Huntington 55

Huntington 55 (48)
255 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

"To give you some idea of where this center was, if you
were on Huntington Avenue facing the side entrance of
Symphony Hall (which is the Cohen Wing) the entrance to
the house was to the left. You had to go down a flight to
enter."

All information on this center, including the scoresheet
(displaying his youthful bowling prowess) below, came
from Jim Sullivan. We thank him for his donation. If you
have further information regarding this center, please
contact us today!

"The alleys themselves ran parallel to the
floor seating of Symphony Hall; that is,
the pits would be closer to the stage than
the approaches. Another way of looking
at it would be to say the side balconies
would approximate the direction of the
lanes. So, the majority of them would
have to have been NOT under the concert
hall itself (if any of them actually were.)
My foggy memory is that when you
entered the house, there were lanes
directly in front of you - beyond the
service desk area and such, of course -
and then they stretched out FOREVER to
the left."

"It was an interesting place to go as a kid.
Very dark, very much smelling of an
old-time house (stale smoke, dusty, that
instantly recognizable to a veteran bowler
odeur of well-worn wood, wax, chipped
balls, intermittently oiled machinery) and
entirely unpopulated except for the
wizened clerk. It gave me the opportunity
to pretend I was on stage, in front of a
large crowd of candlepin afficcionados,
since the only sounds (outside of the ball
return and the pinsetter) came from my
balls rolling down the alley and striking
the pins. Very satisfying sensually."