Landmark Lanes

History

Landmark Lanes occupies the basement of Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre complex, which opened in 1927 as Bensinger’s Recreation on the site of a former streetcar barn. Club Silver opened inside the lanes when Prohibition ended in 1933, and the bowling room was later called Oriental Lanes. In 1972 the Pritchett brothers bought the complex, renamed it Oriental Landmark Lanes, and turned leftover manual lanes into a second bar that became a jazz room. The 1980s and 1990s were a busy era for bowling, arcade games, pool, and darts, and the Pritchetts sold the theater and lanes to New Land Enterprises in 2002.