Abandoned Bowling Alley

About a mile from our house is an abandoned bowling alley.  There are many many abandoned buildings all over the city but a bowling alley is an extra special lure.

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For the first two years of living here there was a fence around the establishment, and even though I passed it several times a week I kind of forgot it was there.

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As time (and hurricanes) went on, the fence fell down and the doors blew off. C,mon there wasn’t even a No Trespassing sign. Trevor and I spent part of a date last June poking around. (I didn’t get a photo of the front sign because it was near a busy street and I didn’t want someone yelling at us to leave haha)

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WordPress has jumbled my photo order but here goes. I didn’t plan ahead and bring a tripod but I did the best I could with my SLR camera.  Here’s the main area with the lanes.

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This was so freaky eerie. We didn’t bring the kids because we weren’t sure if there were any homeless squatters around, packs of stray dogs or broken glass lying about. We were alone, but there was certainly evidence of others before us (aka beer cans and a strong smell of piss. ew.)

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Ceiling panels were laying about having suffered from water damage and age. Bowling shoes and pins were on the floor like the building was abandoned in a rush

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Amazingly the wall paint was unaffected by age and time

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I wandered to the behind the scenes by the machines that loaded the pins. Remember, it was pitch pitch black this far into the building.  Trevor didn’t even go back here. I was using my phone flashlight. It was too creepy to dodge around these machines to go in any further.  I didn’t want to step in anything too nasty or get stuck somewhere!

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I told Trevor  we should’ve helped ourselves to a bowling ball or two. haha  But we didn’t.  Probably should’ve brought rubber gloves to touch stuff.

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Trevor looked in the lockers and found a bunch of street shoes. What happened? Halfway through a Saturday night of bowling they made an announcement it was closing and everyone had ten seconds to get out?

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Above and below are photos near the shoe counter.  There were a lot of questionable goop and trash on the floor we had to step around.

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Someone earned this trophy dangit and now it’s broken and dusty. aw.

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I also told Trevor we should help ourselves to some bowling shoes. We didn’t, but why I’m not sure.

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This photo below is the front lobby and restaurant. This would’ve been a cool place! Intricate ceiling, pool table, large bar and balcony seating.

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We ascended the stairs in the restaurant to find the office space for management. What happened here? jeez

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Trevor poked around the very full filing cabinets but didn’t see anything exceptionally interesting. Why was the desk overturned and who did it?  All these windows were broken or just gone.

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This is the second floor of the restaurant.  There must have been railings so patrons didn’t fall down onto the pool table below haha

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I was AMAZED to find these letters strewn on the floor. (I arranged them for the photo). They are bills from 1987 and 1988. When did this place go under??

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We only saw one little doggie who was scared of us and hid in the bush.  More bowling balls outside.

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These must’ve been offices rented out or something. Some areas seemed like it was organized long ago before being abandoned.

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Rock or bullet?

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Sorry these are out of order. This is the lower level of the bar/restaurant again. I love the checkered floor.

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You can see the bar way in the back there.  Those are the steps on the right we took up to the offices

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Here’s wider shots of the bowling lanes. It was quite dark in there!

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We totally should’ve taken some souvenirs!!

Answers: my neighbor was very helpful

Overall it was one, if not the, creepiest thing I’ve done in a long time.

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