Submitted photo / Richard Lawnhurst Richard Lawnhurst stands in the basement of Howards Clothing next to two of his wood-rail pinball machines.

WARREN — A well-kept secret lies underneath Howard’s Clothing in downtown Warren.

Owner Richard Lawnhurst houses an extensive collection of wood-rail pinball machines in the store’s basement. Lawnhurst has amassed a collection of approximately 150 to 160 wood-rail pinball machines all in working condition.

“It grew from a hobby of playing coin-operated games to later in life being able to buy and trade pinball machines,” he said.

Reminiscing on his childhood days, when he was 12 years old, Lawnhurst recalled the time he spent playing his favorite game, the Gottlieb “Sluggin’ Champ” at the local bowling alley. Whenever he had a few nickels to spare, he’d play, or whenever the crowd favorite, repairman Roco, would stop by to fix the game and allow him to play for free.

Later in life, an unusual opportunity presented itself in the mid-1970s that gave Lawnhurst his first chance to realize his dream of collecting vintage machines.

“A policeman came to my store needing a black suit for a funeral and asked if I’d trade a suit for a 1967 Gottlieb Melody pinball machine and a slot machine that he had confiscated,” Lawnhurst said.

He still owns the machine, but it’s with his daughter in Denver, Colo. His family is no stranger to his hobby as Lawnhurst’s children grew up with machines being stored inside their home.

“My children loved it. Their friends would always come over and play them,” he said.

For Lawnhurst, buying the vintage machines is about more than having more than the next collector, but making sure he buys them in the best working condition which sometimes takes buying more than four of one game.

“Anybody can buy pinball machines that didn’t work. I wanted to collect top quality,” he said.

It’s part of what makes his collection such a rarity — while you can get the machines from almost anywhere, Lawnhurst said getting perfect games is a challenge.

“The best areas to buy or trade from weren’t ones with intense heat and humidity, which damage the game’s quality. That would cross off the Southern states,” he said.

For the best quality, Lawnhurst said Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and anything north were the most ideal.

He’s amassed his collection from buying and trading from bars and recreational rooms throughout the country and even as far as Canada.

“Typically, these machines were located in working class areas where people frequented bars more often,” he said.

“I’d look in newspapers in different areas to see what was available around the country. Some I’d go pick up but some of my friends who if they lived in the area would grab them for me.”

Most of his collection comes from the 1950s when Lawnhust said the manufacturers of the time would only make 10 or 20 of a particular game a year.

“Craftsmanship evolved over the years from no flippers in the ’40s to smaller flippers with wood rails on the sides in the ’50s to large flippers in the ’60s with the metal railing on the side,” he said.

He estimates his collection consists of about 70 percent Gottlieb — a 1927 company that became one of the first major manufactures of pinball machines during the Great Depression due to the success of the Baffle Ball machine.

The other 30 percent are woodrail machines from WMS Industries Inc., which rose to prominence partly because of their pinball innovations, including the tilt mechanism.

A limiting factor of collecting pinball machines is space. The answer to that for Lawnhurst was storing them in the basement of the clothing store.

The area is dry, other than a slight humidity there’s no wetness and it’s temp controlled, nearly perfect for storing machines of this quality,” he said.

For what he can’t keep at the store, he keeps at home in a game room, but he’s always excited about an opportunity to share his collection.

His vintage game collection has been featured in media outlets from Japan to Australia.

“It’s fun, everyone wants to show off their working games, when you get other collectors it’s enjoyable, because it’s nice to share things that work,” he said.