Ball Square Bowling - Boston.com/Somerville article & photos

[ron_newman]

Boston Globe correspondent Danielle Dreilinger came to our Ball Square Bowling meetup last Saturday and has now published an article about the meetup and the alley:

The bowling alley you never knew. The article says that Green Line construction may threaten the bowling alley with demolition.

There's also an accompanying photo slideshow by Rob Vassegh: A night at the alley, including cool photos of the pin-setting machinery as well as our always photogenic hahathor.

I don't know whether the article will appear in print as well.

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

What a great article! And pics! I had thought she was just writing for a student paper.

I'm sad to hear that the Green Line is going to displace it, though that seems to keep getting pushed back. Get your bowling parties in now, folks!

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Well, with any luck, Butch may do better for himself taking an eminent domain payout than keeping the alley up and running. It is a shame to see candlepin die a slow death though.

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

What an interesting article... I remember bowling there with my grandfather when I was a kid.

It is very sad that his son passed away and he is unable to leave the business to him (and to a younger generation that might fight the eminent domain issue.) I can think of a dozen people offhand who would kill to be left that alley and who could make it a more accessible and exciting place.

It seems to me that a case could be made for fitting the station around the building (indeed, so much useless open space seems to surround T stations) but it would take neighborhood support for that to happen (ala the DSTF versus the Red Line's initial desire to tear half of Davis Square down.) Given that most people are unaware the alley is still in operation that seems unlikely... but who knows?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

omg, imagine designing the station to INCLUDE a bowling alley.

[ron_newman]

The article was briefly linked from yesterday's Boston.com front page, and has received five comments. Since we're planning to do this again some time in the summer, we should find out if this is still the case:

"at the end of the season it was so hot inside with little air conditioning you wanted to hurry so you could go across the street for a beer to cool down"

Edit: re " I had thought she was just writing for a student paper. ":

There were two reporters interested in our outing -- the Globe reporter whose article I linked in this post, and also an Emerson College student, hallie_mathia, who posted this to DSLJ the day after our bowling meetup.