Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Anybody know anything about the underground bowling alley that was at Central and Pierce? The sidewalk above had glass blocks inset into it to allow light below. I remember the sidewalk as a kid, but I didn't find out till later what was underneath. I guess it closed around 1950?
There was a bowling alley on the southeast corner. I think it was called the Gold Spot Bowling Alley. I don't think it was underground though, probably had a basement. Originally it was behind Nielsen Radio Supply that had the first radio station in Phoenix in the 1920's, the forerunner of KOY. There were two steel towers on the roof for the antenna, one day one fell over on the apartment building next door. North, across the street was the old Central Methodist Church.
In the 1930's or earlier there was an outdoor bowling alley at Roosevelt and 1st Street. It had cement lanes. Later it was a small amusement park with donkeys kids could ride on and a train.
Roosevelt, I used the name "Gold Spot" that you gave and did some further searching and below is what I found.
"UNDERGROUND ALLEY RECALLS SIMPLE TIMES
Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)
November 12, 2003
Author: Bob Golfen, The Arizona Republic
Honeylou Reznik used to go bowling under the sidewalk along Central Avenue.
The underground bowling alley at Central and Pierce Street is long abandoned, but pedestrians can still see the glass blocks in the pavement that provided sunlight for the players below.
"During high school, I used to go bowling all the time," said Reznik, who graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1946.
"I remember walking down the stairs. ... Boys were setting up the pins. It wasn't mechanical in those days," she recalled.
The old bowling alley is now part of the city block owned by Reznik's husband, Morris, who operates the Jewel Box pawn shop on the same block just across from the Westward Ho. Morris Reznik, of H-M Investments, has owned the block from Pierce to Fillmore Street and Central to First Street for about 30 years.
Their son, Steve, who also runs the Jewel Box, recently helped engineers from Valley Metro Rail explore the former bowling alley in preparation for building a light-rail line on Central.
The underground structure, now little more than a cellar held up by concrete columns, is off the right-of-way and won't be affected by the construction.
The only sign that it was once a bowling alley are the words "Please Stay Back of Foul Line" written across one of the support beams, and a bowling-pin graphic on one column. Some of the support structures for the human pinsetters can still be seen along one wall.
Not much is known about the bowling alley, although there are historic references to the Gold Spot bowling alley in that area that closed around 1950. The subterranean lanes apparently date to when the Westward Ho was a booming tourist destination and the downtown area was a hub of recreation and entertainment. The hotel, finished in 1928, now is housing for the elderly.
The area around the Westward Ho and the nearby Adams Hotel, at Central Avenue and Adams Street, was a popular place for dances and other evening activity when Honeylou was a high school student, she said. This was during World War II, and young GIs training to go overseas would come in from the air bases and other facilities.
"This was during the war years, and there were soldiers all around," she said, adding that bowling was one of the main forms of entertainment.
"There wasn't much of anything in Phoenix at that time, and this was one of things we did for fun.""
Roosevelt, I used the name "Gold Spot" that you gave and did some further searching and below is what I found.
"UNDERGROUND ALLEY RECALLS SIMPLE TIMES
Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)
November 12, 2003
Author: Bob Golfen, The Arizona Republic
Honeylou Reznik used to go bowling under the sidewalk along Central Avenue.
The underground bowling alley at Central and Pierce Street is long abandoned, but pedestrians can still see the glass blocks in the pavement that provided sunlight for the players below.
"During high school, I used to go bowling all the time," said Reznik, who graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1946.
"I remember walking down the stairs. ... Boys were setting up the pins. It wasn't mechanical in those days," she recalled.
The old bowling alley is now part of the city block owned by Reznik's husband, Morris, who operates the Jewel Box pawn shop on the same block just across from the Westward Ho. Morris Reznik, of H-M Investments, has owned the block from Pierce to Fillmore Street and Central to First Street for about 30 years.
Their son, Steve, who also runs the Jewel Box, recently helped engineers from Valley Metro Rail explore the former bowling alley in preparation for building a light-rail line on Central.
The underground structure, now little more than a cellar held up by concrete columns, is off the right-of-way and won't be affected by the construction.
The only sign that it was once a bowling alley are the words "Please Stay Back of Foul Line" written across one of the support beams, and a bowling-pin graphic on one column. Some of the support structures for the human pinsetters can still be seen along one wall.
Not much is known about the bowling alley, although there are historic references to the Gold Spot bowling alley in that area that closed around 1950. The subterranean lanes apparently date to when the Westward Ho was a booming tourist destination and the downtown area was a hub of recreation and entertainment. The hotel, finished in 1928, now is housing for the elderly.
