AMF Broadway Lanes and Dairy Queen - Littleton, CO

When Auto Nation needs to manifest destiny, bowling alleys and Dairy Queens must fall.

In the spring of 2015, progress struck the city of Littleton and they lost the AMF Lanes at 5485 South Broadway. With the longtime neighboring Dairy Queen falling shortly after...

According to the sign, AMF Broadway Lanes closed after 60 years at this location. I'm not sure how long the bowling alley shared part it's parking lot with a very small Dairy Queen, but from the look of both buildings, I'm thinking they were nearly roommates for most -if not all- of those 60 years.

And here they were near the end...

December 25, 2013.

Dairy Queen is closed up for the winter (as it did every winter), sitting in front of the AMF Lanes. Painted in the most familiar (to me), blue and white color scheme.

December 25, 2014.

Exactly one year later, the AMF Lanes building has been dramatically re-painted. With a giant red "BOWL" on the wall. Next door to the AMF is Auto Nation Jeep. Currently undergoing a renovation that lasted multiple years. Most likely drawn out by the presence of AMF Lanes...

Before I get into any of that, I have to add a brief sidebar.

This was my view from the luxury apartment at Greenwood Point, from May 2006 to May 2018. Including the bike path running along the north side of Big Dry Creek. The Rocky Mountains on the western horizon. The tan building with the white roof, closest on the left was a Target back in the 1980's. Now it (and the other buildings you see) are part of the Groove Toyota complex.

This picture makes me feel sooooooooo homesick...

But if you look closely, you can see a thin red line, above used-to-be-Target...

ENHANCE!!!

Yup, I could see AMF Broadway Lanes from my old apartment!

Well, if there were no leaves on the trees...

See! Here's roughly that same view reversed. Taken on Broadway, with my apartment hidden in the trees behind used-to-be-Target. Which actually still has the marquee sign above the front doors.

******

August 3, 2014.

Driving back from the Littleton King Soopers, I found the Auto Nation Jeep dealership's main building was being demolished. That meant I had to circle the block and park the car, so I can get out and take pictures.  The Prestige Paintless Dent Repair tent that was set up in the AMF Lanes parking lot, provided cover for my car. A recent hailstorm dented a ton of cars in the area, so this pop-up appeared to take advantage. That storm sucked. I had to buy a new windshield because of it. 

I did not use Prestige Paintless Dent Repair to set it up.

The demolition of Auto Nation Jeep only went back into one third of the building.

A new structure was added on to this part, over the next year. 

Part of the "Auto" sign that used to hang above the front entrance.

From the sidewalk along the west side of Broadway, AMF Lanes can be see behind the Auto Nation Jeep demo pile and shovel. I have to admit that I do not know much about the Auto Nation Jeep property, prior to 2014. From the looks of it, it'd been here for a long time. But I never paid any attention to it. I already had a car. Come to think of it, I don't remember there being much of an inventory of vehicles on the west side of Broadway. 

The east side of the block was filled with acres of cars, in the Groove Toyota lots. 

Just a year ago (May 26, 2013), the old Groove Toyota dealership was demolished and rebuilt....

So it's starting to make sense now! This is all part of Auto Jeep Nation Toyota Groove's master plan to remake the 5400 block of South Broadway into it's own little world. But two significant pieces are standing in their way of conquest!

An innocent purveyor of sweet and delicious frozen dairy treats...

And a house of pseudo-athletic competition, featuring heavy polished spheres with thumbholes!

I had limited dealings with the AMF Lanes during my time in Colorado. I went bowling there exactly one time in 2004, and other than a few pizza deliveries in the late 1990's, that was about it. That and driving by it multiple times a week. Obviously I didn't have any of my own photos of inside the place, but that's what the Googles is for! 

Turns out, the former owners took a few photos of the AMF Lanes, and uploaded them to Yelp. Then they did something wrong and uploaded each of the photos four time a piece. But they were trying, and it helped me write this story!

If I remember right, the AMF Broadway had 24 bowling lanes. This great Yelp interior shot, shows most of them. Along with the style of tables and chairs you'd expect to see at a bowling alley. On top of carpet that you'd expect to see at a bowling alley.

