HISTORY

Whitby, in 1927, was a quiet residential town of some 5200 people, made up mostly of retired farmers.  Except for Brock and Dundas Streets, roads were unpaved.  There were still wooden sidewalks in some parts of the Town. 

In the summer of 1931, the club obtained its first permanent clubhouse, a frame building which had once stood in Centennial Park.  Club members volunteered their labour to enlarge the building and construct a veranda around the building.  The property was eventually acquired by the Rotary Club in 1943 and sold to Ontario Housing Corporation in 1973 for the construction of an apartment for seniors.  The clubhouse was also demolished that year.  The club, for the next quarter of a century had no clubhouse.

Today the Whitby Lawn Bowling Club is still going strong in a community of about 130,000.  In 2017, we celebrated our 90^th anniversary.  Peter Robb, club secretary and its longest serving member, recently reflected on the organization’s history and his own passion for the sport.

“I started there because my mother and father-in-law, and some other relatives were bowlers.  The club was much like it is today… (but) it’s been improved in different ways since then with new lighting and the surroundings at the club have been upgraded over the years.”

Despite modest and limited income, the Whitby Lawn Bowling Club has maintained the Whitby lawn bowling green, for the benefit of members and the community at large, year after year, since 1927.

The club is currently managed by a board of directors and relies heavily on active volunteers from the membership to maintain this excellent lawn bowling facility.