The area around the Westward Ho and the nearby Adams Hotel, at Central Avenue and Adams Street, was a popular place for dances and other evening activity when Honeylou was a high school student, she said. This was during World War II, and young GIs training to go overseas would come in from the air bases and other facilities.
"This was during the war years, and there were soldiers all around," she said, adding that bowling was one of the main forms of entertainment.
"There wasn't much of anything in Phoenix at that time, and this was one of things we did for fun.""
Here is the history of the radio station in front of the Gold Spot bowling alley. 6BBH - KDYM - KFCB - KOY - History
I have a 1927 photo, which I cannot post because the photo does not belong to me, that shows Nielsen Radio Equipment in the front of the building and the bowling alley entrance, a big arrow sign with 'Bowling,' on the side of the building off Pierce St. There are two large towers on the roof with the call letters KFCB. This was listed at 621 north Central. Apparently this was the only bowling alley in Phoenix in those days and was listed as the Nielsen Bowling Alley.
Last edited by roosevelt; 11-27-2009 at 10:57 AM..
Anybody else go to the big used book store on the south edge of the city in the 60s? Any idea where it was? It was like a big ole warehouse jammed with books, a sort of low rent Bookman's.
I'm trying to remember where we used to go horse riding in the desert when we lived here in 64-65 and ten years later. It was somewhere on the north side not the south. Was there a place on Shea? I was offered a job as a "lady wrangler" but, perhaps unfortunately, I chose to go back to college. The boys would ride off to visit with girlfriends and didn't get the work done. The woman who owned the place thought a girl might be more reliable. I would have been, anyway.
When we lived in Phoenix the first time we knew people who had been here in the Territorial days. That was amazing. One neighbor in his 80s took my father and brother down Fishcreek Hill in a harrowing drive where he acted as if he were driving horses instead of a car that needed his hands on the steering wheel a bit more securely and his eyes a bit more on the road. He drove a wagon with dynamite to build Roosevelt Dam and he drove a stagecoach. A distant cousin of my mother had gone to gatherings at the Territorial Governor's house, which was really cool but back then society was very small and it wouldn't have taken a lot to get invited or to know the man and his wife. It wasn't as hot then and she only used her swamp cooler a few months of the year. It also wasn't as planted up so was good for people with allergies and lung problems unlike today. I can't live here today. I'm sick just visiting from both the plants and the pollution.
Is there a map online that shows the city as it was in the early 60s? I remember we came during a recession and there were abandoned housing developments in the desert that were just ghostly roads and lots and for sale signs. Uptown was just being built. We lived in a very safe neighborhood that appears to be as nice today, although minus orange trees that dropped green fruit onto the road that we kicked as we rode our bikes. There were no mansions anywhere around then but our house was the largest I have ever lived in before or since. It was easily twice as large as the house we moved to next in Illinois because they were going for a song in that bust period in Phoenix, and even so we lost money on it when we left and the bust was still continuing. My father's job didn't work out but it was an eye opening experience that changed our lives.
I saw a boy on a skateboard yesterday going up a road I had taken from school and that reminded me that my father got us the newest thing from CA--wooden skateboards we used on the sidewalks, only a slightly more modern version of what he had made as a child with, of course, a skate and a board. I like the continuity.
We came at Easter and when we got off the plane it was like we were entering a tropical paradise. (Yes, I'm quite aware it's in the desert. But that's how it seemed as the wall of floral scents hit us as we walked down the stairs to the airport tarmac and how it seemed as we stared in amazement at the plants all the way to our house. We even had a little fig tree with sun warmed figs. Wow.) I had culture and climate shock the whole time I lived here in the 60s but we came back for Easter vacations for years after we moved away, when Old Scotsdale was my personal highlight of any visit, until the pollution became ugly. By the time we lived here in the mid 70s it was sad and ugly. It took me all these years to come back. Maybe technology will save Phoenix. All is not lost. Look at Lake Erie. It was so bad it caught on fire and yet it was brought back from the brink.
We left because as my father told people over and over who asked how he could move from such a gorgeous place, "You can't eat scenery." Now I'm the one caught in the grip of a recession and in deep trouble. Everything old is new again. But it's fun to remember what made it special before. I thank the contributors to this thread.
I don't think there was a riding stable on Shea in that time frame, but it seems to me there was another one out that way. I don't think ABC Ranch on Cactus rented horses. We used to go to Indian Trails Horse Country Club at Pima and Indian Bend, and ride out on the reservation.
Anybody else go to the big used book store on the south edge of the city in the 60s? Any idea where it was? It was like a big ole warehouse jammed with books, a sort of low rent Bookman's.
I'm trying to remember where we used to go horse riding in the desert when we lived here in 64-65 and ten years later. It was somewhere on the north side not the south. Was there a place on Shea? I was offered a job as a "lady wrangler" but, perhaps unfortunately, I chose to go back to college. The boys would ride off to visit with girlfriends and didn't get the work done. The woman who owned the place thought a girl might be more reliable. I would have been, anyway.
