Old (defunct) NYC pool hall?

ctyhntr

ctyhntr

RIP Kelly
Silver Member
These are old pictures of Park Row, across from City Hall in New York City. Prior to 1980.

Anyone knows the name of the pool hall? It's not City Hall pool hall, that was late 80's (Color of Money boom) and across the street from Pace University.
 

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there was a non players/gamblers pool room on every street in nyc in those days. all are gone now but a few.
 
Bob Jewett said:
I see a bowling alley in the b/w photo but no pool hall. The address is 25 Park Row. The building is gone.
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Yeah, the old building is gone, but in the new one you can get a 1,500 or 2,000 square foot condo for about 3½ million bucks. That's progress, right?
 
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Bob Jewett said:
I see a bowling alley in the b/w photo but no pool hall. The address is 25 Park Row. The building is gone.
Click to expand...
It says billiards in the 2nd story window to the far left. It was number 1 Park Row I believe. It should be listed in the business directory for Manhatten. If anyone is interested.
 
Great photos! Having a photo that includes, all in one shot- an all night bowling alley, a pool hall, AND an AutoMAT- in NYC is iconic to say the least. The Automat at 830 Broadway NYC dated from the early 1900s. I believe that 25 Park Row was not that far away.

A Karate studio and J&R Music World ( opened in early 70s at this location) appear to have replaced the bowling alley in the 1970s-- but the billiard hall was still remains from the second photo. I would guess by 1980 the billiard room was gone.
Living close to NYC then , I did not venture into Manhattan for pool or work until the mid 70s- I was in midtown mostly, not here- downtown. I remember McGirrs in midtown in the 70s and a lower level room in Times Square called Play land - below an arcade center.
BY about 1980 most of the older rooms in NYC had closed or were in such a state that pool was an afterthought beyond drugs, pimps, prostitutes, and street bums.
An interesting side note, in an Accustat 14.1 video from the late 1980s very early 90s, Dick Lane ( who was a very, very good player) mentions a gambling match that he had with Mike Zuglan in the earlier 80s at that Times Square lower level billiard room- I can't imagine Dick ( from Texas) and Mike ( from bucolic upstate NY) meeting in very seedy Times Square lower level in the earlier 80s for a probably fairly high stakes match up- tells you the state of pool back then before the Color of Money movie jolt to pool.
 
I remember being in that Playland downstairs room (1485 Broadway) when about 2 buckets worth of ceiling collapsed on to the table next to ours…..
 
ctyhntr said:
These are old pictures of Park Row, across from City Hall in New York City. Prior to 1980.

Anyone knows the name of the pool hall? It's not City Hall pool hall, that was late 80's (Color of Money boom) and across the street from Pace University.
Click to expand...
When you’re at ABC you should ask Master Kin about that location, he told me that he used to play around there back in the day.
 
We would probably need to have a member here closer to 80yo or above and also from NYC proper to remember this room in the photo. Most of us from the NYC north suburbs did not venture beyond mid town to play pool if we were working in NYC as I was in the mid - late 1970s; as you were mostly working in the mid town area. Maybe someone from Queens, Brooklyn, or Long Island back then would be more commonly working in the downtown NYC area.
 
Grew up on the Lower East Side in the sixties...I believe that I played in that room once or twice in the late sixties...Don't recall anything about the room itself, just going there with a friend... There were so many rooms in Manhattan at the time...My main room on Avenue A and 7th Street had three others within three or four blocks and many others within a mile...
 
book collector said:
It says billiards in the 2nd story window to the far left. It was number 1 Park Row I believe. It should be listed in the business directory for Manhatten. If anyone is interested.
Click to expand...
31 Park Row for that building, from what I can tell. Looks to be gone now and part of that skyscraper with cheap condos.

[1 Park Row is on the corner to the right of what is shown in the two pictures.]
 
Bob Jewett said:
I see a bowling alley in the b/w photo but no pool hall. ...
Click to expand...
Now I see it, sort of. Here is the sign in the windows of the third-floor pool hall. I don't see any street sign. I wonder if the room was even in operation in the color picture. The automat in the b/w picture was in 15 Park Row -- "The Park Row Building" -- which has its own history page.

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And here is a view from the other direction. You can see both "POOL" in the windows and a sign on the street level. From the street numbers it does look like the street entrance would have been about #31.

1733423331549.png
 
AtLarge said:
Yeah, the old building is gone, but in the new one you can get a 1,500 or 2,000 square foot condo for about 3½ million bucks. That's progress, right?
Click to expand...
The penthouse was offered at $25,000,000. That's progress.
 
In the early 70s, in Manhattan, I once played in a below street level pool room named "McGirrs" and then I played in a 2nd or 3rd story pool room named "Guys and Dolls" and then I headed over to the "Golden Q" in Queens.
 
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