Time Goes. Truth Remains.
Nostalgia
October 1957 Suburbanite Bowl opened for business with new construction on Ogden Avenue and Washington Street in Westmont, Illinois. The original building included 16 lanes of bowling, a full service restaurant, a bar and lounge with live entertainment and a billiard room with regulation pool tables. Bowling was 35 cents a game, shoe rentals were 15 cents and a beer cost 25 cents.
Locally Westmont’s population was 4,900. The land for Suburbanite Bowl off Ogden Avenue was swampland and there were no stop lights at the now major intersections. NE corner of Cass and Ogden was a 1000 acre polo horse farm and golfing range. Washington Street, Suburbanite's access road, was a gravel road.
Nationally, Eisenhower was the President. The Dodgers left Brooklyn, N.Y. for Los Angeles. Ducktail hair, permanent press clothing and sack dresses were the fashion trends. TV featured The Honeymooners, American Bandstand, Lawerence Welk and As The World Turns, a daytime soap. West Side Story and My Fair Lady were both hits and Pat Boone and Jimmy Stewart were movie stars. Elvis rocked with "Jail House Rock" on Ed Sullivan Show and the VW Beetle rolled on the streets. The Russians launched the first of a series of "Sputnik" space crafts and the "Hula Hoop" was enjoyed by millions of Americans.
September 1959 - Eight lanes are added to bring the center to 24 lanes
July 1965 - Suburbanite's restaurant is replaced with a Billiard Room Expansion and Professional Bowler's Pro Shop
August 1972 - Eight more lanes are added to bring the center to 32 lanes. Also included are modernizations from bench seating and score tables with stools to a fixed modular seating arrangement
October 1983 - Brunswick Automatic Scoring is installed. Wood decking is replaced by new composite lane materials, eliminating future resurfacing maintenance
June 1986 - Building exterior renovation is completed
September 1997 - The introduction of Cosmic Bowl spotlighting rock and roll music and black lighting
December 1997 - Snack Shop opens with a café style seating area
June 2000 - Brunswick Frameworxs' Scorers and Frameworxs' System are implemented along with a new concourse, the latest in Bumper Bowling, Cosmic Laser Lighting and recognition for an Official PBA Practice Center
September 2001 - Updated website design with online request for League Sign up and Party Inquiry
May 2005 - Installation of Bose Music System with dedicated internet music downloads
November 2005 - Suburbanite renovates and redesigns its billiard and game room, “Bill & Frank’s”
July 2006 - Suburbanite renovates the counter/service desk
July 2007 - Suburbanite renovates the concourse and bowlers area. “What was once old is now new again.”
October 2007 - Suburbanite Bowl celebrates its 50th year rolling along
February 2008 - Suburbanite develops innovative, one of a kind masking unit across the center
July 2008 - Suburbanite redesigns the Party Room
September 2009 - Suburbanite redesigns the Cafe
October 2009 - Suburbanite Voted "Best of the West" Suburban Living Magazine
March 2010 - Hey Suburbanite Bowlers, First Edition of Suburbanite Bowl’s, “The Bowler Newsletter”.
August 2010 - Suburbanite makes some big changes and we call it "Stadium Bowling"
August 2011 - World Record Free Bowling Day. Suburbanite bowlers roll 2,523 games on August 6, 2011… one of the highest in the nation.
May 2012 - Flat screen monitors installed - League record service updates
September 2012 - New scoring graphics
April 2013 - Suburbanite begins conversion to LED and other energy efficient lighting throughout the Center.
July 2013 - Updated scoring system to the latest & greatest Brunswick has to offer – Vector 6. Suburbanite is the 3rd Center in the nation to have this fully upgraded system.
August 2013 - Outdoor building and landscape re-designed.
December 2013 - Suburbanite hosts the 2013 Beat The Champs CSN TV Broadcast
August 2014 - Suburbanite installs new entrance doors and Celebrates “Bowling 57 years since 1957”
January 2015 - Adds Hue Lights over the lanes and on the concourse
July 2015 - Suburbanite Bowl designs a new Facebook page and introduces Instagram as another social media platform to reach customers
August 2015 - Opens the re-invented "Suburban Nights Bar" with FREE Darts, 14' Shuffleboard Table and Foosball Table. Now serving the coldest beer in town with Ten Taps. LCD HDTVs and Bose sound system.
September 2015 - Introduces the "Tillie Frank" in Tillie’s Snack Shop… a bigger better dog
January 2016 - Introduces Hue Light Bowling. “Do Hue Bowl?”
August 2016 - Taste of Suburbanite introducing “Our House Party Partners”
September 2016 - Our House Celebrates Sixty Years Bowling with a big “Thank You to All Our Bowlers For All The Years!”
March 2018 - Suburbanite Luck of the Irish Tournament grows to over $5000 in Prize Money
January 2019 - Tillie introduces … “Our House” Now Serves Great Food from Zazzo’s
March 2019 - Luck of the Irish 9 Pin No Tap Tournament participation grows to over 300 Bowlers. Added Prizes for top Hi-Scratch bowling scores.
August 2019 - Installs Brunswick Pro-Line Lanes and Approaches for a new bowling experience.
March 2020 - Luck of the Irish Tournament held for the 8th consecutive year with over $6,500 in cash and prizes given out.
March 2020 - Suburbanite closes in compliance with Illinois Governor's Mandate due to Covid-19 Pandemic
May - June 2020 - Suburbanite revitalizes and updates the Center with new structural and design enhancements
June 2020 - Suburbanite reopens the Center June 26th to Summer Leagues and Open Bowling
September 2020 - Suburbanite's Fall Leagues return with Social Distancing & COVID-19 precautions practiced
February 2022 - Suburbanite designs and publishes a brand new desktop and mobile website to better serve bowlers and customers and promote services
March 2022 - Luck of the Irish Nine Pin No Tap Tournament grows to over 400 bowling participants
August 2022 - Suburbanite extends the maple... New bowlers' area and concourse seating and tables are installed for everyone to have the best seat in Our House.
September 2022 - Established in 1957, Suburbanite celebrates its 65-Year Anniversary of bowling. "We are 65 and Not Retiring!"
March 2023 - Luck of the Irish Nine Pin No Tap Tournament beats the record again with 456 bowling participants and over $11,000 in cash prizes given out. It was a two-day tournament event for the first time ever.
October 2023 - First Annual Howling & Boowling 9 Pin No Tap Tournament was a success! Donations went to SEASPAR and Ray Graham Association.
November 2023 - A BIG update to "Frank and Bill's Game Room. Two new String Bowling Lanes installed: Lanes 33 and 34, brought to you by Brunswick Duckpin Social. Frank and Bill would've loved the 31 feet of Pro-Line Lanes requiring no annual resurfacing.
December 2023 - Installed New "Selfie Wall" and bench for selfies and photo opportunities to post on social.
March 2024 - Luck of the Irish Nine Pin No Tap Tournament beats the record yet again with 473 bowling participants! It was a two-day tournament event for the second year in a row. And like every year, lots of cash prizes were given out!