Any possibility of getting info on a very old pool hall?

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Marshall206

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I have read and seen some info on some very old pool halls on this site, so I thought I would give this a try...... if there is a better place on the forum to post this question please let me know.

My aunt is very much into our genealogy and since she knows I love pool she told me about an ancestor of mine who owned a pool hall a long time ago. The purpose of this thread is to see if there is anyone on here with information on billiard rooms that existed in late 1800s.

The billiard hall was in Norwalk, Ohio per 1880 US census and his name was Charles Yale Washington, the documents show that he owned the place for as many as 30yrs

If anyone has any info at all or knows someone who has interest in billiard history and may have info it would be very much appreciated

Just giving this a try, my aunt would love more information on the establishment to add to the family history.
 
You might try the archives of the local newspaper for that period .
As poolrooms at the time were considered establishments of ill repute , many newsworthy thing frequently happened in them!:grin-square:
 
Marshall206 said:
... The billiard hall was in Norwalk, Ohio per 1880 US census and his name was Charles Yale Washington, the documents show that he owned the place for as many as 30yrs

If anyone has any info at all or knows someone who has interest in billiard history and may have info it would be very much appreciated...
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Many public libraries have a local historical section including old telephone books. You would need to go to Norwalk or adjacent towns, probably.

Many pool rooms of that time used tokens for advertizing and such. I don't collect tokens, but I recently saw a book go by on Ebay that listed thousands of tokens, presumably as a kind of catalog for collectors. "billiard tokens" might get some hits, like http://www.louisiana-trade-tokens.com/billiards.html

Another possibility is matchbook covers, but 1880 may be too early.

You might also try on http://charlesursitti.com which has a great deal of historical stuff, but seems to have no search facility.
 
Only thing I can tell you is that there was a poolroom in Norwalk, Ohio in the 1960's. It was somewhere between Toledo and Cleveland, maybe close to Sandusky, Ohio. On one of my first little road trips ("Fat Pat" Colley and I made a loop around Ohio), we stopped there for gas and went into a local poolroom while they changed a bad tire on our car (a 1950 Chevy). I have no idea what the name of that place was. But it was there in the mid 60's. Maybe eight tables all in one row, with the counter up front on the left. I think the first table was a snooker table too. I watched that game because they were gambling as I recall. I don't think we played anyone in there. I only remember Norwalk because the gas station had Norwalk in the name, like Norwalk Shell or something like that.

We left Dayton with about $150 and came back three weeks later with about sixty bucks. We actually had survived three weeks on the road. :)
 
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Jay,i think he said 1800's, that would have made you a teenager....HA!!!! Happy Thanksgiving
 
I am from Sandusky, Ohio and work in Willard, Ohio. Norwalk is in between both Cities. My grandfather, in his day, was a very good pool player and gambler, his name was Albert Spring. He passed away in 1979 and was 72 years old, so his pool days would be a little after the turn of the century.
He told me that he used to play in a pool hall that was in the basement of a old hotel called "The Sanduskian". I don't remember the name of the pool hall, but I can find out from some old timers that still play in a city league in town here. I will also ask if they can remember about a pool hall in Norwalk. The only place I know of in Norwalk was at the Bowling Alley that closed down years ago named Maple City Lanes. I know most tournys happened out of there.
 
Thanks to everyone for your info, I believe it will be helpful in getting more information. Good to know that there was still a pool hall there in the 60's, maybe it was the same one? also going to look into the sanduskian hotel.
 
talk to the closest historical society and see if any of the late 1800s directories still exist for norwalk (the 'phone book' before phones)....this will at least tell you where the billiard hall was.

..even if the old newspapers were available, you'd never know what year or day to look at...(unless they had been scanned and were searchable)

another great source is old plat maps... call the county and ask how far back they have plat maps for norwalk twp.

a plat map for the "downtown" area of norwalk would show all of the businesses with the owners name written in...
 
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