Journal Opinion July 3, 2024
“What’s next? This interrogation enters the ears of one just beginning to taste the excitement of games of hazard. For cards, and the bowling alleys and the billiard-room he has acquired an interest.”
Aurora of the Valley, June 27, 1850
This warning came from Newbury’s temperance advocating,
anti-gambling newspaper when it repeatedly cautioned of the evils of “the glass
of treacherous stimulant” when coupled with “the abodes of affiliated infamy.”
These evils were to be found at the bowling saloon and the billiard table.
This column chronicles the history of area pool halls and
bowling alleys to the 1960s. Sources
include local newspaper archives, town histories, and personal interviews.
Billiards and pool began to appear locally after the Civil
War. Both of these games use tables, cue sticks, and balls, although a billiard
table lacked pockets. Bradford’s Trotter House offered billiards before 1876.
When that hotel was replaced by the Hotel Low a pool room was included. It also
offered cue ball, a tabletop game that combined billiards and bowling.
The great Bradford
fire of 1883 was believed to have originated in Richey’s Pool Hall in the Hardy
Building. The United Opinion editor wrote, “There are those who thought it was
all wrong to play pool, and thought it
was, indeed a judgment on Richey’s.”
Nevertheless, when the new Stevens Block was built to
replace the destroyed Hardy Building, there was a pool room. Pool continued to
have a presence in Bradford’s Village for the next 60 years.
About 1901, there was
a pool hall in the Clark & Gage building on the corner of Barton and Main.
When that building was replaced by the Chimes Restaurant, the hall was
relocated to the restaurant basement and then to a small building near what is
now the Bradford Post Office. That building was torn down in 1941.
In 1950, Don Welch opened a pool hall in what is now the
south end of the Village Store. The Bradford Billiard Room opened in the
basement of what is now Barton Dental.
Around 1940, 10-year-old Leonard Dobbins of Bradford began
shooting pool in his family-owned pool hall on Main Street. In a recent
interview, he described the atmosphere of the pool hall. Local men and boys
gathered around the four tables, two to four at each. Some played for money,
with several locals described as pool sharks. “They took others for their
money,” Dobbins said. Asked if he won money in the games, he said that he
“never got that good.”
The atmosphere was smoky. “Beer was OK, but not a big
thing.” Talk revolved about the game, as well as work, local politics, and
“gossip if there was anything around.” In addition to pool, there were several
tables set aside for poker.
Several local residents remember that, at the time, Johnny
Hitchs frequented the Dobbins’ pool hall. Born in Wales, Hitchs worked at the
Vaneer mill. When I mentioned his name to these residents they all recalled
that Hitchs had one artificial eye. When he left a game to go to the restroom,
he would leave that eye on the corner of the pool table, saying “That way I can
keep an eye on you guys.”
After 1950, the hall was relocated to the recently
demolished South End Market on South Main. The
Dobbins continued to operate a pool hall until 1967.
Over the years, additional pool rooms were located on the
second floor of the Doe Building and at the Farmer’s Exchange on South Main.
There were pool halls in other local communities. Pool halls
were mentioned in South Ryegate where in 1902, M.H. Gibson “put in a pool table
to promote the gayety of nations.” It was still there in 1924. In 1969 Puffer’s
Store offered their used pool and billiard tables for sale.
In 1907, Wells River’s Hale’s Tavern added an addition to
include a pool room. As early as 1917, there was a pool hall in the Henderson
block on Woodsville’s Central Street.
During the building of the Fifteen Mile Dam in 1929, the
camp workers at the Connecticut River Development Camp had a pool room for use
during their free time. Until 1930, there was a pool hall in North Haverhill.
Then it became the local post office.
In 1936, Richard Hinman opened a barber shop and pool room
on Chapel Street in Newbury. This was an example of the auxiliary relationship
between local barber shops and pool halls or shoe shine stands.
Bowling alleys began
to appear in the period after the Civil War.
One 1877 newspaper article mentioned an old bowling alley in Newbury
that “was blown down last winter” but was being replaced.
In the 1880s, candlepin bowling first appeared in
Massachusetts. Candlepin bowling features a small ball with three throws in
each of 10 frames per string. Its popularity was limited to New England and
Eastern Canada. It was first mentioned
in local newspapers in 1901.
Because there was an “old fashioned notion that pool halls
attracted a less than wholesome crowd,” Vermont law prohibited a bowling alley
from being located on land adjacent to a school or church. As late as 1935, New
Hampshire had blue laws against the operation of pool halls and bowling alleys
on Sundays.
Some ambitious entrepreneurs combined pool and bowling at a
single establishment.
In 1916, Andrew Bagonzi and Charles Maccini opened a bowling
alley with three pool tables on Central Street in Woodsville. It was in an 1876
building on the north side near the present-day Railroad Park and later moved
across the street. From its earliest years, the business was known as the
Palace Bowling Alleys
The business changed ownership several times, was enlarged
in 1937, and underwent renovations in 1940 with six new lanes. At that time,
women’s teams were added. In 1945, it
again came under the ownership of the Bagonzi and Maccini families.
