“Bob Kuhn bought Timber Lanes 40 years ago, moving into the adjoining building and presiding over the timeless Chicago alley that still requires bowlers to keep score by hand.
“Kuhn played in Timbers’ most competitive leagues. He’s known for putting together teams of locals who came to celebrate him for keeping prices reasonable and the beer taps flowing as the desirable North Side neighborhood changed around them.
“It opened in 1945, when the building’s bar added lanes to draw in more drinkers like many other bars had at the time, Kuhn said. During the Prohibition era, Kuhn believes the building was used mostly to smuggle beer. Over the years, he’s gleefully shown customers down a square cut in the wood floors that leads to a dark ‘dungeon’ with a former cooler room and four chutes for empty bottles.
“It was with reluctance that Kuhn, 69, cut the music, shut down the pinsetters and stood in the middle of the lanes to make an announcement to his bowlers the old-fashioned way.
“‘I needed someone else to carry the throne. I was looking for someone to buy it,’ Kuhn said. ‘I’ve always been upfront and honest with all the bowlers.’
“Kuhn’s longtime bowling teammate, Matt Rosenbaum, was listening.
“In April, the two struck a deal to sell Rosenbaum the bowling business, which turns 80 this year. The lease will have Rosenbaum keep Timber Lanes, 1851 W. Irving Park Road, open for at least the next 15 years.
“Rosenbaum, 35, has kept the entire staff on — with no plans of adding electronic scoring or cosmic strobe lights to the famously modest eight-lane alley.
“He said he could have sold it all to developers for much more. But Kuhn didn’t want a neighborhood without its bowling alley. ‘We have some fourth-generation bowlers here,’ Kuhn said. ‘I’m very much involved with the people.’
“Timber Lanes is one of only a half dozen alleys left on the North Side, a steep decline from the 110-plus alleys across the city during the sport’s heyday in the mid-20th century. Bowling operators have told Block Club their large city lots are now more valuable than the historic businesses on them, which have struggled to absorb rising property taxes or keep people coming out for weekly leagues in a more socially isolated age.
“‘I love coming here every week. I’ve met some of my best friends in the city here. It’s about, how do we keep this going?” Rosenbaum said. ‘The business is not really for me. The business has played a huge role in the bowling community, and to be able to take it into the next era, keep providing opportunities for people to engage in the sport and with each other, that’s very important to me.’
“We want to be contributing members of this community, take some responsibility for investing in the city. We’re excited about that and take it seriously,’ Rosenbaum said. ‘Timber Lanes is an important business to a lot of people.’ (Liederman, Block Club Chicago, 6/26/25)