The year was 1958. NASA was organized, Elvis entered the Army, and Americans were first able to purchase Toyotas. Bowling was all the rage. Bowling industry leaders approached Rock of Ages to experiment with creating granite lanes for commercial use. Stone is more robust and requires less maintenance than a traditional maple wood lane, they reasoned.
True indeed – a little too true. The industry prototype demonstrated that granite is so durable, as a matter of fact, that traditional bowling balls would chip or even split when rolled repeatedly over the unforgiving stone. Quite decisively, owners’ treasured balls did not fare well - dashing any hopes for a future in granite bowling lane fabrication.
The company kept the prototype near the factory as an oddity for our many visitors to explore. In the late 1950s and 1960s when bowling was a staple of family recreation, stoneworkers could be seen practicing on the lane during their lunch hour. Today, guests of all ages try their hands at the alley as they wander the grounds on a self-guided tour. Not wishing to do any harm, we stock the lane with plastic pins and balls.
While the lane is made of granite, the gutters are comprised of poured concrete. Because concrete weathers more quickly than granite, the gutters are now showing their age. Erosion has led to deteriorating gutters at the otherwise pristine, ball-cracking Rock of Ages Alley.
the Rock of Ages Visitors Center: the open-air granite bowling alley. More of a single lane than an alley, generations of guests have tried for a strike at the world’s only stone-floored lane, comprised of polished slabs of Barre Gray granite. No outdoor automation means no resets and no ball returns - you’ll have to set up the pins and fetch the balls yourself.