PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Elizabella King, 8, watches her ball head for the remaining five pins at Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes.
By Gayla Cawley
LYNN — Lucky Strike Lanes has seen its last strike.
The candlepin lanes, open for 79 years, bowled its last string Sunday and customers were treated to free bowling and drinks.
“It’s sad for me,” said Jim Barber, who was inducted into the Candlepin Hall of Fame in 1999 and bought the lanes a year later. “I’m going to miss all of these people.”
His wife, Jane Barber, said the couple was excited to be moving onto the next phase of their lives, but it would be sad not to be at Lucky Strike everyday.
“It’s very bittersweet,” she said.
Lynn once had 16 bowling centers citywide. With the closure of Lucky Strike, there will be only one: the Lynnway Sports Center, which has applied to the city to be a marijuana dispensary.
“It’s a dying art,” said Jan Donovan, who has been bowling at the lanes since the 1960s.
Donovan, 69, is the president of the Greater Lynn Church Athletic Association, which started out with men’s and women’s sports, but dwindled to four women’s bowling teams. She said the group will play at the Metro Bowl in Peabody. But she’ll miss the camaraderie in Lynn.
The building will be sold to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit that assists families who are transitioning into permanent housing. The deal has not closed and Jim Barber declined to disclose the sales price. The 24,000 square-foot property on Buffum Street pays about $25,000 a year in real estate taxes that will be lost to the city when the nonprofit buys the property.
Ron Bloom, 71, of Lynn, worked for Lucky Strike for about 15 years. He left the job about a decade ago, but assisted at the front desk yesterday.
“I had a ball here,” Bloom said. “You meet good people…It wasn’t just a job. It was fun. It was a dream job.”
Kevin Doucette, 63, of Lynn, had been bowling on Buffum Street for 40 years. He said with its closure, people will think about bowling there and head out, but will stop after remembering that it’s gone.
“It’ll be a little strange,” he said.
Ernie French, 59, of Lynn, said his worst memory at Lucky Strike was bowling a 444 the first day of one year’s Monday night league. It held up until the last night of the league, when Jim Barber bowled a 448.
Barber, 71, said he expected about 1,000 people to make their way through the doors for the grand closing, which was a way for him to say goodbye to the city.
“Thank you to everybody for all of the great memories we have,” added Jane Barber.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
