The Women’s Beanpot is headed to Matthews Arena. Could it be for the final time?

Since opening its doors in 1910, Matthews Arena has hosted the Bruins, Celtics, presidential rallies, Reggie Lewis's funeral, and, of course, the sports teams of Northeastern.David L. Ryan

The teeming stands. The stellar hockey. The excitement. The buzz.

An unforgettable night.

When the Women’s Beanpot championship game made its TD Garden debut a year ago, history was made. The move reflected ongoing growth and surging popularity across all women’s sports, putting women’s hockey in a well-earned spotlight on professional ice.

The Beanpot title game, as well as the consolation opener, return to Causeway Street on Jan. 21, with Northeastern looking once again to best Harvard, Boston College, and Boston University and win the coveted trophy for a third straight time. But before booking any trips to the current home of the Bruins, the teams must first make their way through the original home of the Original Six franchise and the on-campus home of Northeastern, the onetime Boston Arena known now as Matthews Arena.

Two buildings separated by about four miles, but what a journey they represent. At one end, an ancient building nearing the end of its useful life, the site of the first men’s (1952) and women’s (1979) Beanpot tournaments, a fixture in Boston’s historical landscape. At the other, the shining jewel of the downtown sports scene, the home of the reigning NBA champs and onetime Stanley Cup winners. And in between, a women’s hockey tournament finally getting its proper due.

Come Tuesday night, with semifinals at 4:30 (BU vs. Harvard) and 7:30 (BC vs. Northeastern), history is on the menu, this time with a potential Beanpot farewell. Though nothing is finalized, plans are already forming to replace the ancient Matthews with a new, state-of-the-art facility.

A rebuilt Boston Arena is shown in December 1920, two years after much of the facility was destroyed by fire.Boston Globe Archives

“I want to be careful, as we have to go through the process, but we know the runway is short,” said Northeastern AD Jim Madigan. “There is sadness because of that. We know it’s on its last legs, that the end is coming, but there’s joy knowing what’s next is going to be bigger and better.”

Given the rotating schedule of hosting the Beanpot, Northeastern’s next turn is four years away. By that time, Matthews will likely be gone, making this an appropriate time to remember the 115-year-old downtown institution for all it has been.

The world’s oldest operating multi-purpose athletic building still in use, Matthews is a standalone character in our sporting landscape. For it to be hosting an iconic women’s event only adds to the luster around this year’s tournament.

“It is a good reminder to take it all in,” said Lindsay Berman, the Northeastern assistant who scored the first goal of her stellar Huskies collegiate career at Matthews. “I’ve had a couple alums reach out that live far away, saying, ‘Let us know what is happening. We need to get back there.’ I imagine we will have a couple special events so that everyone can enjoy it before it goes. It’s just had an impact on so many people’s lives, even if you didn’t play hockey at Northeastern or aren’t even affiliated with Northeastern.

“It’s part of the city, part of the community, part of a lot of people’s lives.”

Matthews Arena, then Boston Arena, was the original home of the Bruins until the Boston Garden was constructed in 1928.Evan McGlinn

Like a living, breathing container of historic events, Matthews has welcomed presidential candidates and political conventions, hosted boxing matches and the fledgling Celtics, held events to celebrate groundbreaking pilot Amelia Earhart and mourn Reggie Lewis, a beloved basketball alum gone too soon. It has been the site of daylong high school hockey tournaments, and honored local, college, and graduate level commencement ceremonies. With its wooden roof and its two-tiered seating structure, it’s a step back in time.

“For the school, it’s not a hockey rink. For the school, it’s a place of community, a place of togetherness, a place of celebrations,” Madigan said. “It’s a place where Northeastern has always come together, but also people around the city.

“It’s a unifier.”

For Berman, it was an attractor. When she arrived from her hometown in Maryland for a recruiting visit, the connection was almost visceral.

“The first time I walked in as a 16-, 17-year-old kid visiting schools, you could feel the history in the building,” she said. “The wooden roof is the first thing I noticed. You see the pictures of people who had been in the building. There’s a list in the varsity suite of 15 or 20 events that had happened, and you could just feel it, the history of the building. As soon as I stepped foot in the building, I was like, ‘This is it. This is where I want to spend my four years in college.’

“Honestly, when I knew we were even going to talk about Matthews, I got a little choked up.”

Madigan, also a former player and coach for the Huskies, had a similar experience. When he came from Toronto to see the campus, he knew his first stop would be the rink rather than the dorms.

“I was in awe of it,” he said. “It was just awesome, a unique, pro-style old building with so much history.”

An artist's rendition of the still-unopened Boston Arena from the Jan. 17, 1910, edition of the Globe. The facility opened three months later with an ice carnival to aid the Sharon Sanatorium.Boston Globe Archives

So of course this is hard.

“It’s a total conflict,” Berman said. “The very first time we heard this was going to happen, we all knew it was coming, I think it was inevitable but we all avoided the reality of it, but when we got that first word, I was really kind of crushed.”

But, as she said, Matthews Arena will always be a part of their history.

“I’m hopeful they take something from the old one and put it in the new one, like the shape of the arch in the entrance. Something so we can remember it, a history wall of the rink itself,” Berman said. “There are pictures of when the ice was an egg shape with chicken wire, when you could only play in the daytime. You can see the openings where the windows were. We don’t have windows anymore.

“The excitement of a new building is there and it will sell itself. But we will miss it.”

Michigan State visited Northeastern for a men's basketball game at Matthews on Dec. 19, 2015.Winslow Townson/Associated Press