YATES CENTER — Lesli Banner can only laugh some days.
When she tells folks she and Johnny Atkin IV own Lanes at Light Hardware — the community’s bowling alley — she invariably gets one of two responses.
“It’s interesting because a lot of people have owned it,” she said. “They’d come in and say, ‘Oh, my grandfather used to own this,’ or ‘my uncle had it at one time,’ or ‘we used to own this.’’
The other camp?
“They’re the ones who didn’t even know Yates Center had a bowling alley,” Banner laughed. “I tell them, ‘We’ve been open for four years. Do you live in a bubble?’”
Rest assured, word is getting out now, especially since Lanes at Light completed another major remodel this summer, effectively doubling the size of its kitchen — and its menu.
Now, what had been for many a hidden gem of the community, has become an increasingly popular go-to spot for folks of all ages — and not just for the locals.
TAKING OVER a bowling alley really wasn’t on the couple’s radar when they returned to Atkin’s native Yates Center in 2021 from San Antonio, by way of Lenexa.
But his family’s connection to Yates Center’s historic Light Hardware Building was the first pin to fall in what has become more than an idle passion project.
Atkin is the son of the late Dr. John Atkin III, Yates Center’s town doctor for more than 53 years, and who led what became a true citywide effort to restore Light Hardware.
Built in 1904, the LIght Hardware Building quickly became regarded as the crown jewel of Yates Center’s business district, and a noteworthy companion structure to the iconic Woodson County Courthouse across the street. (Light Hardware lies at the southeast corner of the courthouse square.)
Like countless other small-town relics, without enough business activity to keep the building going, it soon fell into disrepair.
Up stepped Dr. Atkin, and more than a handful of like-minded citizens in the mid 1980s.
“It was in pretty bad shape at the time,” Banner noted. “It literally didn’t have a roof on it. But with a lot of help from the town, they renovated it into a beautiful building.”
In addition to getting the building placed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the elder Atkin sought a use for the structure that wouldn’t compete with any of Yates Center’s existing businesses.
He settled on using it as a community fitness center, loading the first floor with exercise equipment.