When we lived in Phoenix the first time we knew people who had been here in the Territorial days. That was amazing. One neighbor in his 80s took my father and brother down Fishcreek Hill in a harrowing drive where he acted as if he were driving horses instead of a car that needed his hands on the steering wheel a bit more securely and his eyes a bit more on the road. He drove a wagon with dynamite to build Roosevelt Dam and he drove a stagecoach. A distant cousin of my mother had gone to gatherings at the Territorial Governor's house, which was really cool but back then society was very small and it wouldn't have taken a lot to get invited or to know the man and his wife. It wasn't as hot then and she only used her swamp cooler a few months of the year. It also wasn't as planted up so was good for people with allergies and lung problems unlike today. I can't live here today. I'm sick just visiting from both the plants and the pollution.
Is there a map online that shows the city as it was in the early 60s? I remember we came during a recession and there were abandoned housing developments in the desert that were just ghostly roads and lots and for sale signs. Uptown was just being built. We lived in a very safe neighborhood that appears to be as nice today, although minus orange trees that dropped green fruit onto the road that we kicked as we rode our bikes. There were no mansions anywhere around then but our house was the largest I have ever lived in before or since. It was easily twice as large as the house we moved to next in Illinois because they were going for a song in that bust period in Phoenix, and even so we lost money on it when we left and the bust was still continuing. My father's job didn't work out but it was an eye opening experience that changed our lives.
I saw a boy on a skateboard yesterday going up a road I had taken from school and that reminded me that my father got us the newest thing from CA--wooden skateboards we used on the sidewalks, only a slightly more modern version of what he had made as a child with, of course, a skate and a board. I like the continuity.
We came at Easter and when we got off the plane it was like we were entering a tropical paradise. (Yes, I'm quite aware it's in the desert. But that's how it seemed as the wall of floral scents hit us as we walked down the stairs to the airport tarmac and how it seemed as we stared in amazement at the plants all the way to our house. We even had a little fig tree with sun warmed figs. Wow.) I had culture and climate shock the whole time I lived here in the 60s but we came back for Easter vacations for years after we moved away, when Old Scotsdale was my personal highlight of any visit, until the pollution became ugly. By the time we lived here in the mid 70s it was sad and ugly. It took me all these years to come back. Maybe technology will save Phoenix. All is not lost. Look at Lake Erie. It was so bad it caught on fire and yet it was brought back from the brink.
We left because as my father told people over and over who asked how he could move from such a gorgeous place, "You can't eat scenery." Now I'm the one caught in the grip of a recession and in deep trouble. Everything old is new again. But it's fun to remember what made it special before. I thank the contributors to this thread.
Two quick notes here:
#1: that bookstore you speak of may have been on Van Buren and was Alpha Family Books if memory holds me correctly; they disappeared about 15 years ago.
#2: in this recession; the Midwest is also in agony so it is not just an 'Arizona' thing.
Speaking of Grand Ave., here it is as it appeared on a city map dated c.1950. Notice the population in the bottom corner. 128,841 (exactly)!. Also how the Black Canyon Freeway ends south of Van Buren.
Check out the Air Haven airport on Indian @ 27ave.
Can you imagine planes landing there now?
Air Haven from 1959.
Indian School Rd at the top, 31st Ave runs top to bend in runway and Grand Ave at lower left corner.
#1: that bookstore you speak of may have been on Van Buren and was Alpha Family Books if memory holds me correctly; they disappeared about 15 years ago.
was it Al's Family Book Store on Van Buren?
I remember they had a great selection of old magazines like "Life" and "Look"...are they closed now??
Is there a map online that shows the city as it was in the early 60s?.
Here's a map dated 1939.
Buckeye Rd was apparently called Greenshaw St.
The AZ Canal was the Maricopa Canal.
North High was (and still is) way way out north. All the way out to Thomas.
Dear me! How will we ever get out that far? Pack a lunch-were going on a trip!
I remember they had a great selection of old magazines like "Life" and "Look"...are they closed now??
Al's book and magazine store was on the north side of Van Buren between 14th and 15th streets. I was there in the late 60's looking around. You would not believe the number of old comics for sale in there for 10 cents; comics that today would be worth thousands of dollars, but who knew? Most comics were donated to paper drives, some churches regularly had comics burning events, I have a photo somewhere. They were considered violent and Wonder Woman was too sexy. Mothers on my block would put used comic books in the sun to 'sanitize' them, talk about fading colors.
Found the photo, 1940's, looks like students, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and I see a nun.
Last edited by roosevelt; 03-21-2010 at 04:15 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Map 1939
