On the night of April 13 the last pin will fall, the last tab will be pulled, and the last beer will be poured and the sun will go down at the Sunset Bowl.

After a half century of service, the building will not be spared and the property will be sold.

Still, there are some muted waves of optimism washing gently on the local community as it tries to save bowling here.

Some want a new bowling alley in the same site. Jim Bristow and family created www.savesunsetbowl.com, a compromise plea to the developer, AvalonBay Communities, to install bowling lanes on the ground floor of its impending apartment and retail complex.

It paid $13.2 million for the property, but the sentiment for the structure with its red, orange, and yellow exterior and mirrored windows is priceless to many.

"Where the hell are we supposed to go?" asked a frustrated Grant Downey who recalled bowling at Sunset Bowl at age 7 in the junior leagues.

Disabled with a back injury, Downey no longer bowls, but has been a regular cribbage player at the bar.

"There aren't any other diners around here, just fast food places. And there's nowhere near here for kids to bowl. It's depressing."

He said he would miss the employees who "let us sit here all day and play cribbage."

That includes Joyce Hartzell, who has worked there for 25 years. While saddened of the closing, "It still hasn't sunk in yet," she said.

Downey often competes in cribbage with friends, Bert Stubbs and Guy Amburgy.

"They sold the place and didn't even ask me," said Stubbs, a longtime Ballard resident who claimed to spend most of his time playing cribbage in the bar.

"It's a complete disaster for the leagues," said Amburgy of the closing. He belongs to three leagues, two out of the Sunset Bowl, and a traveling league. He said he has bowled at Sunset since it opened in 1957.

"It's going to hurt the kids who celebrate birthday parties here." Amburgy said.

Young bowler, Mark, has been a regular. The six year-old wears a "big boy size-1" bowling shoe and uses a bright orange ball weighing a pound for each of his six years.

"I came here in winter for a friend's birthday party. It's sad (they are closing) because I want to come back a thousand more times!"

Riley Barton, 27, a mental health case manager, said the alley's closing is "disappointing to a lot of people. I take my clients here, schizophrenic adults from a nearby residential facility. Bowling gives them a chance to interact in society and feel like normal people in a world they're pretty foreign to." He said he might decide to take them to Kenmore Lanes or West Seattle Bowl.

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com