birmingham bowling :: essays research papers

BIRMINGHAM BOWLING CENTERSThe first bowling house in Birmingham is slenderly of a mystery. As happens so many times, it depends on whom you ask. Some take there was a bowling house on 1st road North near the Old Terminal Station while others enunciate the YMCA had the first, with either two or four bowling avenues located in the YMCA building. It is agreed, however, that the first regularly used bowling center was opened in 1933 and known as The Phoenix bowl Alley, located in the root cellar of the Phoenix expression at 1706 2nd Avenue North. It was a twelve- (12) lane house, owned and operated by Harry and Elizabeth Arnold. Its opening in 1933 coincided with the forming of the Greater Birmingham Bowling Association. First officers of the association were V.G. Shields - President, Manual A. Ellis -Secretary, and F. J. Stanton - Treasurer, and the Executive Committee included Dr. N. C. Glass, junior and M. A. Moran. The Phoenix Bowling Alley remained in business until the Phoen ix Building burned down. During the 1930s and until the war, Birmingham bowling, like most activities, was centralized in the downtown area - between 2nd and 5th Avenues North. Bowling Houses, in humanitarian to Phoenix - in alphabetical order - were Downtown (Birmingham) Bowling Lanes, casualness Bowling Alley and Lucky Strike Lanes. Bowling grew in popularity later World War II and continued to grow through the fifties, and with this popularity, came an increment in bowling alleys Tarrant City (8 lanes), Fairfield (6 lanes), Woodlawn (8 lanes), lrondale (16 lanes), Five Points South (12 lanes), and Chapman Lanes, later to be known as LoMac Bowl (16 lanes). Chapman Lanes got its name from sensation of the proprietors, Ben Chapman - the great major(ip) league baseball player from Birmingham. Marvin Lowry (Lo) and Joe McCorvey (Mac) purchased Chapman Lanes, and the name was changed to LoMac Bowl. It was not long until nice 6-12 lane houses gave way to the modern automated cent ers. In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, came the introduction of todays modern Bowling Centers.The first one to open in Birmingham was Holiday Bowl (32 lanes), followed by Bowl-O-Mac) LoMac Bowl closed and the name was reversed for the new center to read BowLoMac), Eastwood BowlRoebuck, Ensley, Homewood, waste Bowl, Trussville (later Cahaba), Green Springs, Vestavia Lanes, Star Bowl, Honey Lanes, El Dorado (later Super Bowl) and Riverview Lanes.