In 1986.

Usually when I delivered pizzas here, it was for a group of bowlers who decided that Azzip Tuh was a better option than anything in house. But there was one delivery to the AMF Broadway Lanes that was so irritating, I still remember it vividly today. 

Saturday evening. Busiest night of the week. A decent-to-good night of tips helps make rent. Saturday's were key to your entire monthly budget when you're a struggling "college" student. So that night I draw a big order, nearly $100 in 1998, to the AMF Broadway Lanes. Already at one of the furthest points south in our delivery area, driving it down there and back would take me away from 2 or 3 other runs. So I need this one to pay off.

The ticket says I'm to go to the front counter and ask for Michelle. I do this. The kid at the counter paged her and I waited. And waited. Pizzas on the table and valuable minutes ticking away. Finally Michelle shows up and hands me a check for the exact total of the food.

She also gives me her business card:

And tells me to bring it back and exchange it for one free game of Extreme Bowling.

Gee, thanks... I'm willing to bet my landlord will be so excited at the prospect of saving maybe $3 on a single game of bowling, that they'll happily discount the rent on my crappy 480 square foot apartment!

I stood inside AMF Lanes for over 15 minutes during our peak delivery time, and this was my compensation.

Obviously I never redeemed it. 

After I was finished taking my pictures of the Auto Nation Jeep dealer, I got in my car and drove around to the rear exit of AMF Lanes, to take Bannock Street back around to Broadway.

The west entrance/exit to AMF Lanes.

Ramp down to Bannock Street, Norgren would be directly in front of you.

Norgren; "A world leader in pneumatic motion and fluid control technologies." 

Okay... So that's what they do behind that weathered fence. I also delivered pizzas to this factory a few times. Navigating that place took even more time than AMF Lanes. Still not as bad as a delivery to Swedish Medical Center...

Instead of building some sort of nice looking decorative ramp from the AMF Lanes parking lot, down to Bannock Street, they just threw a bunch of tar against the cut out hill. No matter how many times I drove past this it always looked shoddy. Clearly something better could have been done here.

Then there’s this...

How about a big ramp leading to nothing! 

******

January 19, 2015.

New construction at the Auto Nation Jeep. Thanks to the red light, I was able to snap a semi-decent picture of the framework growing out of the leftover building. 

Crawling forward a few more feet for another picture. This one showing more of AMF Lanes, with the fenced off access road between them and Auto Nation Jeep. AMF got a new paint job at some point in the fall of 2014.

May 23, 2015.

However, the tall black BOWL letters were removed in the Spring of 2015.

Just one of the confusing makeovers to the AMF Lanes, during it's last year of business.

Building construction continues at Auto Nation Jeep, which appears to be nearing completion.

Dairy Queen is open (just not in the early morning, when I took this picture) for it's final season of ice cream sales.  

June 13, 2015.

AMF Lanes has officially closed. The entryway has already been plywooded over.

I'm thinking the tall black BOWL letters were painted over what the bowling alley ceased operations. 

But the light up AMF Bowling Co. light up sign remained attached to the wall for another year and a half.

Yelp photo of the bar, located on the south side of AMF Lanes.

The bar had a separate entrance from bowling alley.

I'm sure they were connected inside, but I was never in the bar, so I don't know.

Windows on this part of the bar were surprisingly un-plywooded up. Well, there's no way I'm not going to look inside. Although they were a bit too high off the ground, so these were some semi-blind shots taken.

Starting at the far right window. Edge of the pool table, and employee bar access point. The small overhead lights are still on, as it looks like the bar is being cleared out.

Fighting the sun glare to see more of the bar...

Thanks 2012 Yelp picture for giving this a bit more perspective!

Still that ugly carpet though...

Looking back into the well lit kitchen area.

And again from a slightly different angle...

One more shot of the bar and front of the bowling alley, before going around back.

Damn sun...

And damn plywood! I was hoping to catch a look inside these doors...

Oh yeah, that's right! I completely forgot the AMF Lanes sister alley in Englewood!

