Quiet Giants: Penn Lanes owners find purpose beyond the pins

DELAWARE — The Delaware County Fairgrounds isn’t the only historic, community-centered place for family fun on Pennsylvania Avenue.

For more than three decades, there’s been a bowling alley at 451 Pennsylvania Ave. And for the last seven years, Frank and Jennifer Hinkle have been the ones running the show.

This is Penn Lanes: A bowling house the Hinkles purchased in October 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, they’ve worked to turn that house into something more: a home filled with memories.

“Penn Lanes is not just a bowling alley, it’s not just a house where you throw a ball and hit some pins,” Jennifer said. “This is home, it’s very different. It’s a home for so many people.

“It’s a home for the special Olympians, for the league bowlers who have been coming to the Monday night leagues for over 30 years. It is truly family.”

The Hinkles each bring a very different set of skills to keeping that sense of community alive.

Frank works in real estate and law as an eminent domain appraiser and attorney out of an office on Central Avenue downtown. Meanwhile, Jennifer serves as pastor at First Presbyterian Church on Winter Street and has experience in design, marketing and community outreach.

Each feel their traits balance one another out. If Frank is handling inventory and being the “boots on the ground,” then Jennifer is working the phones and email, setting up music acts for the patio or designing the fun graphics on the scoreboard TVs.

“We can take the gifts and the skillsets that we have from our other careers and bring them here, and layer them together,” Jennifer said.

But they don’t do it alone. The couple were quick to acknowledge their two full-time managers Ed and Sherry Lanham, plus their 8-10 part-time workers.

“Ed has worked here on and off for almost 30 years,” Frank said. “We’re very fortunate to have Ed, his history and knowing of things at the bowling center and he’s an outstanding mechanic.”

The Hinkles have owned all kinds of properties over the years, some with tenants and some without. But Penn Lanes is the only one they say feels like it has a soul.

Even the name has history. When the Hinkles purchased the alley, it was called Colony Lanes. They renamed it Penn Lanes as a nod to the two-lane stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue it sits on — unknowingly returning the bowling alley to its original name.

Before Colony Lanes, it was Penn Lanes.

The first frame: New beginnings

Long before the Hinkles owned Penn Lanes — and even before Frank and Jennifer were married — Frank bowled in high school and received an offer to join the professional circuit.

He turned that pro-bowling offer down, went to college, then got his law degree — and now owns a place to live out his childhood passion, too.

“I was a bowler and a baseball player growing up, and I was raised in a divorced family,” Frank said. “What was special was that I loved bowling and I had a lot of friends, and we bowled in Saturday morning leagues.

“The bowling alley became a babysitter on the weekend, for me,” he said. “My mother would drop me off with a roll of quarters and I’d listen to Journey, play Donkey Kong and play in the bowling alley with all my buddies for two days.

“So when people congregate here, it’s almost familial. Everyone knows each other and you become part of something that’s real.”

Fast forward to 2019, and Frank found himself walking around the Penn Lanes area looking at some properties on the city of Delaware’s behalf.

“He was walking around this parking lot and actually tripped, caught himself so he didn’t fall, but as he turned, he saw the For Sale sign in [the bowling alley’s] front window,” Jennifer chimed in.

“So he stews and brews for about a week or two because he’s processing and thinking, ‘What kind of asset can we invest in? What kind of long-term holding can we invest in so that it can be more like a community center?’ We had talked about that for a very long time,” she said.

“July-ish 2019, he comes home, we had dinner, the kids are riding their bikes around the neighborhood, we’re going for a walk with the dogs, and he goes, ‘I got to ask you a question.’

“As soon as you say that, it’s going to be something over-the-top crazy.”

Crazy or not, Frank asked his wife if she ever thought of buying a bowling alley. To which she replied, “No, honey. I’ve never thought about that.”

But Frank was serious and Jennifer said she could see that. Together, they prayed over the idea, made pros and cons lists and ultimately determined the worst thing the previous owners could say to their offer was no.

Lo and behold, 451 Pennsylvania Avenue became theirs. Frank promised the previous owners of the then-named Colony Lanes that the building would stay a bowling alley.

“We realized that it was more important to allow ourselves to fail at something, but to still do it anyway,” Jennifer said.

“If we failed, we failed. But we agreed we’d never question 20 years from now whether we should have gotten the bowling alley.”

Rolling through a pandemic

OK, the couple thought, we own a bowling alley — now what?

Oh, hello COVID-19.

When the Hinkles acquired the property, Frank said it needed a lot of blood, sweat and tears to turn into something not only he could be proud of, but the community could be proud of, too.

The hard work was starting to pay off as things got fixed, and new things got added over time. Frank felt they had momentum.

Then the pandemic hit.

“COVID shut us down, shut down the leagues and every income source that we needed to support this,” he said. “But the city and the county really stepped up. When they found out I owned a bowling center, I think they felt so bad for me.

“There were grants and other incentives that they offered for us to keep people here safely and to keep people employed,” he said. “I think they’ve really respected the fact of what this property means to the community.”

Jennifer said even while they were unsure what the future held for Penn Lanes, the couple turned their attention to helping others.

“When we inevitably did get shut down, we knew that all the food in the freezer we had and all the resources we had, we didn’t know if we were going to open again still,” she said.

“So we ended up giving and divvying up all the stuff, toilet paper, sanitizer, we cleaned out our freezer, everything and just said, ‘Take it.’”

Once things did open back up again and the once the couple realized that the bowling alley had survived, people came in droves looking to help and seeking the alley’s camaraderie.

“They came in and were painting, building and cleaning … and did it for nothing, no money,” Jennifer said.

“To me, that was when I realized we’ve got something here.”

A place for every event

Today, Penn Lanes hosts everything from wedding parties, baby showers and birthday parties to work events, fundraisers and Special Olympics bowling.

Penn Lanes is also one of very few bowling alleys to still use real-wood lanes, an extra tidbit that Frank said makes a 10-frame round that much more challenging and fun.

“People consider this a place where it has things for everybody,” Frank said.

“Now we have the patio and outdoor container bar that has had live outdoor music. The grownups are outside and the kids have two hours of bowling, things like that.”

The new outdoor bar opened in early September, and Jennifer said she’s got all kinds of musical acts lined up to come play this fall.

And in a world where prices continue to rise, Penn Lanes is keeping things affordable.

For kids’ birthday parties, the Penn Special costs $71 plus tax and includes two hours of bowling for up to five people, shoe rentals, a 12-inch pizza and a pitcher of soda or lemonade.

But charitable giving is what really brings joy to the Hinkles. A Special Olympics bowling group that started with about 15 participants has grown to around 70.

Whether they’re donating to local school sports teams, hosting middle school students for events at the alley or finding other ways to give back, the Hinkles said “that’s just what you do when your goal is to unify your community.”

“If people could know one thing, I’d say it’s not just a bowling alley,” Jennifer said.

“It’s not just a house, it’s a home. It’s not just a bowling center, it’s a space for people to gather and share whatever it is they need to share.”