This used to be McSpadden Cleaners, a first floor tenant in this two-story section of the building that fronted on 137 North Washington Street. The cleaners operated for several decades ending around 1990. Jay McSpadden said his Dad, Hardy L. “Mack” McSpadden, had run “City Tailors” at 107 North Washington Street until Mack and his wife Erma opened McSpadden Cleaners here directly across the street from the Robin Hood Tavern.

Jay says that at Christmas time his dad, Mack, hooked up a speaker to a record player inside McSpadden Cleaners and played Christmas music that could be heard all over the downtown area. “It was magical,” he said. Jay remembers that one of Mack’s friends gave his Dad a monkey in the early 1950s as a joke but Mack kept it. He named it Judy and she would sit on Mack’s shoulder, pull pens out of his pockets, and throw them at people. After Hardy McSpadden’s death his friend, Francis “Whitey” Turner and his wife, Jeanne, bought McSpadden Cleaners in 1964 and continued running it.

However, a great deal more business was likely conducted above the cleaners than inside it. Being the height of the gambling and horse racing era, there was a busy pool room at the top of the steps, entered from a doorway directly across the street from the Robin Hood Tavern. Once at the top, people turned right for the pool room and left across the hall for the gambling room or “casino” that was full of gaming tables and tote boards. The pool room was easily identified by the “Orange Crush” sign hanging outside it.

James E. Clark says he learned to shoot pool there and racked a few balls. And Jeffrey Newman also acquired shooting skills there, making 10¢ on every quarter rack. Rod Graham remembers the variety of “upstanding citizens” who went in to play poker, gin, or pinnocle. He had the important job of watching out the window and admitting only those who were “allowed.” It seems the pool room changed owners periodically—Tommy’s, Miles’s, Bennett’s, and then bought by Tommy Ryals in 1959. And although by the 1950s the gambling slacked off greatly, the pool room continued operating until 1988.

Pat Ballinger shared a story about his Dad, Harry Jones, who was a regular in Tommy’s Pool Hall—one day a guy came into the card room and pulled a gun on everyone and took all their money. His Dad was waiting for a spot to play, standing in a corner by a trash can. When he saw what was happening he silently lifted his wallet from his back pocket and let it drop into the trash can. He was the only one who left the room with any dollars that day. Rod Graham remembers Harry Jones well because he had mentored Rod and was always showing younger players how to improve “both on the pool table and in life.”

The first floor of the building where the entrance to the pool hall used to be became a tattoo parlor later and in 2011 “Dark Sea Glass” opened here that made a variety of glass art pieces onsite. In 2018 this entrance (to the ground floor only) became a side door to the JoRetro store that fronts on Washington Street.

County Records for this property are included in 137-141 North Washington Street.