Shawnee Bowl
Shawnee, OK Photo courtesy Tony Craig
This ten-pin alley sign stands tall in the parking lot of Shawnee Bowl in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Shawnee Bowl features one of those classic bowling alley signs that immediately grabs your attention. Check out the font used for the BOWL lettering and the colorful Googie styling. Signs like this were designed to be noticed from a distance, and this one still does the job.
I've always enjoyed finding old bowling alley signs because so many of them have disappeared over the years. The combination of bright colors, oversized lettering, and space-age design made bowling centers some of the best places to find roadside architecture during the 1950s and 1960s. Shawnee Bowl's sign is a great example of that era.
While the bowling center itself has changed over the years, the sign remains a reminder of a time when a business could attract customers with nothing more than a bold design and a spot along a busy roadway. 09-06
UPDATE: The bowling center remains open today as FireLake Bowling Center. While the facility has been modernized over the years, the site continues to serve bowlers in Shawnee. Looks like the colorful sign was painted sometime after 2023 and no longer colorful. 06-26
Gage Bowl
Topeka, KS Photo courtesy Greg West
The marquee for Gage Bowl in Topeka still stands tall with its image of a bowling pin. Gage Bowl is the kind of place I always enjoy finding because so many classic bowling alley signs have disappeared over the years. Between the towering sign, the bowling pin graphic, and the surviving neon, it has managed to hold onto a piece of mid-century roadside character that has become increasingly hard to find.
Opened in 1960, Gage Bowl has been serving Topeka bowlers for decades. While bowling alleys were once common fixtures in cities across America, many of their colorful roadside signs have been lost to time. That's what makes signs like this one special. It's not just a marker for a business, it's a reminder of an era when bowling centers weren't shy about advertising themselves with big, eye-catching designs.
For roadside enthusiasts, the sign is the real attraction. Whether you're a bowler or not, it's hard not to appreciate a classic marquee like this still standing along the roadside doing exactly what it was built to do more than sixty years ago. 10-05
UPDATE: Gage Bowl remains open and continues to serve the Topeka community. Best of all, the familiar bowling pin marquee is still standing out front, helping preserve a piece of classic bowling alley roadside history. 06-26
Shawnee Bowl
