100 years ago in Spokane: Saloon gives way to billiards
From our archives,
100 years ago
The proprietors of a large Spokane billiard hall closed a lease on one of the biggest saloons in Spokane, Jimmie Durkin’s No. 2 Place at 415 W. Main.
Statewide prohibition was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, and the new owners planned to transform the saloon into a pool-and-billiards hall, a restaurant, a bowling alley and free moving picture theater. The idea, said the new owners, was to provide a place to attract the men who frequent the saloons. They would sell soft drinks and tobacco.
“We believe it can be made a paying proposition,” said the new owners.
The local head of the Anti-Saloon League expressed approval of the plan and said, “It looks to me like a most practical idea.”
From the reservation beat: The Washington congressional delegation reported they had received a promise to open up the Colville Reservation to non-Indian settlement within the year.
The Indian commissioner said he estimated about 300,000 acres would be opened up for sale.
The sale would exclude land that had been allotted to tribal members (80 acres per individual) and other land set aside for schools, mills and grazing.
The actual “opening” of the reservation would take place May 3, 1916, by presidential proclamation.