The Wilmont Rec Center was a popular place for entertainment for Wilmont residents and the surrounding communities for decades right up until it closed in 2013. Leagues gathered several times a week and the echo of pins falling (a few gutter balls) was a familiar sound. The attached café was a popular gathering spot where you could get a good meal and catch up on area news. In 1972 the city of Wilmont incorporated the center and operated the business as a recreation, cafe, bowling and youth center. For decades the Recreation Center was a main source of entertainment in the area. When the doors closed it seemed that the final chapter had been written for this piece of history. The building changed hands a couple of times, but nothing ever materialized as a business interest.
When Matt Morse, who lives northwest of Minneapolis in Crystal, saw the Wilmont Rec Center for sale on CraigsList he thought, “It seemed too good to be true, but what the heck, doesn’t hurt to look.” He and his wife Rachel contacted the seller and took a day to travel down to Wilmont and take a look. He and Rachel laughed as they remember, “It was a mess! You could tell it hadn’t been used for a while,” but they could see the potential the place had with some work and a whole lot of elbow grease. Matt was especially excited by how good the bowling lanes had held up. Bowling is a passion for Matt who worked in the bowling industry for 15 years.
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