Kona Lanes
Kona Lanes was a bowling center in Costa Mesa, California, that opened in 1958 and closed in 2003 after 45 years in business. Built during the advent of Googie architecture, its Polynesian Tiki-themed styling extended from the large roadside sign to the building’s neon lights and exaggerated rooflines. Champions who bowled at Kona include three-time Professional Bowlers Association Tour winner Jack Biondolillo.
About Kona Lanes in brief
Kona Lanes was a bowling center in Costa Mesa, California, that opened in 1958 and closed in 2003 after 45 years in business. Built during the advent of Googie architecture, its Polynesian Tiki-themed styling extended from the large roadside sign to the building’s neon lights and exaggerated rooflines. It was one of the last remaining examples of the Googie style in the region; its sister center, Java Lanes in Long Beach, was razed in 2004. The still-vacant land was rezoned for senior citizens’ apartments and commercial development in 2010, ten years after Kona L lanes was demolished. Champions who bowled at Kona include three-time Professional Bowlers Association Tour winner Jack Biondolillo; six-time male Bowling Writers Association of America Bowler of the Year and future PBA Hall of Famer Don Carter; John Haveles, an Orange County Bowling Hall of Fame inductee who began a stint as Kona’s manager in 1974; and Barry Asher, the multiple PBA Tour champion and Hall of Hall of fame inductee.
Kona hosted the Southern California PBA Open twice in 1964; Billy Hardwick won in April and Jerry Hale in December. At its peak, Kona averaged more than 80 lines on each of its 40 lanes. The number of bowling alleys in southern California peaked at about 11-11,000 by the mid-decade of the 1960s. Bowling as a participation sport flourished in the early 1960s, but its popularity was diluted due to overbuilding; the number of alleys by mid-American Bowling Congress peaked at one of more than 30 in mid-1980s. A decline in league bowling was also blamed for the downturn, but an AMF official argued that customer base remained steady because an increase in open bowling made up for fewer league bowlers.
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This page is based on the article Kona Lanes published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
