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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Feb 9, 2024 11:22:52 GMT -5
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Post by Clipper on Feb 9, 2024 12:45:23 GMT -5
I couldn't believe it when I first read that Pin O Rama was closing.
Bowling is still pretty popular here thank goodness. It obviously has dropped in popularity in the CNY area. I remember as a teen we could bowl at a wide selection of bowling alleys. I bowled at almost all of them at one time or another. There was Aurora, Pin o Rama, Sunset, Madison, Royal, Palace, Vista, 6 lanes at the Sea Farer in Whitesboro. Outside the immediate city area there were lanes in Frankfort, Ilion, Herkimer, Little Falls, at Orchard Hall in Sauquoit, and on Route 12 in Barneveld. The lanes in Barneveld were moved there from the Pioneer Inn in Newport when it burned down. Rome had 3 bowling alleys plus the lanes on the base, and Oneida had two. Sylvan Beach had a small bowling alley, and I think the little bowling alley behind the Clinton Arena may still be open.
Thank goodness we still have several bowling centers around here where we can bowl. Bristol's bowling alley has 24 lanes, Johnson City has 24 lanes, and where we bowl this year in Kingsport has 16. All three locations usually are crowded and have a waiting list of people waiting for a lane to open up for them to bowl, and all three have evening leagues every night of the week and senior leagues a couple of mornings or afternoons a week.
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Post by artsyone on Feb 9, 2024 13:33:08 GMT -5
I believe Pin O Rama has been gutted and it's nothing but a giant quonset hut now.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 9, 2024 13:50:48 GMT -5
I believe Pin O Rama has been gutted and it's nothing but a giant quonset hut now. I also heard that the other day. The pin setting machinery is very expensive and has probably been sold and re-homed. Most of the pin setters are either AMF or Brunswick and in many cases they are very old. They have never become obsolete to the point of not having parts availability to maintain and repair them. For example the pin setters that are in the closed Barneveld bowling alley were in Newport when I bowled there in the early 60s, and they were far from new even then. That is a huge building. Other than another supermarket or sizeable retail store of some sort, I don't know of many potential occupants that would want a building that large, and to re-equip it and re-open it as a bowling alley would be prohibitively expensive. |
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Post by artsyone on Feb 9, 2024 19:32:34 GMT -5
something's got to happen to that building, the facade is also in terrible shape and it's a huge parcel. I heard someone wanted to buy Walgreen's lot, the Pin and Bagel Grove, but Walgreen's wouldn't sell. So far it's just abandonded and boarded up and looks horrendous. You won't get another grocery store there I don't think because of Price Chopper. I just don't know.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 9, 2024 20:41:18 GMT -5
something's got to happen to that building, the facade is also in terrible shape and it's a huge parcel. I heard someone wanted to buy Walgreen's lot, the Pin and Bagel Grove, but Walgreen's wouldn't sell. So far it's just abandonded and boarded up and looks horrendous. You won't get another grocery store there I don't think because of Price Chopper. I just don't know. It IS doubtful that another supermarket would locate there. I only referenced a supermarket as a business that would possible require such a vast amount of floor space. What is occupying the rest of the block between the Pin and Shepard Place? Is the telephone company still there in one form or another. You are correct Artsyone. It IS a very large parcel and one has to wonder what a potential developer had in mind before Walgreen's put the kybosh on the sale. Not to worry as long as nobody sees Ray Halbritter scoping it out. He could put a boatload of slot machines and gaming tables in there like they did in the shopping center in Chittenango that now houses the Yellow Brick Road casino. |
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Post by kit on Feb 10, 2024 7:20:27 GMT -5
I remember going there many years ago with my dad. The whole block from Genesee to Shepherd Place to Sunset and to Burrstone used to be the House of the Good Shepherd before they moved to Champlain Ave. It was Christmas time and my dad was picking up a brother and sister to take to a Christmas dinner and festivities at the Amicable Lodge (a Masonic Order in New Hartford). They had a ball and were so grateful to have experienced it. The Shepherd block is a very desirable parcel and I hope it's divided up sensibly.
