After more than 100 years, a historic bowling alley and social club in Boerne is now a non-smoking venue, and some locals say it’s about time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Have you heard?! The Boerne Turnverein is now a NO Smoking venue!” the business\u00a0wrote in a social media post last weekend, on October 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Finally!!!” Facebook user Cara Wall Peterson wrote underneath the post.<\/p>\n
“About time!!” said another.<\/p>\n
“Thank goodness! Now I will go,” Sharon D. Scott shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another user thanked the bowling club and said he couldn’t wait to stop by for an ice-cold beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boerne Turnverein\u00a0is one of the last places in the United States where you can play the historic nine-pin bowling game.<\/p>\n
The nine-pin game is part of the German-Texas tradition that early settlers helped popularize through their turnverein clubs. Nine-pin bowling has its own uniq<\/a>ue set of rules<\/a>, setups, and old-school scorekeeping on whiteboards or chalkboards. To this day, there are only a handful of nine-pin alleys in places like San Antonio, Spring Branch and\u00a0Guadalupe County.\u00a0<\/p>\n The nine-pin game predates the now-standard 10-pin game favored in America, and it is rumored to have spread because anti-gambling legislation targeted nine-pin bowling taverns in the 1830s and 40s, according to the Texas State Historical Association<\/a>. It’s widely reported that the 10th pin was added as a legal loophole.<\/p>\n Boerne Turnverein’s general manager was not available for comment before\u00a0publication.<\/p>\n