Clifton Merchant Magazine - August 2015

Rizzuto-Berra Lanes in Styertowne 1959 For two Yankee Hall of Famers, Clifton held the key to their next venture. Now off of the baseball diamond, they were onto the polished lanes of a new bowling alley.

The lanes of Astro Bowl, then Rizutto-Berra lanes, made their debut in 1959 with famed Yankees Lawrence “Yogi” Berra and Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto along with nine other investors at the helm.

Rizzuto enlisted his brother Fred to manage the lanes on a day to day basis making sure the borrowed shoes came back and got sprayed and bar counters were cleaned.

Rizzuto-Berra Lanes quickly became the pride of Styertowne with Yogi making guest appearances behind the baseball diamond shaped Phil Rizzuto and Yogi Berra at the ground breaking for the Rizzuto-Berra bar or rolling balls with patrons as Lanes in Styertowne in 1958. At right is developer Albert A. Stier.

Rizzuto charmed customers with small talk.

Past patrons remember the characteristic “stadium seating” behind each lane so team members and competitors had a good view as the balls quickly glided towards the crashing pins.

However before the doors opened in ‘59, Robert Stier, son of Styertowne developer Albert A. Stier, recalls the sound of pile-drivers digging into the ground as the structure for the 40 lane alley was taking shape. Stier says the ground was mostly quicksand and proved to be a nuisance for early construction in 1958.

Aside from the famously owned bowling alley, Albert Stier built the 344 unit Styertowne Apartments and the rest of the Styertowne Shopping Center, which continues to provide jobs for hundreds, Stier’s original vision.

Robert Stier, a bowling pinsetter in his younger Shortly after opening, Berra and Rizzuto took a step years, also looks back as Astro Bowl was being transback and sometime later the name changed to Astro formed into stores in that each lane was cut into three Bowl. In 1981, a few lanes were taken out and convertsmall pieces. The chopped alley was then sold to coned into Ashley’s Restaurant. struction outfits, who used the reclaimed wood to furAstro Bowl maintained oiled lanes and quick pinsetnish tables, chairs and home flooring. ters until the Spring of 1999 when it shut its doors. In Today A.C. Moore Arts and Crafts, Lucile Roberts: 1999, the Stier family also sold the Styertowne The Women’s Gym and Sherwin-Williams Paints now Property, which is now owned by Jacob Enterprises, stand in place of Astro Bowl.

Inc. of Clifton.

64 August 2015 • Clifton Merchant