totally consumed by fire within an hour. The intense heat, fueled by the heavy oak wood interior, melted the copper cornices along the roof.

Pittsburgh Fire Chief Miles Humphries declared the fire “unmanageable” and forced all firefighters and horse-drawn equipment away from the structure. The Casino flames raged on for an additional six hours and smoldered for two days. The only thing that remained was the large brick smoke stack and a portion of the wall along the bridge side of the Casino. All of the ice skates were gone and a brand-new merry-go-round, valued at $30,000, was destroyed in the blaze.

The Yale hockey team was to have played a series of games against Western University, Duquesne and the Keystones but they were telegraphed and told not to come to Pittsburgh.

The remaining portion of the structure was razed the day after Christmas. The building was “woefully underinsured”– a mere $75,000 was covered.

“It was an oversight. Fire from an explosion of the ammonia tanks was an emergency never contemplated and consequently never provided for,” Casino boss Davis explained to the Commercial Gazette as to why little insurance was carried. “We had taken all other precautions, but neglected the vital one,” Davis said. Investors initially were hopeful that the Casino would rise again, but it never materialized.