Marina City strikes deal for bowling alley

In December 1964, with 26,000 light bulbs decorating every balcony of both towers, it was announced downtown’s only major bowling facility would be built at Marina City. A 20-year lease, worth more than $1 million, was signed on December 18 with Spencer’s Marina City Bowl, which was owned by William A. Spencer.

His father, John C. Spencer, had built a bowling alley at Belmont and Cicero Avenues in Chicago, and he owned the Spencer Coals, a semi-pro baseball team. William Spencer had a 42-lane operation in St. Louis and two bowling facilities in Racine, Wisconsin.

Bowling had always been a part of the design of Marina City. Besides 38 lanes on the second floor of the office building – that Bertrand Goldberg Associates would design – the facility would have a restaurant, cocktail lounge, and an area for billiards.

The original design was for 54 lanes of bowling, according to BGA architect Ben Honda, from Dearborn Street to State Street. “But then when the National Design Center came in as a tenant they wanted a chunk of it to poke up through the bowling alley,” he said in a 1999 interview with Betty Blum. “So then the numbers of lanes were reduced.”