This ad from the 1926 Forest Park Review features the 10 lanes of bowling at Vogel's. The alleys would serve the community 4 more decades before making way for a car dealership.
This ad from the 1926 Forest Park Review features the 10 lanes of bowling at Vogel’s. The alleys would serve the community 4 more decades before making way for a car dealership.
Corner of Harlem and Harrison forever changed after Vogel’s said “good bye.”
View of St. Bernardine’s Church after the passing of Vogel’s bowling alley.
Vogel’s meets the wrecking ball.

In November of 1966, Vogel’s, a Forest Park landmark, was demolished to make way for progress. 

George Vogel Sr. had opened a tavern-roadhouse and picnic grounds at the corner of Harlem Avenue and Harrison Street around 1895, when much of the land was still a prairie. Around 1911, he built two bowling alleys, which were so successful he expanded the business. When George Vogel Sr. passed away in 1923 his two sons, George Jr. and William, took over the tavern.

The two-story building had been built in four stages with a dining room and bowling alley. The Vogel brothers added a baseball field where they hosted semipro baseball games. Later, the stadium was named Parichy Stadium, home to the Parichy Bloomer Girls of the National Girls’ Baseball League during the 1940s and 1950s. The creation of the Eisenhower Expressway eliminated some of the land that once was the stadium.

Replacing Vogel’s in this 1966 photo was a Chrysler dealership, which was replaced by U-Haul in 1978. 

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