Church keeps the faith with four-lane bowling alley
By Katie Drews January 22, 2012 8:02PM
The four-lane bowling alley in the basement of St. John's Lutheran Church at 4939 W. Montrose is the place for a party on Sunday January 22, 2012. The alley has been in existence since the 1920's. Six-year-old Carissa Koopman rolls the ball down the lanes. | Tom Cruze~Sun-Times
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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:10AM
For some people, St. John’s Lutheran Church and School is a place of worship. For others, it’s a place to bowl.
A four-lane regulation bowling alley tucked in the basement of the Northwest Side church since the Depression era is one of the few remaining “church alleys” in Chicago.
“Everything is functioning real good,” said Michael Banko, a parishioner at St. John’s and acting mechanic for the alley. “It’s a good machine. They don’t build them like that any more.”
The alley, at 4939 W. Montrose Ave., is busy nearly every weekend, mostly for private parties renting the space for $120 for three hours of bowling. It’s open to all members of the community, regardless of faith.
Though still running strong, activity on the wooden lanes is nothing like it used to be. In its heyday, it was the place to be for neighborhood residents. The church ran bowling leagues nearly every night, and there were waiting lists to get on a team.
At that time, church alleys were not uncommon.
“Almost every church on the North Side had bowling alleys,” said Henry Knueppel, a retired gym teacher at St. John’s. “It was a focal point for youth to gather.”
As more commercial bowling alleys began to open and the technology expanded with automatic machines, many churches struggled to keep their lanes running and most eventually shut them.
St. John’s has been lucky to bring in just enough revenue to maintain the alley, Knueppel said.
In the 1970s, the church installed automatic pin setters and recouped the cost within five years. Most of the repairs since then have been done piecemeal.
The alley has been threatened a few times over the years as talk surfaced of using the space as a library or a day care center.
But there are no plans to rip out the lanes, said the Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor of St. John’s, where 200 members regularly attend Sunday church services.
“For years it has benefitted us by providing a nice social outlet outside of services,” said Heinz, who bowls once a month with the church’s last men’s league. “It’s a nice contact with the community and helps us in being good neighbors with folks.”
St. John’s school, which serves 175 students in preschool through eighth grade, uses the alley in phsy ed, where s tudents learn to keep score the old-fashioned way — by hand.
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