In 1945, young John Williams was one of a group of Groton
boys who served as pin boys for the Woodsville bowling alleys. In exchange for
free bowling, they set up pins for bowlers. In a recent interview, Williams,
who now lives in Bradford, said the boys had to shelter behind a shield to
avoid flying pins. The boys continued for about 5 years until automatic pin
setters were installed.
The teams from Woodsville competed with teams from other
towns in both local and regional competitions. One such league was the Twin
State Bowling League formed by bowlers from Woodsville, Wells River, South
Ryegate, Monroe, and Groton. Bowling
results were often front-page news in both the Groton Times and Bradford’s
United Opinion.
In 1984, the Armature family purchased the business. In addition to women’s and men’s leagues,
there was a senior bowlers league. That Senior Sunshine Bowling League was
established about 1988 and, at times, had up to 100 men and women area bowlers,
ranging from 60 to 99 years of age.
Paul and Linda
Allerud of South Ryegate were members of the Senior League when I joined in
2006. Paul told me that candlepin bowling was a family tradition in his
Massachusetts hometown. He began bowling when he was about 12.
He recalled that the local Boston television station carried
the weekly Bowling for Cash program. It was said that the viewing audience
“often exceeded those of the four major professional Boston teams.”
Allerud joined the local league soon after moving to the
area in 2000. As with many others, he started out as a spare and rapidly became
a regular. He was a member of the “Gutter Cleaners,” one of 12 four-member
teams. He said that the League was a “way to meet new people and have some
competition,” things he now misses.
In 2010. Don and Korina Bazzell took ownership, refurbished
the alleys. and established the Lane 7 lounge offering a pocket billiard 8-ball
league.
In 2016 Nathaniel Swain became the owner of the alleys and
lounge giving it the title Room 111. Despite the efforts to attract patrons to
the alleys and adjacent lounge, the Covid epidemic was the death knell for this
long-time bowling attraction. At the time it closed it was one of the oldest bowling
alleys in the nation.
For 16 years there was a bowling alley located in Bradford
Village. It opened in October 1941 in the building on Barton Street that until
recently was the Colatina Bakery. It had eight lanes and featured candlepin
bowling. Charles Barton and William Demetrules were the original owners.
Ownership passed to George Getsis and finally to K. Donald Welch.
As with the Woodsville case, there were a number of local
teams with bowling as a major and newsworthy entertainment. In 1949, a meeting
of 16 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams was held to organize the season’s
schedule. In 1950 there were at least 85 enthusiastic team members.
About that time, 12-year-old Bob Benjamin of Bradford began
setting pins in exchange for free bowling privileges. In a recent interview,
Benjamin recalled having to be prepared when a strong bowler stepped up to the
line, as a fast ball came hurling in the direction of the pin boys. He said that Welch provided regular
pin boys with special jackets.
Bradford Academy students had a bowling league and bowling
was half-price in the late afternoon for the students. In the early 1940 Bradford Academy student
Geraldine MacIver wrote that girls bowled on Tuesdays. She added, “but other
than Tuesday, it is not a very good recreation center for girls.”
In 1955, automatic pin setters were installed in all but two
of the alleys. Ownership changed in 1956
about the time the influence of television began to diminish interest. In
February1958 the equipment was sold. The Bradford Bowling Alley was replaced by
Welch’s Plumbing and Heating, later by a grocery store, and finally by the
bakery.
There were several other bowling alleys in the area. About
1886, a bowling alley under an open-air pavilion was built at the Maplewood
Farm in West Corinth. In 1896, the bowling alley was described as being “smooth
as glass.”
Operating as a summer inn for visiting tourists, as a school
for boys, and as a location for group parties, the Maplewood Inn offered a
number of activities along with its 2-lanes for bowling. The rambling hotel
began to decline in the 1940s and fell into disuse until its destruction by
fire on Sept. 1, 1958.
In 1906, Guy Densmore opened a casino at the south end of
Fairlee’s Lake Morey. It operated from June to September. It featured four
bowling alleys and a billiard parlor with two tables. Frequent dances were a
major feature of the summer season. In
1930 it was sold to Laura Phillips. Eventually, without regular repairs, it was
dismantled.
The earlier issue of gambling in pool halls and bowling
alleys returned in the 1930s with the introduction of electric automatic
pinball machines. One observer referred to them as “a moral menace tempting
both players and observers to gamble, corrupting youth and adults alike.” Both
the state and federal governments passed measures to license and tax the
machines and made gambling on the outcome of games illegal.
Unlike many other sports, bowling and pool can be played by
adults of any age. My experience with the Senior Sunshine League was one of the
highlights of my retirement years. From
my first day of bowling with those seniors, I felt a wonderful combination of
inclusivity and friendly competition.
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