Vernon Lanes, located in the Butchertown neighborhood of Louisville, is the oldest bowling alley in Kentucky.

It's also the fourth-oldest bowling alley in the entire nation.

So, there's no surprise that the eight lanes within the walls of what was originally a Victorian-era house have such a great history behind them.

Constructed in the latter half of the 19th century, the building was once the home of a meatpacker, which makes sense as the area is known as Butchertown.

I recently got a chance to visit Vernon Lanes, and tried my luck.

But the real question, could I land an elusive strike?

Bowling goes way back, perhaps to the ancient Egyptians, if not even earlier in time.

But it was really popular in Europe and came over to the United States.

Probably 1820s, 1830s, it began some of the first references to it, but things became more popular with respect to formal organizations, leagues competitions.

Really, in the early 1900s that began to pick up speed.

It became much more popular, and then we had it being televised in the 1950s and 1960s.

This really opened up Americans' eyes to what the sport could offer.

Vernon Lanes is the oldest bowling alley in Kentucky.

The building was originally built as a very large house, a Victorian-era house, in 1876.

There was a men's social club that organized here in East Downtown, East Louisville, and that was the club that was called the Delmont Club.

They had men's social activities here, and I know for a fact that they had occasional women's groups and family occasions and picnics.

Three years after they moved in in 1902, they built a bowling alley, and the bowling alley was on the lower level, and upstairs was a gymnasium ballroom in 1918.

They sold it to the men's social club, the men's club of the St.

Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, which is the twin spires here in the Butchertown neighborhood that are literally visible about two and a half blocks away, just on the other side of what's now the expressway.

And so, the men's social club of the St.

Joseph's Roman Catholic Church bought the house in 1918.

What are they gonna name the men's social club?

Ah, St.

Joseph's Church that they were a part of is on George Washington Street.

And so, they named their club the Vernon Club for George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon.

And that's how you get the Vernon Club here in 1918.

And they were here literally until 1915 just at the end of World War II.

In 1944, the men's club at St.

Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, the Vernon Club, they rebuilt the bowling alley.

And so, this is the present bowling alley that you see here.

I think at that time, bowling was relatively young, and so it was kind of starting to catch on, and I'm sure it was a nice perk to have for the, you know, people of the parish or, you know, for the local community to put that in and have it as an option for people for activities.

Another person bought the building and renovated it in 2006, and he ran the business up until when it closed in late 2015 or early 2016, in that range, and it basically sat vacant until we purchased the property in 2021, and then, you know, we renovated it for over a year and then opened in March of 2022.

With respect to bowling, Robert Putnam made the argument that there was really two dynamics going on.

One was bonding social capital, and that's where people often do things in leisure with others who are a lot like them, and so they can have a pretty deep relationship with them.

But there's also bridging social capital, which is where we hang out with people who aren't so much like us.

But we sort of reach across, and we find common ground, and we learn things, and we build trust.

Once we see that we can trust others in these shared activities we're doing together, we don't want to lose their trust.

So, we're reaching out of ourselves, seeing their perspective, trying not to lose their trust.

This leads to a back-and-forth of trustworthiness being developed.

And once you have this, this can be very powerful.

You can get generalized reciprocity processes where we're willing to do things for other people without an immediate payoff to ourselves.

It can be a great experience to be with other people and getting along with them, and it can be good for local communities.

And after seeing all of that, it was my turn to get in on the action.

Now, through the course of this show, I've played pickleball, Frisbee golf, and even a German street game called the Dainty.

But now, it was time for my biggest challenge, bowling.

Okay.

So, I admit it's been a few years since I've donned the old bowling uniform, but what better place to bust it all out than Kentucky's oldest bowling alley?

I was ready to lace up my shoes, find the right ball, and hit the lanes for what I was certain would be a near-perfect game.

[music playing] [Bowling Sound] So, okay, maybe I was a little out of practice.

But when the going gets tough, I am not one to give up.

[music playing] So, I tried again.

[Bowling Sound] And again, and again.

Determined to get at least one strike.

Until finally, [Bowling Sound] I did it.

I landed a strike on a lane in the oldest bowling alley in Kentucky.

I felt an amazing sense of pride watching those pins fall and couldn't help but think of all the bowlers that came before me who bowled on these very lanes.

Mine was just one strike, and what I'm sure has to be a sea of millions.

But with games that date back decades, it won't be my last.

[music playing]