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Post by artsyone on Feb 10, 2024 9:25:09 GMT -5
It's a big parcel going all the way back to Sunset Ave and a large part of it on the North side of Shepard behind Walgreen's is just grass and sinkholes and a medium size urban pond in the summer. The rest of it extends over to Burrstone Road and encompasses the Pin, Tony's Pizza, the Bagel grove and McDonalds. It is in essence a massive parking lot, across the road is Murnane Field. The phone company on Shepard Place is long gone, replaced by Walgreens in 2005. It's prime real estate, but there are caveats as to what the city will allow to be built in there.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 10, 2024 9:55:06 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying and updating me as to what is on the parcel. I haven't driven up Genny through the uptown area in years. Even years ago when Kathy bowled at the Pin in the 90s the back part of that parking lot, toward Sunset, was a minefield of potholes large enough swallow a Volkswagen. I was trying earlier to envision what was along Sunset on that parcel before it was cleared off. Was it houses or was that where the Orphanage was located?
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Post by BHU on Feb 10, 2024 11:46:57 GMT -5
The parking lot alone probably hasen't been maintained in years & years. I stopped in McD's for a coffee a couple weeks ago & went out thru that lot to get to Sunset Ave. I felt like I was on an obstacle course driving around potholes, ruts, debris, garbage strewn about, etc. so I wouldn't do damage to the front end of my car. I won't make that mistake again. And Pin wondered why business was off? Hello!
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Feb 10, 2024 16:58:18 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying and updating me as to what is on the parcel. I haven't driven up Genny through the uptown area in years. Even years ago when Kathy bowled at the Pin in the 90s the back part of that parking lot, toward Sunset, was a minefield of potholes large enough swallow a Volkswagen. I was trying earlier to envision what was along Sunset on that parcel before it was cleared off. Was it houses or was that where the Orphanage was located? Ithink that was were the Orphanage was. The Church next door was able to place on a addition and a bank also was able to be built in the space left behind |
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Post by kit on Feb 11, 2024 9:57:37 GMT -5
 Here's what the House of the Good Shepherd looked like just after it was built. It was huge and set back in quite a ways from Genesee St. providing a large lawn in front. The parking lot was in back and as I understand it and some lawn went all the way down to Sunset, so there probably weren't any houses there, but I'm not certain of that. Attachments:
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Post by artsyone on Feb 11, 2024 14:21:39 GMT -5
A bit more about that area: (some from research and some from common knowledge gleaned from living in the area) . The area above the Memorial Parkway was essentially open farmland owned by Colonel Butterfield and the current site of Price Chopper was where his home sat. Behind that was a racetrack, now Bradford Ave and Van Vorst St. Butterfield had several daughters...possibly as many as 12...and those streets are supposodly named after them. Interestingly, Van Vorst is a Dutch family name, the next street over is Holland. I think it began to be developed as a residential area around 1918. The House of the Good Shepard, designed by Utica architect Jacob Agne took up that whole block. Behind that was Faxton Hospital and also on that campus was the Home for Elderly and Indigent Women, also designed by Jacob Agne; there may have been a home for men also, I do not know. This area is now occupied by the Grand Nursing Home. So, essentially that whole area was given over to the hospital, to homes for the indigent or elderly and to the orpanage and House of the Good Shepard, thus Shepard Place. The fire station on the corner of Sunset and Shepard has been there a long time too and it made sense to place it there what with all the housing for needy Utican's. Some of these institutions were endowed by the Proctors and others: note: Faxton Hospital: Theodore Faxton, et al. This is a very interesting area for a lot of reasons, not in the least that the elderly, the indigent and the orphans, as well as the ill were all gathered into one massive campus away from the city.
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Post by artsyone on Feb 11, 2024 14:24:19 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying and updating me as to what is on the parcel. I haven't driven up Genny through the uptown area in years. Even years ago when Kathy bowled at the Pin in the 90s the back part of that parking lot, toward Sunset, was a minefield of potholes large enough swallow a Volkswagen. I was trying earlier to envision what was along Sunset on that parcel before it was cleared off. Was it houses or was that where the Orphanage was located? Ithink that was were the Orphanage was. The Church next door was able to place on a addition and a bank also was able to be built in the space left behind |
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Post by artsyone on Feb 11, 2024 14:29:54 GMT -5
Pizza: that area you are speaking of: Genesee and Newell Street) there was a homeopathic hospital (Utica Homeopathic Hospital) there which later became Genesee Nursing Home, Genesee Nursing Home was taken down in the early 80's and the bank built on that corner. The church has been there much longer, that is my belief. The orphanage, House of the Good Shepard, was above what is now the Memorial Parkway.
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