Many commuters that utilize Port Authority Bus Terminal have no clue that for many years there was a bowling alley that ran silently from within the terminal. With no entrance from the outside, Leisure Time Bowl was known mostly to straphangers that happened to get lost within the building while on their commute.  In 2003, however, the Danish company Big Bowl invested $10 million in Leisure Time Bowl, a renovation project that would make the location into Frames NYC. The new high-class bowling alley has been visited by the likes of Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, and Cynthia Nixon, as the location was finally given its grand entrance–right on the corner of 40th Street and 9th Avenue.

3. Secret Prohibition-Era Bowling Alley

Scouting NY reported about a building in Ridgewood, Queens that a reader had purchased and was surprised to find a two-lane manual bowling alley preserved from the Prohibition Era in New York City. Analysis of the spot revealed old school cushions that would stop the balls, wooden panels on either side of the lane to prevent pins from flying all over the place, and shallow gutters. Decorated wooden poles shape the room into what could possibly have been a speakeasy during times when certain recreational activities were frowned upon. For more photos of this location, visit Scouting NY’s Flickr page.

4. “Private Lanes Included”

Then there are those folks, taking a modern cue from Frick back in the Gilded Age, who have built their own bowling alleys.  In 2011, a TriBeCa loft was rented for $14,000–complete with a private bowling lane (bring your own shoes). 15 Broad Street, which Curbed dubbed the “Downtown Insanity Palace” has its own bowling alley for residents, but apartments will run you about $3 million, especially if you want to bowl here. A place at the Aldyn on South Riverside secures you private access to its basement bowling lanes–if you’re not already busy with its 38′ rock-climbing wall.