Milford History Online

It takes a bit of imagination to envision the undersized brick building opposite the library at 52 Nashua Street as a bowling alley, but throughout the 1950s, this was the local mecca for the decade's hottest sport. In 1950, Louis Kregos petitioned the board of selectmen to allow for upgrades to what was then the three-story Martin Building, in order that candlepin lanes could be added. While one nearby tenant objected to what he imagined would be "considerable noise," Kregos assured the board that the latest innovations in soundproofing would eliminate the racket of balls and pins. Winning approval, Bowlmor Lanes (“Milford’s Modern Bowling Alley”) opened in September and soon local rollers began to climb the outside stairway to its second-floor entrance. Ads in the Milford Cabinet for Bowlmor touted its family appeal. “Not too strenuous for mother or the girls but plenty of sport for DAD or that teen-age ‘he-man’ too,” read one advertisement.

With four lanes on the second floor and four more on the third, there was never a whole lot of room, but that did not prevent Kregos from staging a bevy of bowling events including the Milford town bowling league, elimination tournaments, and free bowling nights for youngsters (with the boys downstairs and the girls up top). There were also some rather incredible feats and accomplishments. Kregos himself set a new alley record in December 1951 totaling 387 pins for three strings. And in 1954, local champ Guy Draper, known as "Mr. Bowling," managed to bowl for seven straight hours, totaling 50 strings and knocking down 4,972 pins – all at the age of 65.

Throughout the ‘50s, Kregos continued to make the most of his "upstairs/downstairs" bowling parlor. In 1952, he introduced newfangled automatic pin-setting machines. The Cabinet explained that "complicated machinery set up the pins in just eleven seconds with an intricate system of chain drives and gears." This was indeed progress. Previously, "pin boys" were needed to constantly reset the action – and as the frequent "Pin Boys Wanted" ads in the paper proved, such employees were very much subject to availability.

In August 1961, Kregos realized his “bowling dream” when he opened a much larger venue down Elm Street, allowing the little building off the Oval to return to more mundane diversions.