Comments on: Bowling Lanes

By: D.A.KUSE

D.A.KUSE — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:28:34 +0000

AND THERE WAS ANOTHER BOWLING ALLEY NEAR THE SQUARE CALLED DOMINICS..NEAR BOSSY GILLIS’S GAS STATION

By: D.A.KUSE

D.A.KUSE — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:58:53 +0000

Oh god I lived at the Port Rec for years..remember having blister on my feet from Rolling Skating for hours..then Blisters on my feet from Ice Skating all winter at The Mall..oh yes it was the norm for some kinda of fight at The Rec ..Friday and Saturday …if it was not between the South Endeds and the North Endeds..it was between The Kids from Seabrook…I was lucky when it was Seabrook Kids came to The Rec sense most of my relative were from The Brook as they called it back then..boy those were the days ..to bad Newburyport has changed so much..alot of Memories for me growing up there..who remembers when they Councilors at the Parks you could go there all day and do stuff…..we had a Softball Team and would go to the Salisbury Reservation once a week to swim ..I know they were at Cashman Park thats the area I grew up ,,then there was Perkins Playground they had a team ..not sure but there was four teams or more anyone remember…TO BE A KID AGAIN in Newburyport..those were the good Olde Days

By: Martin Crowley

Martin Crowley — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:59:24 +0000

I will never forget going to a bithday party there when I was about 12. It was a Saturday night and I was scared to death walking past the Park Circle. The party itself was uneventfull unitl we were leaving. Outside, there was a massive brawl between High Schoolers. All I rememeber is 2 of the Macaniff brothers beating the S*%t of of 4-5 guys. Blood everywhere. That’s my lasting memory of the “Rec”

By: John Del Genio

John Del Genio — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:51:47 +0000

The Newburyport Recreation was built in the mid 1950’s and had historical signifigance as the first bowling alley building designed to fit automatic pinsetters with room to work on them and not just shoehorned in. The top level was a roller skating rink while the bowling alley was in the basement. The Gagnon’s sold the business to Tony & Rose Del Genio (my parents) during the summer of 1979. The complex’s name was shortened to Port Rec Center and the bowling alley was Clipper City Bowl and the skating rink was Clipper City Skating. We operated the bowling alley and skating rink until renting out the skating rink area to Port Gymnastics around 1982. Around 1 AM on the morning of Tuesday, November r 19 ?, 1984 a power surge caused an electrical fire that quickly spread throughout the wood framed building. Fortunately the Port Women’s bowling league had just finished a few hours earlier and the building was empty. The Newburyport Fire Department and other responders did a great job of containing the fire until a water main was lost around 3AM and during the time a line was run to another main the fire was able to spread throughout the building. The building also housed Hersey’s Pharmacy, Dede’s Bus Stop and Diner, Bob’s Barber Shop and the Meat Market. One memory engrained into my mind of that event was around 7AM when the fire was essentially out, one of the fire fighters came out of the freezer of the Meat Market with a side of beef on his pike and deciding it wasn’t quite done yet and putting it back in.