Oldest Surviving Pool Hall in USA

White House

MalibuMike said:
Well I know there is an awesome turn of the century pool room at Hearst Castle, complete with Solid Ivory Billiard Balls. I wonder if The White House has a Billiards room?[/COLOR]

The Lyons Down Club, Isn't that were Professor James Moriarty invented the Morri Tip? And where the League of Redhedded men shot pool? Yeah the English Empire is quite arcane, but you just been around longer, didn't they say in one of King Tut's anti-chabers he had a 24 Karret Solid Gold-Crown?

I can picture GK Chesterton expounding over a game at Ye Ol Lyons Downsyndrome club, over a game of 10 ball:

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

― G.K. Chesterton,
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The White House? Yes, a very fancy Antique Brunswick that was donated by Brunswick. Obama plays a lot. I know who did the recovering of the table and I replied that no doubt he plays a lot, as he is not doing much else at that address!
 
I think the oldest room in New York City is Julians. How long it's been there I don't know, but I played there in the 60's. I also played in rooms that were already 50-60 years old then (the 60's)- McGirrs, 7/11, Broadway.

I first played in the Red, White and Blue on Third St. in Dayton, Ohio in 1962. It had been around since the turn of the century. It closed in the early 1980's. Even in Bakersfield there still existed an early 1900's room (the Super Cue) that finally closed after my "new" poolroom (The Cue Ball) put them out of business in the 70's. Too bad because there were a few players who liked to hang out there. I could almost always get a game if I stopped in. Memories ;)
 
Doodysquat said:
Recently returned from a trip to Wilmington, NC where I visited Ortons Pool Room. They claim to be "America's Oldest Pool Room". It is located on Fromt Street in downtown Wilmington right on the boardwalk. You would hardly know it is there except for the sign above a single door leading to the basement where the Orton Hotel stood...built in 1888. The Hotel burned to the ground back in the '40's, but the basement pool room is there still. Tons of local stories about it being haunted including people who have taken pictures with shadowy pictures in the background. I took several pics, but no apparitions!
I am including a few photos showing the infamous dark stairway leading to the underground poolroom and a picture of the table that Mosconi set a world record ball run on in 1953.
Neat place, but time changes everything and it has become a bit of a dive, with tons of college kids and live music several nights played on a stage built back at the end of the room. Its a piece if pool history that is worth a visit!
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You mean Mosconi could only run 365 on that "easy" table. Gee, I thought he was a good player. :rolleyes:
 
jay helfert said:
I think the oldest room in New York City is Julians. How long it's been there I don't know, but I played there in the 60's. I also played in rooms that were already 50-60 years old then (the 60's)- McGirrs, 7/11, Broadway.

I first played in the Red, White and Blue on Third St. in Dayton, Ohio in 1962. It had been around since the turn of the century. It closed in the early 1980's. Even in Bakersfield there still existed an early 1900's room (the Super Cue) that finally closed after my "new" poolroom (The Cue Ball) put them out of business in the 70's. Too bad because there were a few players who liked to hang out there. I could almost always get a game if I stopped in. Memories ;)
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Belmont Billiards in Dayton,still going since the '40s
 
Mr. Bond said:
Chicago has an amazing array of antique buildings still in use. None of the original pool hall (businesses) have survived but there are many bars with tables that have, and we have several hotels and fraternal clubs that predate 1900 with their original billiard rooms intact.

The best part is all the other buildings that still exist, where untold dozens of world championship matches were held..the Congress hotel, the Opera house, the Fisher building, the Conrad Hilton....the Color of Money locations....Chicago is packed with billiard history and every champion in the world used to play here.
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Brunswick's home court.............Ironic, how billiards got them to where there are now, and now all they frikking care about is outboard motors and other ventures....pretty sad....they have dropped the ball....in USA.
McDonalds and other Corporations, are again looking back to what got em to where there are....roots of the business, coming full circle in some places. McDonalds had GREAT burgers in the sixties, and their fries were freshly made DAILY.
 
hunger strike said:
Booche's is not in the original location... the original table type is unknown, but at some point the tables were all BBC Alexandrias, as is shown in a Billiards Magazine page photo that I saw. That photo was probably about 1920. The original location, I am told, was across the street. The name is "Since 1885" or whatever, but as far as I know it has not been continuously running even if the location had stayed the same. Not only is the equipment not original, but the tables are not Alexandrias. The cue rack up front, and a few of the smaller ones in back, do match Alexandrias. I like the place but it seems less than on the level for them to imply that this is an 1885 poolroom. But kudos to them for making a great room that is well worth seeing...with equipment from the 1910s-1920s....
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Previous location burned, they moved to the current location in the 1920's. I used to go to the same gym as Warren Dalton who is in his 90's and is a local historian. He told me the entire history dating to before ninth street was ever developed. Originally is was just land and the first man to develop it purchased it by selling a slave and people told him it was worthless because the hill was too steep to every be developed. The side of the street on the block where Booches is was once a gas station. I'm a transplant in CoMO from St Louis - moved to get away from the crime. I know a guy my age who lived here his whole life and he said he avoided Booches when he was a kid and played pool at a different place because Booches was too hard core, too tough. Women were banned for most of its existence and the current food and beer area in the front didn't exist, it was simply a hard core pool hall.
 
zpele said:
Well Ivory Billiards in Holyoke, MA has been operational since 1947. Irving Crane use to frequent there along with many others from before I was alive. Lucchesi Sr. owned it before he died and passed it down to his sons who take excellent care of it. I think it was Lucchesi Sr. that did a few of the trick shots in the Hustler.

Also here's a story saying that the pool hall in Springfield, MA is supposedly the oldest in the nation originating in 1902: http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2009/03/billiards_business_strong_in_w.html
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That pretty cool.
 
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