I received a very unexpected email last week:
We recently purchased a building in Ridgewood, Queens, and while clearing out the basement we discovered a two lane manual bowling alley in very good condition. We did some research and this basement was most probably a club during the prohibition era. Would you or someone you know be interested [in the space]?
A hidden prohibition-era bowling alley? Yes, definitely interested. I took a trip to see it today – Just incredible:
According to the owner, the bowling lanes were hidden under boxes and boxes of junk. After researching the property, the owner now believes the basement was a speak-easy club during the Prohibition Era, with two bowling lanes to entertain customers.
The building itself was once a small garment factory in the early 1900’s, employing local women to work the sewing machines and men to keep the equipment running smoothly (often husbands and wives). This is the main room, where as many as 50 ladies would be operating sewing machines (though I was told it was not the sweat shop conditions one would assume):
What was going on in the basement, however, is a different story…
Each lane features two shallow gutters…
…with wood panels set at the ends to keep pins from bouncing out of the lanes (the pins were set-up by hand, of course):
Incredibly, the right lane still has a hanging cushion to stop the balls:
You can see it better below. Also note the screen on the right:
Incredibly, the cushion still hangs to this day by a pair of rusty iron hooks:
Lining the outer lane are several decorative poles:
Each is a dark-stained wood and features several ornamental rings:
A close-up (one can only imagine the parties these have been around for):
The wood on the lanes is in great shape. There are a few holes toward the starts…
But this is pretty much the only damage for the entire run:
Numerous entrances and exits throughout the property would have facilitated discreet access.
The owner is interested in any offers for film, television, commercial, or photographic use. He suggested it as very appropriate for a show like Cold Case, and I totally agree. Pretty much any production looking for an authentic relic of a prohibition-era club could do wonders with this space, a VERY rare find. The upstairs is also available.
If you are interested, send me an e-mail and I will forward it on to the owner.
And PLEASE, if you have something like this in your basement or attic or rooftop or whatever, drop me a line!
-SCOUT
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That is so amazing!
Scout, it’s amazing how much these proportions resemble the bowling alley that was recently reconstructed in the basement of the Frick. Nobody gets to see it, because of fire laws. Perhaps you can gain access.
What a great discovery! I’d love to see it all dressed up for film or TV, too.
Pretty sweet!
Awesome find! This is a super cool thing you got to see – thanks for sharing it with us.
uh… where in queens?
Wow. Where in Queens is this?
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In the mid to late 80’s i worked for a tire company in Seattle. We rented an old, one-story bulding in an industrial area south of downtown for a distribution location, and the rar of the bulding was a very strange “space”. The walls had surreal, semi-NSFW murals all over them and the celing was a metal grate with a heavy-gauge steel box in the middle of it. We later found out from some local old-timers that it had been an illegal gambling club during prohibition. The metal grate in the celing was so people could walk around and have a birds-eye view of the card games to watch for cheating/stealing, and apparently the steel box was always inhabited by a well armed man who had a direct line of sight to both the entrances to guard against robbers or police. We loved showing it off to visiters – a real peice of history.
Spectacular. Just freakin’ spectacular. I hope they restore it! If a film shoots there, might there be restoration funds in a production budget??
[...] The Secret Prohibition Era Bowling Alley Found in Queens Basement (Scouting New York) [...]
This is so cool! We just went to a cool duckpin bowling alley in Mattapoisett MA that looks straight out of history, so I’m now all about Retro Roadmap worthy bowling alleys- what a find!
Way cool, as all ways your site and the goodies you come across are one of the brighter blog’s I look forward to each day. Please keep up your wonderful trip in around and some times even underground.
Mike
[...] bowling alley hidden in the basement of a building in Queens. Check out the awesome photos at SCOUTING NY – The Secret Bowling Alley. Posted by Erik 2 December 2009 bowling alley, Prohibition, Queens, Scouting New York Shout [...]
Spoiler alert: Watch the last scene of “There Will Be Blood” to see a prohibition-era basement duplex bowling alley. Not many filmmakers would be brave enough to use a similar location going forward.
[...] Owners of a building in Queens discovered the remains of a former speakeasy and Prohibition-era bowling alley in their basement. Somewhere, Sasha Petraske is crying. [Scouting New York] [...]
This is absolutely why I love your blog. An amazing story I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Thanks for the photos.
[...] owners of a building in Ridgewood set about cleaning up the place when they uncovered a very nifty gem: an old and relatively intact bowling alley! Bowling has been staging a comeback (as if it ever [...]
This reminds me of the last scene in There Will Be Blood
Andrew – Do you know if the building in Seattle is still there? Sounds cool.
There was(is?) a two-lane, manual bowling alley of similar vintage in the basement of the old Unitarian Universalist Church in Meriden, CT. I’m not sure if the building is a church any more (the congregation couldn’t afford to keep up with maintaining) but I remember piles of candlepins and several bowling balls laying around down there. I’m pretty sure a scene or 2 of Jackknife(1989, DeNiro) was shot in the church.
This is wonderful! Love it. Some people have mentioned There Will Be Blood, there’s also one of these bowling alleys in the movie Girl, Interrupted, in the basement of a mental institute of all places!
[...] The Secret Bowling Alley: check out what these people found in their basement. [...]
You can also find one of these manual bowling alleys at Bobby’s Bar on Mackinac Island. Bobby’s Bar is part of the Grand Hotel.
Where is this? Only wondering because there used to be a bar called Galaxie on Metropolitan Ave in Ridgewood that had a bowling alley in the basement too – it closed maybe two years ago. I wonder if there are a lot more of these in the neighborhood…
[...] : Scouting New York Article publié le Samedi 5 décembre 2009 dans la catégorie Lieu à transformer en loft. [...]
LOVE your website! new here and loving it. if I had things my way I’d be living in nyc doing just this: exploring and documenting.
Oh my god!!! Awesome, this is so amazing place. I think, this place is very suitable for photographers, they could make there wonderful photos in old style.
[...] on my radar lately. I found it fascinating that in December a Prohibition era bowling alley was unearthed in Queens, NY. Image via Scouting [...]
Wow ! its so incredible .Bowling has something for everyone to enjoy, the die hards as well as young children who just want in on the action.
[...] 12:49 PM Dec 3rd, 2009 Speakeasy bowling alley FOUND in ridgewood, queens. http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1227 – there is so much to be discovered in bkly/queens 11:08 PM Dec 2nd, 2009 Now, we’re up to [...]
Wow! What a find! Great shots. Thanks for sharing.
Mysterious!!! i really like this place. Thanks for sharing photos.
[...] that Boing Boing linked to, about Coney Island (see above), is a stunner. I also liked this one and this one, and it looks like I have plenty of back posts to keep reading all summer so onto the blogroll it [...]
[...] that Boing Boing linked to, about Coney Island (see above), is a stunner. I also liked this one and this one, and it looks like I have plenty of back posts to keep reading all [...]
what a great find!
Cold Case looks like CSI just like anyother detective tv series*`.