“Brunetta Hill-Corley sounded the alarm that her late father’s bowling alley was in trouble in March 2025, leading to an outpouring of community support and over $25,000 in donations for overdue repairs.
“But Skyway Lanes, a Far South Side staple since the 1950s that was the city’s last Black-owned bowling alley, will now close for good April 26.
“By then, the historic alley at 9915 S. Torrence Ave. will have hung on for over a year after the last-ditch campaign to save it — long enough for neighbors to have thrown one more birthday party.
“Chicago had over 100 bowling alleys during the sport’s heyday in the mid-20th century, but that’s dwindled to under a dozen, with just three on the South Side. Alley operators say they’re grappling with rising costs, fewer regulars and sprawling city properties worth more than the aging businesses inside them.
“Corley hasn’t found a viable buyer willing to keep the building a bowling alley, and he doesn’t expect to.
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It’s been a fight for some time,” Corley said. “Every community deserves to have a quality of life. Part of that is entertainment, a safe place to go and have fun. They deserve a bowling alley.”
“Hill-Corley took over running the alley in 2016 after her father, Johnnie Hill, made a last request that she keep it open for the community.
“Hill had gone from picking cotton in Alabama to holding city offices with ties to its Democratic machine. The political operator bought and sold distressed South Side businesses like laundromats and convenience stores, doling out jobs to locals. He made repairs himself and investments on blocks where others wouldn’t, his daughter said.
“Hill was in his 70s when he bought Skyway in 2009 from the late Jacoby Dickens, owner of Seaway Bank, once the largest of the city’s former Black-owned banks, major drivers of economic development in Black communities that have seen declining populations in more recent decades.
“You can go to any bowling alley and hear the same story,” Corley said. “‘We’re hurting.’” (Liederman, Block Club Chicago, 3/31/26)