Let the Good Times Roll

Since 1947 UARK Bowl, located on Fayetteville’s famed Dick­son Street, has been asso­ci­ated with good times and great mem­o­ries. As the name sug­gests, it began as the area’s first bowl­ing alley with a ball­room on the upper floor. Many Uni­ver­sity of Arkansas stu­dents bowled on those lanes and danced to the sounds of rock ‘n’ roll bands in the grand ball­room. The Cham­ber of Com­merce and other civic orga­ni­za­tions con­ducted their meet­ings there, and for 20 years the long­stand­ing social group — The Coupler’s Club — as well as col­lege soror­i­ties and fra­ter­ni­ties held reg­u­lar dances at the venue.

The next gen­er­a­tion wit­nessed the 1978 trans­for­ma­tion of the UARK Bowl from bowl­ing alley into what was called The Board­walk. Its restau­rants and retail stores, such as Board­walk Jeans and the Board­walk Café, were favorite hang­outs. Where else would you have bought your styl­ish bell-bottoms?

In 2000, new own­ers ren­o­vated the iconic build­ing cre­at­ing 14 lux­ury urban-style con­do­mini­ums on the upper lev­els. The street level was remod­eled to cap­ture the orig­i­nal charm of UARK Bowl and is now a pre­mier spe­cial events venue where tomorrow’s mem­o­ries are made today as the good times con­tinue to roll.