Bowlarama opened in 1991, New Plymouth’s first automated ten-pin bowling centre. The complex also has an indoor mini-putt course, with entrances on both Dawson Street and Devon Street West. In July 2020 a $1.5 - $2m extension/alteration to the complex began to incorporate a new 'Laser tag' game.
It's likely that the first commercial structure on the site was erected in 1935 when a building permit was issued to C. Swanson Ltd. for a workshop on town sections 224 and 226. At the time there was a large two-storey residence (since demolished and replaced by a service station) on the corner of Devon and Dawson Streets. Subsequently more buildings were added, wrapping around the service station/garage on the corner.
About 1965/66 Swanson Engineering moved to Carrington Street and the Devon/Dawson Street property was sold to Wellington businessman, Mr A.S. Cornish, for “something less than the Government valuation of $96,000”.
Cornish’s idea was to consolidate the different branches of his footwear company, Burkes New Plymouth Ltd., on the one central city site. The buildings were completely refurbished for the new business and a name change to Devon Footwear Ltd. followed. Production began in 1969, and the new premises were officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Overseas Trade, Jack Marshall on 23 February 1970.
Devon Footwear Ltd. went into receivership in 1975, and the business was bought by Clarks Shoes Ltd. The economic changes in the 1980s were the nail in the coffin for the local shoe manufacturing business and Clarks Shoes closed on 28 September 1988. Some staff were able to move to the company’s Auckland factory.
Three years later Bowlarama opened in the large Dawson Street building seen in the photograph above. A local community newspaper, Ragtime, profiled the new venture in their 4 May 1991 issue and it was expected then that Bowlarama would open for business on 11 May.
Related items:
Engineering Firm Began in Small Wooden Shed (Taranaki Herald 3 November 1951)
Rebirth of an Industry: Devon Footwear's Spectacular Rise (Taranaki Herald 23 February 1970)
Ten-pin bowling centre on target (Daily News 12 April 1991)
Bowlarama opening advertisement (Ragtime #42 4 May 1991)
Bowlarama Open Day (Taranaki Daily News 16 April 2004)
Tenpin venue bowls on with $1.5m extension (Taranaki Daily News 22 May 2020)
Bowlarama extension rolling along nicely (Taranaki Daily News 20 November 2020)
Taranaki DP6508 Sheet 1 (1948), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
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