Anthony Runs a Pool Hall

The family legend is that my Grandpa Anthony Raczkiewicz at some point had a “game room” and made $100 a day and was often raided. My mother remembers hearing these stories but it was “before her time.” She always assumed gambling or betting was involved. After Anthony came from Poland in 1912 with two brothers, his first job I found In the Polk Directory of 1914 listed him as a laborer. He got a job at Keifer Tanning Company on 260 Front St. SW and worked there a few years. In 1921, Anthony left the tannery and was a clerk at Charles (Powlski) Powlowski’s Billiards at 612 Bridge St. NW. This location had opened in 1916 as the Buddy Theater, opened by the Buddy Brothers. It seated 500 and was “handsomely decorated in old rose and white” when it was a movie theater. (The Moving Picture World, Vol. 27, p. 457.) Interestingly a few years earlier, Grand Rapids had gone dry, at midnight, April 30, 1918 and the state soon followed with Prohibition voted in until it was repealed in 1933. It is unclear if gambling or alcohol contributed to the money made or the demise of his business Pool halls must have been a popular entertainment with 13 listed in the city that year. Charles Powlowski was from the same part of Poland, immigrated to Grand Rapids and married his wife the same year my grandpa Anthony married Pauline. Powlowski also had a soft drink store at 511 Bridge St. NW. By 1922, the city had 30 billiard halls and Anthony (Radzkiewicz) was listed in the city directory as the owner of the one at 612 Bridge St. NW. He had five competitors on Bridge Street alone. In 1923, he was co-owners with Mr. Czarnopis and there were 33 pool halls in Grand Rapids. This may have been Stanislaw Czarnopis who came to the US with Anthony’s brother Jan. By 1924 the number grew to 34 but sadly, Anthony was no longer running one of them and there was no longer a listing in the city directory. Apparently there was a pool hall again in this location. A person posting on the Facebook Page Grand Rapids History 1960 and before named Matthew Farage, posted that his grandfather Aman Farage owned it beginning in 1927.