AMF Belleview Lanes, at 4900 South Federal, in Englewood, CO. Photo taken September 22, 2013. Back when it was still wearing it's pre-red paint job.

This was the bowling alley the Columbine High School shooters attended bowling classes at, in the mornings before going to school. The movie Bowling for Columbine stated that Harris and Klebold had bowled at this alley, before going to Columbine High School with all of their guns on April 20, 1999. This was incorrect in the movie. The school’s bowling instructor has stated that both of them were absent from class that morning, in attendance records turned over to police.

AMF Belleview Lanes remains open today. 

AMF Broadway Lanes is not. 

Although that did not stop them from having their old sign updated and repainted.

Five months after permanently closing!

Speaking of closed...

After freezing it's last treat, Dairy Queen also closed forever in October 2015. 

The building was quickly cleared out of everything that identified it as a DQ, with the exception of a Lemonade banner over the left window. And the building itself would always be seen as a Dairy Queen, even without logos. That's simply the shape of a Dairy Queen. No matter what it is.

I visited Dairy Queen more than I did AMF Lanes. Either an Oreo Blizzard or a Chocolate Dipped Cone was always good. Though my absolute favorite DQ item is a grape Misty Float. Been at least 15 years since I had one, but if I ever find myself at a DQ again, there's my order.

Looks so empty without all of the promotional posters covering the windows. 

A peek behind the curtain into the tiny guts of the old Broadway Dairy Queen. 

The left side of the building, with shelves going all the way to the back wall.

There was room for a little bit of inventory, but not a whole lot. For as tiny as this Dairy Queen was, it was always busy in the summer. Wasn't uncommon to see a line of customers going down the sidewalk on Broadway. Sometimes 15-20 deep. Amazing they could keep enough supply inside for that kind of volume.

Previously covered, very weathered and old parking sign on the side of the building.

Back of the DQ, and only entrance or exit to the building.

Then around the back to the south side of DQ, raise the camera up over my head into the small windows just before the roof line.

Oh look, a toilet!

I don't think I could work here. This building is just too small and cramped to move around in. Seeing how the employees had to maneuver this workspace, with all of the dessert making equipment in the way, during busy rushes was rather amazing. Not to mention I doubt it had air conditioning inside. Sitting out in the sun couldn't have been a big help either.

It was sad to see the Littleton Dairy Queen close. I don't know how many years it had been there, but it was a landmark that stood on the south Broadway hill for decades. 

These pictures of the naked Dairy Queen were taken on October 31, 2015. After I walked around that building, I turned around to take a few more pictures of AMF Broadway Lanes.

See my shadow?

This morning I saw a few cars sitting out in front of the boarded up bowling alley. Cars were also on the bar side and rear as well. There'd been some increased activity here over the last week, which was why I made the stop at the property today.

With most of the activity going on in the back, I drove around the block to park behind the bowling alley.

Using that ugly paved ramp into the AMF parking lot....

Large trailers were being filled with old bowling alley equipment. These are either piece of pinsetters or ball returns. I don't know enough about how bowling alleys work to easily identify them. Plus that damn sun wasn't helping matters...

Some of those mechanical parts may be featured in this December 2011 photo I found on Yelp.

This one was not uploaded by the owner. 

Hmmm... The plywooded back doors have been left open.

Makes sense, the workers that I've been dodging for the last 5-10 minutes have been hauling bowling stuff out of the building. If I time it just right, I might just be able to sneak up to the doors and get a picture or two of whatever they're doing inside!

COOL!

And I just got yelled at by a guy inside.

He saw me snap this blurry photo and told me to leave. Well that sucks...

One more for the road!

Workers were removing the individual alleys, in order to take all of the ball return mechanisms out. The far back wall has been taken out to remove the pin setting machines. That would explain all of the stuff outside in the dumpsters. But how did they give the bowling alley a makeover in late 2014, and NOT do anything with that tacky Saved By The Bell carpet?

Wish the workers would have been cool and let me get some better pictures that weren't all sorts of blurry!

That used to look like this!

And a Foursquare picture from a portable live DJ setup behind the lanes. 

