Historic bowling alley in Orangeburg on track to reopen

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A historic bowling alley in Orangeburg is on track to re-open and will be fully operational. The Center for Creative Partnerships, a non-profit organization, Is heading a project that will renovate the All-Star Triangle bowling alley in Orangeburg county. The bowling alley was at the center of a massacre that killed three Black students at SC state and wounded 28 others.

The center for creative partnerships president Ellen Zisholtz took us on a tour of the inside of the building. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done -- and right now they’re in the first phase of renovations.

Zisholtz says the Triangle All-Star Bowling Alley closed down back in 2007—but the inside is like walking through a time capsule. Right now there are leaks and missing s in the roof --- but soon it’ll be restored.

“What we want to happen is that we take something historic that was horrendous, and we turn the building into a community asset that everybody would enjoy bowling and whatever else in there,” said Ellen Zisholtz.

Back in the 1960′s, the bowling alley was where many black local activists tried to practice the integration laws that were recently ed but they were met with backlash that ended in the death of three students at the hands of police.

Ellen Sisholtz, president of the Center for Creative Partnerships,

“The interesting thing is, of course, these students were standing up for their rights and social justice and orangeburg has a history of that and the universities have a history of that but the students they just wanted to bowl. I talked to many of them that we’re in the massacre and they still just want to bowl again”

The process to reopen the all-star triangle bowling alley will be broken down into three phases.

“We’re just now starting on the construction—beginning with the roof. The first phase we will also be getting rid of all the hazardous material,” said Zisholtz.

The second phase will be cleaning the inside of the alley, tackling electrical issues, and installing HVAC. The third and final phase will be upgrading the bowling equipment. Zishoultz says the project is already gaining interest even outside the country.

“This is really important internationally, I’ve had people come here from England to take pictures and Belgium, interest in Toronto, people in this country have come from Alabama,” said Ellen Zisholtz.

Now, the organization is still putting the finishing touches on renderings for the building. Zisholtz had hopes of getting the bowling alley up and running by the anniversary of the massacre which is February 8th -- but after seeing the work that needed to be done to the alley, she says it could be two to three more years before the project is finished.

The center for creative partnerships is funding this project with grants. The national park service awarded the group 500 thousand dollars to start it. The president of the organization says it’ll take about 2 million dollars total to complete the renovations.

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