1920s

GE Club Duckpin Bowling Set

Located in a large building on Swinney Avenue, the GE Club was a bowling alley and social club that General Electric operated for the employees at its large industrial complex south of downtown Fort Wayne. The GE Club was dedicated in 1927 and contained a gym, men's locker room, exercise room, twelve bowling lanes, billiard and pool rooms, and a motion picture projection room. It was common at the time for large American businesses to provide elaborate recreational facilities for their employees and their families to show how much they were valued as the foundation of a company's success. Thousands of Fort Wayne residents worked at the GE complex through most of the twentieth century.

Duckpin bowling is a variation of traditional ten-pin bowling. The balls are slightly larger than a softball and lack finger holes. The pins are set up in the triangle pattern like traditional bowling, but the pins are shorter, smaller, and lighter than traditional pins, making it more difficult to achieve a strike. For these reasons, bowlers are allowed three rolls in a frame rather than two as is common in ten-pin bowling.

General Electric donated this Brunswick duckpin bowling set from the GE Club when they closed Fort Wayne operations in 2015. The pins are finished wood with a black rubber band around the center and have a red stripe painted around the neck. The nicks and dents on the pins show that the game of duckpin bowling was a popular way for GE employees to relax.