07 Jan
by Derrick Vander Waal
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Years ago, the sounds of bowling pins clattering and people laughing echoed through the building. These days, people might hear the tiny cries of a newborn baby or the reassuring voice of a nurse.
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Years ago, the sounds of bowling pins clattering and people laughing echoed through the building. These days, people might hear the tiny cries of a newborn baby or the reassuring voice of a nurse.
The sounds are different, but the building’s history only grows richer.
Since opening in July 2008, Promise Community Health Center has leased the former bowling alley building at 338 First Ave. NW in downtown Sioux Center. Throughout the years, Promise has expanded its facilities by building out various sections of the building – completing its largest renovation and expansion project to date late last summer.
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| Promise Community Health Center now can call the place that it has operated in since opening in 2008 its own with the purchase of the downtown Sioux Center building. Many local residents fondly remember it as the “old bowling alley.” |
But Promise couldn’t call the building its own. Now, it can. The health center has officially purchased the building.
“This is part of our growth. It shows our development,” said Nancy Dykstra, executive director of Promise. “This is a good signal that the organization is solidified by acquiring this asset. It feels good that we can we can take this step.”
Longtime Sioux Center residents and former Dordt College students have many fond memories of the building for its storied history as a bowling alley.
Wilbur and Tena Huisman built the 15,168-square-foot structure as the new location for their Holiday Lanes business in 1977. They previously leased space for a bowling alley in the building that now houses the Amistad Cristiana church, but they wanted their own building where they could expand and make upgrades.
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| Kari Ney, a nurse for Promise’s prenatal team, leads a childbirth education class for Spanish speakers with the help of interpreter Ruth Hernandez in Promise’s new community education room. Promise expanded its facilities a few times throughout the years, with the latest project being completed last summer, but it did not own the building. Now, it does. |
The 16-lane venue was a bustling place for two decades – attracting everyone from families with small children to avid bowlers.
“It was a beautiful building,” said Diane Van Roekel, one of the Huismans’ daughters. “No one else around had anything that big in the small towns around. The other places in the area had four or six lanes.”
But memories of the building go beyond bowling balls splashing pins. It was a gathering place – a place to eat a meal or play a game of cards.
“Everyone in town talks about how they went there for their lunches and their soups at noon. People would stand in line to wait for a table,” Van Roekel said. “It was a meeting place for people. They would go there for coffee and that sort of thing. Those were the days.”
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| Promise’s front reception area went through a major remodeling project last summer. |
The Huismans operated Holiday Lanes until the mid-1990s when health concerns caused them to retire from the business. The bowling alley stayed open for a couple more years, while they leased it out to other parties, before it ultimately closed.
Members of the Huisman family purchased the building in 1999. They did some renovations, such as leveling the bowling alley floor, to make it suitable for other uses. They then rented it out to various businesses to use as storage.
In 2001, Ben Camacho started leasing the front half of the building along Fourth Avenue NW for the Las Palmas Mexican Grocery Store that still operates there. Mexican restaurants also were located in that portion of the building over the years, and the rest of the structure continued to be leased out to other businesses for storage.
Promise, which initially went by the name Greater Sioux Community Health Center, opened its services in the west section of the building seven years later – with its main entrance located across the street from the Sioux Center city offices. The medical areas of the health center were constructed at that time.
“The building was selected because it was available and in the center of the community – accessible to the population that we were seeking to reach,” Dykstra said.
Promise completed a dental wing expansion in January 2011. The latest 3,000-square-foot interior expansion, which was completed last summer in an empty section on the building’s east side, increased the health center’s size by 60 percent. The expanded space includes a new prenatal wing, a community education and conference room, a behavioral health therapy room, four offices and a break room. The front reception area and other areas of the health center also were remodeled as part of that project.
The building, which was purchased from the Huisman family on Dec. 30, still has a small unfinished section that could facilitate future expansion. Promise also will continue to lease the north portion of the building to Las Palmas.
“In the future, we plan for continued expansion of our services and will look to do upgrades to the building,” Dykstra said. “Our future development will be in our own building.”
As they finalized the sale of the building to Promise, Van Roekel said her siblings talked about how happy their parents, who no longer are living, would be to know the building is being used as a health center.
“My dad always was so proud of his bowling alley. That always was a big thing to him, but I think he would be rejoicing that it is going to a good use,” she said. “He always was so concerned about people and trying to help them out any way he could. I think he would be so pleased. I think they both would.”
Promise Community Health Center, headquartered in Sioux Center, is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the far northwest corner of Iowa. Promise provides medical, dental, prenatal and behavioral health services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org.
