Last Candlepin Bowling Alley In Worcester Closes For Good
WORCESTER (CBS) -- Worcester is the birthplace of candlepin bowling, and now the last alley of its kind in the city is closing for good. When other businesses around the state are able to reopen, Colonial Bowling Center will remain closed.
Manager Paul Wambach said 91-year-old owner Nick Anderson no longer has the energy to run the business, and the statewide shutdown in March helped him decide it was time.
Wambach, who has worked at the alley for the past 30 years, said he never thought this is how the alley would end. The lanes opened in 1960, and not much has changed inside since, from the furniture to the lanes themselves.
"I'm gonna miss most things about it," Wambach said. "Everybody's become like this family almost, so it's upsetting to a lot of people."
Justin "Pop" White is credited with creating the sport back in the 1880s at his bowling alley on Pearl Street in Worcester. By the time Colonial Bowling Center opened in 1960, the sport was incredibly popular across New England. Wambach said there were, at one point, more than 25 alleys in the city.
The popularity of the sport has faded away though, and now another piece of its history will be gone.
"I'll just miss being in here with people that are here to have a good time," Wambach said. "I know everybody and they all know me."
As far as what's next for the building that was built to be a bowling alley, Wambach said it could be sold.
"If somebody doesn't buy it and keep it as a bowling alley, it's the end of an era," he said.