St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club

Constructed in 1918, the clubhouse complex of the St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club (SPLBC) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The organization is the oldest formally organized club of its kind in Florida and the tenth oldest in the U.S. The one-story, L-shaped wood-frame clubhouse was built one year after the club was founded, with additions to the structure in the 1920s and 1930s. A testing building was constructed in 1940 and has been used as an official test facility for the special "bowls" needed for this sport. The club opens for the season on November 1st and meets through April every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

The sport of lawn bowling is thought to have begun in England in the twelfth century. It was brought to America by English colonists who established the first bowling green in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1632. The town of Bowling Green in Virginia was named for a bowling green established by a Colonel Hoomes in 1670. The first bowling green in New York City was created by the British when they took over the colony from the Dutch in 1664; that green was located where the U.S. Custom House now stands in lower Manhattan; a new green was established just to the north in 1733 and is still a park. After the American colonists won their independence from Great Britain, the English sport fell out of favor for nearly a century until it was revived in the late 1870s by Scottish immigrants, beginning in New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The sport spread across the country, and the American Lawn Bowls Association (ALBA) was founded in 1915 in Buffalo, New York. Separate national associations for male and for female lawn bowlers merged in 2000 to form the United States Lawn Bowling Association (USLBA).

The St. Pete LBC was established in 1917 and joined the ALBA in 1920. The facilities occupied just over an acre in the northeast corner of Mirror Lake Park, northeast of the lake. The "bowls" used in lawn bowling are not round (two sides are slightly flattened) and are weighted to one side, so don't roll straight. Games are played in assigned lanes of the bowling green called "rinks," of 15 by 120 feet. Players roll the bowl from a mat placed on the center line of the rink. After all the players have rolled, the bowl that comes closest to the target (a small white ball called the "jack") earns one point. The property included a clubhouse complex and two bowling courts. The larger bowling court, to the south, eventually contained 25 rinks but was reduced to 19 rinks when the city constructed a senior citizens facility nearby in 1976. The south bowling court was used by male members by the late 1970s. When women bowlers formed a separate club in 1926, six more rinks were added to the east of the clubhouse complex. A covered walkway separated the south bowling court from the clubhouse complex and the north (ladies) bowling court.

The SPLBC clubhouse was built in the northwest corner of the property in 1918; the single-story, L-shaped wood-frame building was enlarged twice in the 1920s. A Mediterranean Revival style, concrete block addition was placed west of the original building in 1933; a shed addition was built in 1976. The main (north) entrance to the clubhouse along Fourth St. was similar to the rear entrance and featured a central arched doorway plus a pair of narrow, tall windows. A small, concrete block building erected near the northeast corner of the property in 1940 was used as a bowls testing building. When the SPLBC property was studied for the National Register in the late 1970s, its facility was the only one in the U.S. that was officially recognized by the American Lawn Bowls Association for the testing of bowls. Bowls were shipped to the SPLBC where a resident technician would test them and adjust them to a proper profile.

The number of lawn bowlers outgrew the SPLBC facility and a second club, the Bartlett Park LBC, formed in 1954. The rinks at SPLBC were rebuilt in 1956 from the original marl covered with a thin layer of sand to a durable synthetic turf called "rubico." The active court currently is the former ladies' court between the clubhouse complex and the testing building. The former south court appears to have become a grass-covered parking lot. Free lessons for newbies are offered at SPLBC at 9am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning; the season runs from November 1st to April 30th. Official games start those mornings at 9:30am and go until 11:30am. The club supplies equipment to players.

Greig, James W. The Game of Bowling on the Green or Lawn Bowls. Spalding's Athletic Library. New York, NY. American Sports Publishing Company, 1904.

Healy, Cameron. "St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club Opens for New Season." The Gabber (Gulfport, FL) October 24th, 2023. online ed.

St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club. How It's Played, St. Petersburg LBC: The Sport. January 1st, 2023. Accessed November 6th, 2023. https://stpetersburglawnbowling.org/game-rules/.

St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club. History of the Game, St. Petersburg LBC: History. January 1st, 2023. Accessed November 6th, 2023. https://stpetersburglawnbowling.org/history-of-the-game/

Shiver, W. Carl. NRHP nomination of St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club, St. Petersburg, Florida. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1980.