One of the unique features of the new bowling and entertainment center that opened its doors for business in Waldoboro as of press time are the materials used for the countertop in the café and table in an event room.
Don Benson, the owner of the “ALLPLaY Family Entertainment Center” on Friendship Street said they cut and used the original lanes of the former Depatsy’s Lanes to make the table tops. For nostalgic reasons, Benson and his family took the original Depatsy’s sign and mounted it on an inside wall.
Aside from these features, the look and feel of the place is entirely different. A wall dividing a dance room from the bowling lane is now open. Arcade games line the walls and take up the space where many couples sweated off the work week under dark lights.
The light cream-colored walls give the center a breezy, cheerful feel and contrasting rich chocolate leather seats and carved pool table balances the interior and is likely to please everyone.
Brilliantly lit screens and technological gadgets will attract kids like moths to a porch light, and also bring out the kid in adults.
“I kind of brought it up to the 21st century,” Benson said, indicating the switch from traditional paper scoring to an electronic scoring system, as well as automatic bumpers to block off lane gutters.
Benson credits his whole family and friends with helping put the project together. They brought the bowling center back to life and include Benson’s wife and two children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, father and step-father. The new business owner said the work took many hands and a lot of time.
“It was in very, very rough shape,” Benson said. “It’s changed a lot.”
The foundation and all bowling lanes have been replaced.
Before reconstruction, they could see through the wall that faced the mobile home park next door and just five months ago, the bowling lane floors had rotted away to dirt. Although Benson salvaged one or two of the original bowling lanes for the table tops, they completely replaced all walls and repaved the parking lot.
“There’s not much that hasn’t been touched,” he said, while also commenting on what brought him to the area in the first place. “The basic structure was here. This candlepin bowling center has been around a long time.”
Benson first eyed the closed Depatsy’s Lanes bowling alley several years ago, but admitted he could not afford to buy it then. Laid off from work as director of a bowling and entertainment center owned by another company, Benson decided to take a second look the closed bowling alley in Waldoboro.
An independent feasibility study conducted by William Kratzenburg of Bowling Services Inc. supported the need for a family entertainment center in this area.
Benson said at the time he was thinking about a much larger project, one he admits couldn’t get bank support, but the study motivated him to get the ball rolling. He’s grateful for the support of his lenders at Camden National and Rockland Savings Bank and to his family and friends for making the business possible in Waldoboro.
Benson has a long history of working in the entertainment center field. For 25 years while serving in the U.S. Air Force, he operated a recreation and sports program for the military and their dependents. When he retired, Benson worked for MBNA and for several years ran the Point Lookout Bowling Center in Northport.
The new bowling center owner just obtained his certificate of occupancy from the town, the final step before opening the doors.
“We’re thrilled to see it open,” Waldoboro’s Code Enforcement Officer, Patrick Wright, said. “It will be good for this community and other businesses in the area. I can’t wait to bring my kids here.”