Was this for Extreme Bowling or Disco Bowling or Rave Bowling?

Oh well. I guess that shuts the door on AMF Broadway Lanes. With the building being gutted, Dairy Queen now closed and Auto Nation Jeep practically salivating over their neighboring property. Now we just wait for the buildings to be torn down and the land scraped clear.

November 6, 2016.

Well, exactly one year and one week later, AMF Broadway Lanes looks almost exactly as it did on Halloween 2015, when I last stopped by. Auto Nation Jeep is using the parking lot for vehicle storage, but not much else is going on here. 

February 19, 2017.

The exterior walls of AMF Broadway Lanes has been cleaned of the red paint job it received a couple of years earlier. Further interior demolition prep work is underway. In order to examine this closer, I will need to pull off Broadway, park and walk around. Best place to do that here would be directly to the south at Broadway Square. 

A shopping center anchored by Colorado Antique Gallery, which was opened in 1992, inside of an abandoned Safeway grocery store. Laura and I wandered around inside of it a few times. Even after 25 plus years of being filled with antique vendors, you could still see Safeway all over the interior.

15 years ago, there was a Enterprise car rental store on the north end of the shopping center. I rented cars a few times here to drive to Minnesota and back, since it was obvious the aging Blueberry Honksicle wouldn’t have made the complete trek without stranding me.

This photo of AMF Lanes was taken while standing on the sidewalk in front of the old Enterprise car rental store. The car rental place had left here several years earlier, probably around the same time the bowling alley closed. 

I don’t know why I didn’t take any more pictures on this day. The boards were no longer covering the windows of the bar, so I could have easily taken more pictures. The parking lot around the building did have a lot of cars stuffed into it. So the views wouldn't have been great, and there may have been people around that I didn’t want to bother me or be seen by. 

But I do know of three people who wouldn’t be there to bother me...

That is an awful transition...

From Channel 9 News Denver (NBC):

Bobby Zajac, 23, Erin Golla, 26, and 29-year-old James Springer were shot to death inside the AMF Broadway Bowling Alley, located at 5485 S. Broadway in Littleton shortly before midnight on Jan. 27, 2002. Golla and Springer were the last two closing employees and Zajac had been bowling and was going to get a ride home from Springer, LPD said.

After closing the alley, Golla called her friend at 11:40 p.m. to come pick her up. Sometime after she made that call, the three victims came into contact with an unknown person or people and were shot to death during an apparent robbery.

Investigators said Wednesday around 11:50 p.m. that night, a middle-aged white man with a bald head was seen exiting the bowling alley wearing a knee-length trench coat. He got into a dark-colored, newer model pickup truck and left the area heading south.

Five minutes later at 11:55 p.m. the friend who had come to pick up Golla discovered their bodies inside, and called police.

And that’s that. To date, there has been no break in this case. After 20 years, it still remains unsolved. 

While doing my typical quick and scattered research, I found this podcast discussing the AMF Broadway Lanes triple homicide. I listened to some of it, but it tended to fall into the category that most of these things do. Take about 15 minutes of material and pad it out to an hour. With mostly speculation and little information that isn’t available anywhere else.

Now the comments on the other hand, float some interesting theories about the motives behind the murders. I'm not going down that rabbit hole here. If you're interested, knock yourself out. Crystal Meth does figure into a lot of those info tidbits...

August 4, 2017.

So this is the end of AMF Broadway Lanes.

I discovered that more than half of the bowling alley had already been demolished, while coming home from work. It was a little too early in the morning for crappy digital camera to take decent shots in low light. 

Parking in the Broadway Square lot, then walking over to the south side of the bowling alley. A good amount of the building has already fallen. Tear down work started on the south side, then going north through the structure. At this point, work was done to the rear exit doors.

At least they left a decent amount of the old bar for me to snap a picture of. Since that ended up being one of the most featured parts of the building in this story, it’s appropriate to have this shot.

Even zooming in to have less focus and clarity!

The shovel responsible for pure bowling destruction!

