Roxy still lights up its neighbourhood

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2022 (1329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Roxy Lanes building at 385 Henderson Hwy. marks my turnoff when I travel home. The Roxy and its site have been purchased for residential redevelopment.

Many people recall happy times bowling there. Its closure was particularly poignant because its sale was due to the passing of its co-owner, Rob Gauthier. Rob, along with wife Melissa, had purchased the lanes in 2009 and redeveloped ihe facility into what Melissa had described as a “rock ’n’ roll” bowling lane. Its atmosphere was festive.

After its sale and over the summer months I’ve noticed that the long-unused tiers of lights on the front of the building were being turned on at night. Just recently, even the signature bowling pin sign was aglow. Such creative signage became popular in the 1960s when new fluorescent lights within large plastic forms replaced more fire-hazardous neon signs.

To my recollection, this sign was last lit up decades ago, as were the additional front lights. The tiers of lights, so long unused, remind me of the building’s incarnation as a theatre, when “ gaudy signs and flamboyant portals dotted streets from Portage and Main to the remotest suburbs”, as historian Alan Artibise wrote of the era of Roxy’s construction. Powerful floodlights on the building’s side elevations brightly illuminate the side lots.

“What is the difference between historic and nostalgic?” asked councillor Kevin Klein in April when some local citizens argued the building should receive heritage designation. (It was determined that the Roxy did not meet heritage criteria).

But a new vitality will arrive with the new residential structure. In the meantime, the building is being stewarded with neighbourhood safety in mind, as well as a summer’s presentation of a suggestion of its past lives.