WARREN -- In 1981, 20-year-old Anthony Guarnieri noticed Janice Stelman from across the rink. His friends encouraged him to ask her to skate with him during the couples skate.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Stelman and her friends had taken notice of Guarnieri. Her friends chose her to ask him to skate with one of the other girls in the group. As they met halfway on the rink, he asked her to skate. She said OK.

"She never mentioned anything about me skating with her girlfriend," Guarnieri said.

Four years later the couple was wed. It's one of the memories that have not been buried in the rubble when the Motor City Roller Rink was torn down in 1986. Those memories also being preserved on a Web site ( www.guarnieri.com/motorcity/index.htm) and in a display outside the Warren Historical Gallery in the Warren Community Center.

For the past four years, Guarnieri has collected information about the landmark that used to be on Van Dyke just north of Nine Mile.

"I did it because that's where I met my wife, and I did it for myself," said Guarnieri, 45, of Warren, a genealogy buff and member of the Warren Historical and Genealogical Society.

The Motor City originally opened as a movie theater in 1939.

"It showed a lot of the serial movies, and Lincoln High School had its band concerts there," Guarnieri said. "For a couple of years, they had their graduation ceremonies there."

It was also a popular place for dates, including Guarnieri's parents, Paul and Barb (Smith) Guarnieri.

The Motor City remained a movie theater until the late 1950s. In 1960, it became a roller rink.

Steve Schang, who assisted Guarnieri with his research and worked off and on at the Motor City between 1965 and 1986, recalled some of the original details of the building.

"The carpet was still there," said Schang, 55, of Sterling Heights. "It must've been good carpeting to withstand all that traffic for so many years. It had an art deco motif. There was also a mural painted by a student of Diego Rivera. It was in the lobby by the skate rental booth and the concession stand. It looked a lot like the Diego Rivera mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It had a Motor City theme to it."

Over the years, the crowds changed with the times. In the 1960s, the artistic skaters ruled the rink. In the 1970s and 1980s, open skating lured area teens.

The Motor City also played host to concerts by many up-and-coming acts. The Four Tops and Simon and Garfunkel headlined at the Motor City in the 1960s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, bands such as The Clash, Pat Benatar and the B-52s played there before they became rock legends.

By the mid-1980s, Schang said, climbing insurance rates brought the Motor City's existence to a crashing halt. The building was demolished in July 1986. By November of that year, a strip mall was in its place.

While Schang has stayed in touch with many Motor City regulars over the years (about 20 of whom met their spouses at the rink), even more people have reconnected to the Motor City's past through the Web site.

"There was a guy from Arizona who saw the site, and sent me a bunch of pictures from the Pat Benatar concert," Guarnieri said.

"As people get older, they're trying to reconnect with their old friends," Schang said.

The display and the Web site just aren't just for the old-time rockers and roller skaters.

"It helps the generations communicate with each other," said Sue Keffer, vice president of the genealogy and historical society. "It's amazing how many young people have found out what their parents did as kids."

Bonnie Caprara is a Metro Detroit freelance writer. You can contact her at bcaprara@wowway.com.

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