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The Pool Parlour
On Tuesday 29th May 1923, G.J. Westwood received a building permit for a $3,000 one-storey building at 1816-1818 Commercial Drive. He hired William Francis Jones to design it, and R.E. James to build it, and by the following spring, Grandview Recreations was open for business at 1816 under the management of Frank Garbe. Within a few years, the pool parlour had become so popular that they expanded into the space at 1818.
There had been some controversy back in 1921 when the license for a pool hall was first issued. Baptist and Presbyterian ministers led a delegation to City Council to have the license revoked. However, once the Aldermen learned that the license applicants are “Italian, that they are men of good repute, and that one of them at any rate is a British subject,” they allowed the license to proceed.
By the time Grandview Recreations closed in 2009, it had been part of the Drive for almost 90 years.
Sources: Building permit BP A-5934; City directories; Vancouver Daily World 1921 Apr 2
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