A young Maine woman who stepped forward at just 18 years old to save a threatened candlepin bowling alley from demolition is now receiving national attention for what she has built in the years since, not simply a surviving business, but a gathering place for a Maine community.
CBS News’ Sunday Morning featured Autumn Mowery and the Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley on Sunday, highlighting her unlikely journey from teenage employee to business owner and community advocate.
Mowery, now 24, took responsibility for the aging bowling alley six years ago after learning the building could be demolished. According to CBS, the former owner offered her an unusual proposition: prove she could keep the business operating and profitable during a three-month trial period.
She took the chance.
The timing could hardly have been worse.
Mowery began running the alley in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic struck and businesses across Maine were forced to shut down or dramatically curtail operations. She has previously said she went roughly $20,000 into debt during her first month.
But the bowling alley survived.
Today, Mowery is making payments toward purchasing the property with her fiancé and business partner, Ryan Lounder, who also operates the restaurant portion of the business and owns neighboring 207 Collectibles. The couple also has a young son, Jackson.
The Ellsworth alley preserves a form of bowling deeply rooted in New England.
Candlepin bowling uses small, handheld balls without finger holes and tall, narrow pins. Bowlers receive three rolls rather than the two used in conventional ten-pin bowling, and fallen pins remain on the lane between throws.
The sport dates to the late 19th century in Worcester, Massachusetts, and eventually spread through New England and Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Despite once supporting thriving leagues and regional television programs, candlepin bowling never achieved the nationwide popularity enjoyed by ten-pin bowling.
Asked by CBS how candlepin differs from conventional bowling, Mowery offered a straightforward assessment.
“Well, this one’s better!” she said.
But the national television profile focused on something considerably larger than bowling.
Mowery told CBS that she once noticed a woman inside the alley who appeared uncomfortable while sitting with a man. Rather than ignoring the situation, Mowery discreetly found a way to ask whether the woman was safe.
When the woman indicated she was not, Mowery contacted police.
That encounter helped change the way Mowery viewed the business.
Since then, the bowling alley has become a place where people dealing with domestic violence and other difficult circumstances can find somewhere safe to talk. Mowery told CBS that therapy sessions have even been held inside the business.
It is part of a broader community-minded approach that has included food drives, pancake breakfasts and other efforts benefiting local residents.
Those efforts come despite the financial realities of maintaining an aging bowling alley filled with decades-old machinery.
Rather than directing every available dollar toward equipment upgrades, Mowery and Lounder have continued putting some of what the business earns back into the community.
That philosophy has helped win over people who had stopped visiting the alley.
Local bowler Jen Johnson told CBS that Mowery had breathed new life into the establishment and brought people back together.
The story has now brought the small Ellsworth business a national audience.
CBS selected Mowery’s story as the cover feature for its Aug. 9 edition of Sunday Morning, with correspondent Lee Cowan traveling to Maine to tell the story.
It is an unusual trajectory for a business that was once facing the wrecking ball.
At 18, Mowery could have watched another piece of traditional New England culture disappear.
Instead, she gambled on saving it.
Six years later, people are still rolling candlepin balls down the lanes in Ellsworth, and the business Mowery fought to preserve has become something perhaps even harder to replace: a place where people know they can walk through the door and belong.