Looking inside the front of AMF Broadway Lanes. Pins would be set up on the right side of the building, with the entrance out of the frame to the left. There appears to be a hallway going across the back of the building. I’d assume that would have been to access the bowling equipment at the end of the lanes. In case the pin setters get stuck, you’d have to be able to get at them!

Were I feeling a little bit more ambitious, I would have gotten closer in attempt to take some pictures that would have included some features that would have defined this as a bowling alley. What you see here, you’d just have to take my word for this building’s purpose, since there are no real identifying markers. AMF Lanes Demolition

Not like this was still here…

Photo of the Snack Bar, courtesy of the previous owner's Yelp upload. I can't remember exactly, but this may have been where I waited forever to be tipped one free game of Extreme Bowling for nearly $100 in pizzas, back in 1998.

Yes, I'm still bitter.

Thank you Foursquare, for providing a nearly complete image of the AccuScore keypad located at the end of the lanes. If it were cropped differently, I could tell how well this anonymous bowler was doing today. Well, this day in December 2012 anyways...

For whatever reason, I feel like I really dropped the 14 pound ball on covering the AMF Broadway Lanes demolition properly. I missed the beginning of destruction, and came away with only a few blurry shots of a few angles. Definitely not up to my usual standards. 

I didn’t even bother going back the next day for any better quality updates. Luckily Laura stepped up the next afternoon, and volunteered to drive over for pictures of what was left. So the next set of pictures were all taken by Laura, unless noted.

There wasn’t much of AMF Broadway Lanes when she got there. This would have been the bar area, which has been ground to tiny pieces. Barely anything recognizable here.

Roof beams have fallen in with the remaining walls taken out over the last 24 hours. 

AMF Broadway Lanes rear exit.

Looking down towards Auto Nation Jeep, from the bowling alley rear exit. Even this looks drastically different from the pictures I took the day before.

Guessing these large wood beams were being saved?

With the walls gone, the roof is now resting on the ground. I’m sure that shovel you can’t see in this picture is doing a lot of the sorting between garbage and recycling. Much of the cinderblocks were likely ground to powder, the steal beams would eventually get melted down and the broken wood would probably meet the landfill. 

I really love this shot Laura took here. Getting the Groove Toyota sign, on the other side of Broadway,  through the roof beams is some excellent photo composition!

This shot is really good too. The north side of the access road between AMF and Auto Nation, the border if you will... If you could see through the trees in the distance, you may have been able to see our old Greenwood Point apartment from this point. Also a big fan of that rusty circular fan vent, just sitting at an odd angle, waiting to be destroyed.

Looking back along the former west facing wall of AMF Broadway Lanes. 

There’s all sorts of no more of this going on here.

Eat like you mean it!

Sure thing Foursquare!

Did you mean to order from Pizza Hut? Because I wouldn’t recommend that...

Going back around to the south side.

And the front (east) side.

More large wooden beams that appear to be salvageable?

A rather beat up can of Jumex amongst the rubble…

This pretty much marks the end of AMF Broadway Lanes as a subject of my strange photography habit. I do have one more tiny nugget of AMF Broadway Lanesdom to cover. Back in January 2004, I had driven back to Denver for a poker game at Bob’s house. The next night, I ended up actually bowling at AMF Broadway Lanes, for the first and only time. 

That story garnered a small blurb in a Wasted Quarter 56 (Wonder What Wendall Wanted) story.

Stories that I wrote 18 years ago kinda make me cringe today…

December 23, 2107.

Dairy Queen was demolished a few weeks earlier and I completely missed it.

Auto Nation Jeep was already parking inventory on top of AMF Lanes grave.

And the somewhat newly repainted AMF Lanes sign was finally taken down.

March 18, 2018.

Auto Nation Jeep has spread to Dairy Queen’s land. Even erecting a sign to mark it’s conquested territory. 

All fun has been systematically removed from this block of south Broadway. Only memories remain, and I’m sure many of the longtime citizens of Englewood and Littleton do have some fond memories of good times spent here. 

At least we have the Googles to remind us that what looked like this in October 2011…

Was this, by July 2021.

But I wish it was still May 26, 2013.

Because I would like to go Extreme Bowling!

Think I have a coupon for that somewhere…