Trending: <br>A new gaming center has popped up in downtown Greeley and it’s generating a lot of buzz in the community.<br>Before you start thinking about placing a bet or warming up your controller hand, this gaming center doesn’t offer the off-track betting or blinking lights of arcade machines.<br>Greeley Game Night at Boomer House, 1024 8th St., is downtown’s newest board game parlor, offering community members of all ages a place to gather to play classic and modern board games.<br>Lane and Amy Mattox, owners of the gaming parlor, have been board game enthusiasts pretty much their entire lives. In 2011, the couple began hosting weekly board game nights at their home in Greeley. As attendance grew, space in their house shrunk and the Mattoxs moved their game nights to local breweries and cafes.<br>“We wanted more people to attend and make it more of a party and a little less insular,” Lane said. “So we went public in 2016 and bounced around to a few different places.”<br>While the mobile game nights remained popular, Lane and Amy wanted to find a permanent home for their game nights so that more community members could join in.<br>“We knew that we had a following because the group was growing and growing all these years and people would show up for us,” Lane explained. “So, we could take the risk and buy a building.”<br>The couple began their search for the perfect gaming space with a list of “must-haves” such as the perfect lighting, space for several tables, little to no noise and a location in downtown Greeley.<br>The couple looked at a few different spaces before finding that the Boomer House, 1024 8th St., was on the market.<br>“During that time, we drove past this house and our daughter looked up and saw the address, 1024, which is her birthday, October 24, and she said ‘hey, that house is my birthday and it’s for sale,’” Lane said. “I didn’t actually think much of it. But the pictures online, we saw that it could be multiple rooms and people could be separated but still together and we got really excited about it.”<br>The 127-year old house is the former residence of William M. Boomer, one of the pioneers of Greeley who served as mayor elect in 1890. Boomer worked as a barber on 8th Street and organized the city’s first fire department.<br>Over the years, the house has been used as a boarding house and offices for different businesses. The purchase of the property by Greeley Game Night will allow the public access to this historic building through a fun and welcoming atmosphere.<br>Often times owning a historic property involves bringing things up to code and that was the case for Lane and Amy. The couple had to install a fire sprinkler system on all four levels, a commercial kitchen, handicap parking, a wheelchair ramp, widen the doors for wheelchair access, revamp the bathrooms and stairway railings.<br>While working to bring the building up to code, the couple was determined to maintain as much of the house’s original features and charm as possible —and they definitely succeeded.<br>Walking in through the doors, visitors are enveloped in a beautiful entryway that opens to game rooms on the right and a stairway upstairs on the left. The houses original flooring and doorways lend to its historic charm.<br>Each room on the main floor has a theme based off of the game Settlers of Catan so visitors can choose to play in the Wheat Room, Lumber Room, Brick Room, Ore Room or Sheep/Wool Room.<br>“All of the art is super special. There’s a website called BoardGameGeek that sells artist series prints of well-known artists that do pictures of their favorite board games,” Amy said. “So we have 20 of the BoardGameGeek gaming prints.”<br>Along with the prints, the house features antique mirrors in the bathrooms and different antique pieces of furniture, doorknobs, hinges and equipment.<br>“Every single doorknob in the house is glass and they have beautiful fixtures. All of the doors are original,” Amy said. “There’s so many treasures.”<br>Gamers working up an appetite can purchase food, snacks and drinks from the commercial kitchen. The kitchen also offers three beers from Weldwerks on tap and a selection of wines.<br>Upstairs are two more gaming rooms, one with a round poker table, and another bathroom. The couple is working on restoring a third gaming room that they hope to open for use soon.<br>The couple was able to save the house’s original front door, which they installed upstairs.<br>“It was very sad that we could not salvage that because it was not up to code, so we cut this hole and put them in,” Lane said.<br>The newly constructed outdoor patio sits waiting for warmer weather, offering gamers the opportunity to soak up some sun while playing their favorite board games.<br>In addition to hosting gaming nights, the house is available for rent for business meetings, book clubs, birthday parties, weddings and other events.<br>Greeley Game Night at Boomer House is unlike other gaming centers, parlors or cafes in that game nights are “hosted,” versus being on your own and trying to find a table to play at.<br>Visitors to the house sign-in, get a name tag and look for the person in the “yellow truckers hat.” Once connected with the host of the night, they will ask you about your gaming experience, what types of games you enjoy playing and your goal for playing. Then, the host will escort you to the proper table, introduce you to other players and get you settled in.<br>Greeley Game Night has a large library of games from classics such as Life and Risk to more modern and advanced games like 7 Wonders and Barenpark, with more games being added.<br>“We are in the middle of the Golden Age of Board Games, just so you know,” Lane said. “In the 90s, the Germans were coming up with family board games that were different than the ones we grew up with when we were little. The games are shorter, fun even if you are losing and keeps you engaged until the very end and have a distinct ending.”<br>These styles of games have become immensely popular over the past 25 years, inspiring more people to design games.<br>“You might come and play this game once or twice. You’re not trying to get good or win the game, you’re experiencing this experience the designer has made for you,” Lane said. “And that comes in all different varieties. We have the party games that might take me 5 minutes to explain the rules and then there’s the heavy games, where it might take me half an hour to explain the rules. And we have everything in between.”<br>Also, while other gaming centers require a “pay to play” model, Greeley Game Night only asks that guests spend $10 on food or drinks. Families are asked to spend $15 and kids that attend on their own are asked to spend $5 on food and drinks.<br>“Everytime we would holiday, we would go to board game parlors in different big cities around the country and a lot of them you have to pay to walk in,” Amy said. “And it just didn’t have a good feel. You think, ‘oh, I’m paying this much to get in and I’m packing all my PB&Js and snacks. Instead, you just come and enjoy your time.”<br>“You get something for your entry fee,” Lane added.<br>And while everyone wants to win, that’s not the focus or purpose of gaming events.<br>“When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning,” Lane said, quoting board game designer Reiner Knizia.<br>Greeley Game Night is open from 5-10 p.m. Saturday for adults-only game night, age 18 and older, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday for family gaming for adults, teens and children of all ages. Registration is not required to attend gaming events.<br>“I am working on starting a Late Boomers Club for older adult gaming time,” Amy said.<br>For more information on gaming nights, renting the house for an event or about the different games offered, go to <a href="http://www.greeleygamenight.com">www.greeleygamenight.com</a> or call (970) 396-7959.<br>Enjoy desirable apartment living in Boulder at Habitat Apartments! 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