A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
Dubois has long maintained its reputation as a “Wild West” town, and its businesses have often reflected that character. The Rustic Pine Tavern is one of the most recognizable buildings at the center of town, but before it took its current form the land was dedicated to a pool hall.
Pool or billiard halls have long held a reputation for gambling and debauchery, and were associated with the saloons that are a famous part of the “Old West.” Through the early twentieth century, pool halls attracted the ire of more respectable members of society, looked down on as places where men would smoke, gamble, and drink.
Dubois had already established itself as a town far away from the law, famous for skirting Prohibition in the 1920s and for its own share of local gambling and debauchery in that period, so there is no surprise that pool halls naturally cropped up as well. The first recorded pool hall in Dubois was built by early resident Francis Nichol, who had already established the Bridge or Nichol Hotel on adjacent property in 1905. The pool hall was started in 1915, although it is unclear how long the place lasted.
Not long after, in 1919, Charles Shippen built the Highway Pool Hall in the spot where the present-day Rustic Pine Tavern sits. After this there was an influx of pool halls built in Dubois during the 1920s, including the Bybee Pool Hall and Millard Hall. The buildings frequently changed hands, both in ownership and who ran them, also often swapping out names. For example, the Millard Hall, built in 1922, was later the Millard-Wright Pool Hall, before being briefly called the Log Cabin Club Pool Hall around 1926, to the Dubois Pool Hall in 1927. In the mid-1930s, it became Walt’s Place. It is possible that the frequent renaming of establishments was a means of skirting the law. Most of Dubois’ pool halls had adjoining soda shops, complete with their own ice houses out back. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Prohibition kept alcohol from legal sale, and soda shops within pool halls were a way of distributing liquor under the table.
Pool halls, however, were not only places for illegal activities. Owing to the space within them, pool halls were frequently used as meeting spaces and areas for dances and events around town. Dubois pool halls were no exception, frequently hosting seasonal barbers in the 1920s and also acting as a location for talks and meetings in town.
The tradition of maintaining a meeting place continued on beyond the pool halls themselves. Around 1935 the Rustic Pine Tavern was established in the area where Stanley Shippen’s Highway Pool Hall had conducted its business. Adjoining the building was “Danceland,” the large room that still adjoins the Tavern to this day. Likely a legacy of the original pool hall, it was the town’s largest indoor meeting space for decades and is still used for large gatherings and meetings.