--- title: White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped description: “They are now irreparable" canonical: https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-10T00:37:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:03:51.125Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped og:description: “They are now irreparable" og:url: https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91ba453a20ca733f/69869b10e53aba9f834d3812/ap4704191214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2349 og:image:height: 1321 og:image:alt: Harry Truman White House Bowling Alley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped twitter:description: “They are now irreparable" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91ba453a20ca733f/69869b10e53aba9f834d3812/ap4704191214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 10, 2014 12:37 AM UTC  President Harry S. Truman rolls one down the alley at the formal opening of the White House bowling alley on April 19, 1947 in Washington. President Harry S. Truman rolls one down the alley at the formal opening of the White House bowling alley on April 19, 1947 in Washington. AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 10, 2014 12:37 AM UTC The General Services Administration abruptly scrapped a project to replace two bowling lanes at the exclusive Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley at the White House complex, just hours after announcing the project. Ninety minutes after TIME [reported](http://time.com/2970061/white-house-bowling-alley/) that the two bowling lanes at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building were set to be gutted and replaced, the GSA, which posted a bid solicitation for the project hours earlier, cancelled it. “It has been fifteen years since these lanes have had any professional, industry standard maintenance, modifications, repairs or attention,” the GSA wrote in the posting. “They are now irreparable.” A White House official confirmed to TIME late Wednesday that the project will no longer move forward. The cancellation notice offered no explanation, but optics likely played a role. The lanes are reserved exclusively for the use of White House staff and guests. It was not clear how much the replacement would have cost. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus criticized the Obama administration’s priorities in a tweet Wednesday. The lanes are located inside the 18-acre White House compound, just steps across West Executive Drive from the West Wing. A separate [one-lane](http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/floor0/bowling-alley.htm) bowling alley lies under the North Portico of the White House for use by the First Family and guests and was added by avid bowler-in-chief Richard Nixon in 1969. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/"},"headline":"White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped","datePublished":"2014-07-10T00:37:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:03:51.125Z","description":"“They are now irreparable\"","url":"https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/","keywords":["White House","bowling"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91ba453a20ca733f/69869b10e53aba9f834d3812/ap4704191214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91ba453a20ca733f/69869b10e53aba9f834d3812/ap4704191214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harry Truman White House Bowling Alley","caption":"Harry Truman White House Bowling Alley","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2971125/obama-white-house-bowling-alley-renovation-abruptly-scrapped/","name":"White House Bowling Alley Renovation Abruptly Scrapped"}}]}] ```