When these were demolished to make way for architect Horace Trumbauer’s 1911 addition, two rooms were provided in the new addition exclusively for billiards, each with twelve tables.
Another annex was built in 1891 for the same purpose. Initially, billiards was so popular at the Union League that in 1881 an annex was built solely for adding billiards tables. The evolution and eventual decline of billiards at the Union League is a good indication of the rising and waning popularity of billiards among Philadelphia’s business and civic leaders. It is, therefore, not surprising that when the Union League opened its new building on Broad Street in 1865 there was a billiards room with four tables. Abraham Lincoln referred to himself as a “billiards addict” (as did Mark Twain). Billiards was very popular during the Civil War period. The first men’s club in Philadelphia to offer billiards to its members appears to have been the Philadelphia Club, which added a billiards room to its new facility at Thirteenth and Walnut Streets in 1849. On the other hand, billiards continued to be a popular activity among working-class men, played primarily in taverns and saloons, but also in workingmen’s clubs and YMCAs. The more elite members of society withdrew from public billiards parlors and either created billiards rooms in their own homes or enjoyed the game at exclusive men’s clubs. However, by the 1840s the association of billiards with gambling and other presumed associated vices led to a class distinction in the way billiards evolved and was experienced. Billiards parlors were respectable places, catering to the emerging urban middle and upper class. This suggests that billiards may have been prevalent in taverns outside the city limits (Vine and South Streets), as were other forms of sports and entertainments frowned upon by Quakers and, therefore, not found within the city proper.īy the early 1800s billiards had become popular in Philadelphia and most other major cities.
The earliest reference that has been found for billiards in Philadelphia is a 1793 notice of sale for the Black Bear Tavern in Southwark (Queen Village), which mentions that an adjoining building contained a large space intended to be used for billiards. George Washington played billiards with the Marquis de Lafayette in 1777. There are references to billiards being played in Virginia as early as 1710 and in New Orleans in 1723. Shakespeare refers to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra (1606-09), suggesting that by that time billiards was sufficiently popular for the reference to be understood by his audiences.īilliards was brought to America by both the English and Spaniards. King Louis XI of France had a billiards table made in 1470. The game is thought to have originated in France or England in the 1400s as an indoor alternative to croquet. The location and date of the origin of billiards are not really known. All the nationally prominent billiards players of the time played in Philadelphia and some lived in the area, including Willie Mosconi (1913-93), who is considered to be the second-best billiards player of all time. By the 1930s there were over 200 billiards parlors in the city. Other national championships were held in the city in the first decades of the twentieth century. There was sufficient interest in billiards in Philadelphia by 1858 for the city to be the location of the first informal American billiards championship. Groff for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia)īy the mid 1800s, the more-affluent members of Philadelphia society were playing billiards in exclusive men’s clubs while working-class men played billiards in taverns and saloons. Mosconi began playing at a very young age at his father’s billiards parlor in South Philadelphia. The halls were soon called “pool halls” and the game of billiards became popularly known as “pool.” Willie Mosconi, depicted here in a mural on South Street, is considered to be the second-best billiards player of all time and the best straight pool player. The term “pool” derives from the fact that owners of halls where people gathered to bet on horse racing and “pooled” their money placed billiards tables in these halls to give patrons something to do while waiting for race results. Played on a table with six pockets and either nine or fifteen balls, billiards is referred to as pocket billiards and is popularly known as “pool” in the United States.
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