  Whithorn11446 Member Username: Whithorn11446 Post Number: 98 Registered: 03-2007 |
I thought it was just called Nottingham Lanes or maybe Nottingham Inn ? I think it was just 6 or 8 lanes. Had a reputation for being a tough place to bowl. Leaving there with 185 was an accomplishment. It seemed those old houses in Detroit were distinct. Chandler on Harper was sometimes referred to as "King of the 10 Pin" (Message edited by Whithorn11446 on June 01, 2007) | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 4443 Registered: 08-2004 |
I spent many happy teen years bowling at Maple Lanes, right next to Balduck Park on E. Warren. As a kid I remember my parents taking me to the Harmonie Club downtown, where they had a few bowling lanes in the basement. Since the building goes to 1894, I wonder if their lanes predate the 1913 Garden Bowl next to the Majestic? Although they were a private German social club, and therefore not an actual bowling alley per se. | ||
Karen8824 Member Username: Karen8824 Post Number: 3 Registered: 08-2006 |
Best Eastside Lanes.... FAMOUS on 7 mile and Hayes area... GREAT PIZZA!! | ||
Whithorn11446 Member Username: Whithorn11446 Post Number: 99 Registered: 03-2007 |
Fantasy was at 7 Mile and Queen. The food may have been good but the rest of the place could have been kept up better. Not aware of a place called Famous | ||
Kellyroad Member Username: Kellyroad Post Number: 63 Registered: 04-2007 |
Fantasy Lanes back in the 60s had 16 lanes, great pizza, and was very well kept up. | ||
Newport1128 Member Username: Newport1128 Post Number: 36 Registered: 05-2007 |
The Jefferson Club was on Jefferson at Eastlawn. It was upstairs above a Meyer Jewelry store. Around the corner on Eastlawn was a Great Scot supermarket. I grew up one block away, on Newport. On a hot summer night with the windows open, you could hear the pins crashing. I bowled my first game there, and shot a little pool too. They had a grill and maybe a bar, as I recall. There was a bar in every block along Jefferson at that time (except the blocks where there was a church). | ||
Whithorn11446 Member Username: Whithorn11446 Post Number: 104 Registered: 03-2007 |
Hey Newport1128, Thanks for the info. I noticed before you mentioned moving to the Grotto area in the early 1970's, but I was wondering do you know if the Jefferson Club lasted until the late 1970's ? I have heard that even by about 1968 someone at the Jefferson Club was watching cars to prevent them from being stolen around there. | ||
Caldogven Member Username: Caldogven Post Number: 53 Registered: 05-2006 |
Anyone remember the alley's on the east side of Van Dyke between maybe Georgia and 6 Mile. Maybe Easttown Lanes? | ||
Newport1128 Member Username: Newport1128 Post Number: 39 Registered: 05-2007 |
Whithorn, my family moved off of Newport in 1971 to the Whittier-Beaconsfield area. Things were starting to get bad around the Jefferson Club area by the late Sixties. There were a couple of porn bookstores in the area (not a good sign). I don't know how much longer the bowling alley lasted. I sort of lost contact with the area once we moved. Things went downhill in a hurry, though. | ||
Whithorn11446 Member Username: Whithorn11446 Post Number: 106 Registered: 03-2007 |
Newport, I'm sure the real estate agents had a field day around Jefferson-Chalmers after the riots since I think the blockbusting had started around Jefferson-Conner some years before the riots. Were you a regular at the Jefferson Club in the 1960's since you lived nearby ? They had some decent leagues in there. The traveling proprietors league stopped at the Jefferson Club. Was the pool table scene full of aspiring hustlers ? Jefferson Club did not seem like a destination for the people of Grosse Pointe that did actually bowl. In terms of a place in Detroit they would frequent, I think East Warren and Maple would be for more likely. | ||
Newport1128 Member Username: Newport1128 Post Number: 40 Registered: 05-2007 |
Whithorn, no I wasn't a regular customer there, just a few visits. I think my aunt, who was a nurse at the old Eastside General Hospital, used to bowl on a league there. As for Grosse Pointers, there used to be a bowling alley on Mack Avenue south of Vernier. There was a Howard Johnson restaurant there, too. They were both torn down in the late 80's or early 90's to make room for a CVS and its parking lot. | ||
Pinewood73 Member Username: Pinewood73 Post Number: 46 Registered: 07-2006 |
With all of the bowling centers that have closed over the years....... Does anybody know the newest bowling center in the Detroit area? Just wondering | ||
Whithorn11446 Member Username: Whithorn11446 Post Number: 108 Registered: 03-2007 |
Newport, I had a few relatives that bowled at Grosse Pointe Woods bowling on Mack. They lived closer to Denby lanes so I don't know exactly why. I guess my point about East Warren-Jefferson Club was that I think some Grosse Pointers were more willing to frequent certain places on the far east side of Detroit back then. Anyway, back on I'm sure some Grosse Pointers went to the Vogue Theatre on Harper,the Alger on E.Warren and not just strictly the Woods Theatre on Mack. For a bowling alley it seemed East Warren had a good reputation as a place to meet girls back then. | ||
Detroit_signal Member Username: Detroit_signal Post Number: 40 Registered: 02-2007 |
