WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Candlepin bowling was invented in Worcester in the 1880s, but the once-popular game has now gone extinct in the city, in part due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Colonial Bowling Center on Mill Street, the last standing alley in the city, has closed its doors for good.
Owner Nick Anderson, 91, told the Worcester Telegram that he no longer has the energy to manage the business and the ongoing pandemic pushed him to call it a career.
“Everything comes to an end,” Anderson told the newspaper. “This threw me over the edge.”
Anderson built the bowling alley in 1960. At the time, the Telegram estimated that there were 12,000 league bowlers in Worcester alone.
On Colonial’s opening day, Anderson recalled that there were kids “standing outside the door at 8:30 in the morning.”
The Anderson family is now unsure what will become of the $1.2 million, 17,000-square-foot building that once served as a bustling hub for bowlers of all ages.
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