photo day
PHOTO OF THE DAY: SATURDAY SELECTION
This photo was posted on Heritage Hall Museum & Archives’ Facebook page this past Monday as part of its weekly look back. Here’s the description:
For more than four decades, bowling was a popular sport in Freeman and Palace Bowl was the place to be.Orville Ellwein opened Palace Bowl Bowling Lanes in 1961 on the east side of Relanto Street between Fourth and Sixth streets. The accompanying photo is undated but is believed to have been made in the early 1960s.
Writing in “Freeman Facts, Freeman Fiction,” the local history book published in 1979, Ellwein shared some background, noting it was a project of his and the Freeman Bowling Association.
“I became interested in bowling after I returned from serving two years in the U.S. Army. Bowling seemed to be a very popular sport for young and old so I decided to start a bowling lane in the town of Freeman. The building was built in October 1961. it was built to house eight lanes with Brunswick pin setters.”
A story about the history of the bowling alley in the Oct. 5, 2011 issue of the Freeman Couriernotes, “more than 70 Freeman businessmen, residents and students helped carry in the heavy 78-foot long wooden alleys. The alleys and pinsetters were installed by Brunswick Bowling Equipment Company of Chicago the first week of December 1961.”
“At present I have 62 teams bowling league Monday through Thursday night consisting of ladies, mixed and mens leagues, plus open bowling Friday Saturday and Sunday evenings as well as Sunday afternoons,” Elllwein wrote in the 1979 book. Palace Lanes also became part of Freeman Public School’s physical education program.
The bowling alley closed in 2003 and remained untouched until an August storm in 2011 damaged the roof and the building was sold at auction. Troy Herlyn purchased it and, while he told the Courier he would have loved to reopen it, it wasn’t financially feasible. It became storage space for his business, Specialty Automotive.
Photos and tidbits of history like this spark memories and we enjoy hearing and collecting them; that helps document our past. We strive to do that by sharing our community’s history through the exhibits in our museum and on the shelves of our archives/library.
We invite you to visit; we’re open from 10 to 4 Mondays through Saturdays; that includes holidays.