Pinewood, Newest facility on the East side of Metro Detroit it Total Sports (20 lanes). The Brunswick pinsetters are from old East Warren Lanes. The Premier Lanes on 23 Mile is also newer and has machines from old Liberty Bowl in Roseville. | ||
Newport1128 Member Username: Newport1128 Post Number: 44 Registered: 05-2007 |
Whithorn, I think you're right, a lot more Grosse Pointers did venture into the Eastside years ago. I went to St. Ambrose, which straddles the Detroit/GP border. There was, however, a certain amount of "us vs. them" sentiment even then between the "Soches" and "Cakes" from GP versus the "Greasers" from Detroit. Mostly just friendly rivalry (unless a Grosse Pointer wanted to date a Detroiter or vice-versa). Kind of like the Montagues vs. the Capulets or the Sharks vs. the Jets. My mom owned a beauty shop on E. Warren around Chatsworth, and a lot of her customers were from GP. | ||
Pinewood73 Member Username: Pinewood73 Post Number: 47 Registered: 07-2006 |
Detroit Signal, Thanks. I bowled a few times at Liberty Bowl, remember it was next to the supermarket Great Scott! | ||
Karen8824 Member Username: Karen8824 Post Number: 5 Registered: 08-2006 |
Yes, it was FAntasy Lanes... But the pizza was still good. Famous Pizza was on Kelly Road. I remember walking home from REgina past all the bars on Kelly Road and the whiskey smell coming from them. | ||
Jerrytimes Member Username: Jerrytimes Post Number: 50 Registered: 04-2007 |
Liberty Bowl was the dumpiest bowling alley in the area. My favorite old alley was Timber Lanes on Gratiot. | ||
Pinewood73 Member Username: Pinewood73 Post Number: 48 Registered: 07-2006 |
I liked Timber Lanes, real wood lanes, very quaint something like 10-12 lanes. Eastland was good too. (the old part) | ||
Ewarrenave Member Username: Ewarrenave Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2007 |
Does anyone remember where Ritter Lanes was? My Dad was an avid bowler, and he used to take us kids there back in the early '70s. I recall it being on Chalmers north of Harper/I-94, but I was never able to locate it again. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 689 Registered: 10-2003 |
First street south of Houston-Whittier at Chalmers. | ||
Cedargrove Member Username: Cedargrove Post Number: 7 Registered: 07-2007 |
It was on Jane, between Chalmers and Newport. The building is still there... I think a church group uses it. | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 373 Registered: 06-2005 |
Theres a gay bar on Warren (Cafe GiGi's) that has an old bowling alley under their parking lot. (thats why the parking lot slopes down. The bowling alley itself is still under the parking lot and has been blocked off in the bar forever. I did get a chance to peek into it back in the early 80's and it was still there with the lanes and it even had some tables and chairs still in there. I keep waiting to hear that the parking lot has caved in on it. Anyone remember that bowling alley when it was operating? And of course Todd's bowling disco on 7 and VanDyke was a bowling alley. Does anyone have any memories of bowling there. They didnt use the full bowling alley for the dance bar and some of the lanes were still intact on the other side of the wall. They used that part just for storage. But when they put the alleys together for the dance floor, that was an awsome idea. Best floor I've ever danced on. | ||
Silverbeauty Member Username: Silverbeauty Post Number: 27 Registered: 11-2005 |
During the early 1940's my dad used to be a pin setter at the Bolwood. It was on the corner of Woodward and the Blvd. He said it used to be in the Storm Feltz Lovely Building. I didn't see it mentioned here, maybe i missed it. Has anybody ever heard of the Bolwood? | ||
Buyamerican Member Username: Buyamerican Post Number: 103 Registered: 02-2007 |
Anyone remember the Archway Bowling Alley on Jefferson near Lycaste? Now, we're going back to the 40's and 50's. | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3411 Registered: 10-2003 |
https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/76017/76838.html Archway...10944 E Jefferson | ||
Briankm Member Username: Briankm Post Number: 2 Registered: 08-2007 |
Saw some discussion regarding the old bowling alley on Springwells - Springwells Recreation. My family owned it from 1938 until it burned in '83. I'm sure it put an additional 10 years on my tired old body, but it provided a lot of laughs, too. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 37 Registered: 09-2007 |
Good old Crest Lanes - at Meyers and Fullerton Mont Carlo Lanes - Plymouth, near Hubbell Never rolled at Crest, but I've heard a nostalgic tale...or two, from friends and acquaintances. My only memory associated with Crest was when it burned to the ground in late '69, possibly early '70. Mont Carlo is where I rolled my high game (222); won a League Championship there - as a 7th grader, in 1971. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 1754 Registered: 12-2005 |
Chuckjav--a bowling alley fire is a fireman's worst nightmare. the rock maple lanes are covered with multiple coats of varnish and wax. The buildings are usually a bow-truss roof design--the perfect storm: a fueled fire from below, a roof structure that gives all at once when the fire is at its peak. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 1182 Registered: 12-2005 |
In January 1962, Pampa Lanes on Van Dyke in Warren burned to the ground in less than one hour. Photo of the fire and more info here. |
