[BCMA] One-of-a-Kind Pool Table Comes Home

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Creston & District Museum & Archives

 

219 Devon Street, Creston, BC     V0B 1G3

Phone: (250) 428-9262

Fax:     (250) 428-3324

Email:  mail at creston.museum.bc.ca

Website: www.creston.museum.bc.ca

 

 

Press Release

19 June 2010

 

 

One-of-a-Kind Pool Table Comes Home

 

Museums, especially community museums, get many artifacts donated, and most
of them are pretty commonplace: butter moulds, shoe stretchers, wood
planers, other paraphernalia of day-to-day life.  But every now and then,
something comes along that is really special - and that's exactly what has
happened at the Creston Museum this week.

 

Around 1895, George Hendren bought some household furnishings in Norwood,
Ontario - light fixtures, chairs, and a pool table, amongst other things.
In 1904, George and his wife, Hannah, moved to Creston, BC, shipping all
their belongings west by train. They built a house on Vancouver Street in
1910, where they raised six children. The house was demolished in 1975 to
make way for the expansion of the Swan Valley Lodge seniors' home, and the
furnishings were divided amongst George and Hannah's children and
grandchildren.

 

Great-granddaughter Ann Jensen has acquired many of those household
furnishings over the years, but now the need to downsize has forced her to
look for new homes for them. And so the pool table, along with several
smaller pieces, have returned to Creston.

 

"It is always exciting to be offered objects that have such a strong
connection to local history," says Creston Museum manager Tammy Hardwick,
"but when that object is also highly unusual, it's even better - it's like
Christmas!"

 

What makes the pool table so unique? It's a full-size pool table - the
playing surface measures four feet by seven - but it converts into a sofa.
The Hendren pool table was built by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company,
now known simply as the Brunswick Corporation, and still one of the largest
manufacturers of pool tables today. In operation since 1845, Brunswick has
produced hundreds of different models of pool tables, including ones that
convert to dining room tables or writing desks, but pool tables that convert
to couches seem to be extremely rare.

 

"We've had quite a few people already commenting that they have never seen
or even heard of such a thing," laughs Hardwick, "and I have to agree. We've
been searching antique pool table websites; Ann did quite a bit of research
as well before she donated it; and between us we have found only one
reference to anything like this one - apart from a 1970s model on eBay - and
that other one is much less ornate than ours."

 

The Hendren pool table is in good condition, especially considering that it
is well over a hundred years old.  "The felt is original, though it's a
little tattered in places and no longer fits smoothly over the slate," says
Hardwick. "The seat of the sofa has been reupholstered, but the back is
original and Ann tells me that the original horsehair stuffing was put back
under the new vinyl on the seat."

 

Jensen's donation includes all the original accessories for the pool table:
twelve cues and their original rotating, free-standing rack; two sets of
balls and the triangle; peas and shaker; and chalk. There is also a framed
set of game rules, a captain's chair and light fixtures from the pool room
on the second floor of the original Hendren home, and a mirror that hung
above the table.

 

At the moment, the pool table is on display temporarily in the middle of one
of the Museum's exhibit galleries. "It's the only space we've got that's big
enough for it right now," laughs Hardwick. "We're going to have to rearrange
something to make a more permanent exhibit for it and the other pieces."

 

The Hendren pool tables joins several other rare and unique objects in the
Creston Museum's local history collection: for example, an 1898 time clock
and 1901 cheese cutter, both in working condition and both made by IBM; or,
among the First Nations collection, a bola stone and lanceolate point
(that's a spear point, in plain English) which visiting archaeologists have
informally dated as 7,000 to 9,000 years old.

 

Those are just a few of the things to be seen at the Creston Museum, which
has earned a reputation as one of the best small museums in the province.
Located at 219 Devon Street, it is open seven days a week throughout the
summer. For more information about seasonal events and programming, call
250-428-9262 or visit the Museum's website at www.creston.museum.bc.ca.

 

The Creston Museum is operated by the Creston & District Historical & Museum
Society, a non-profit society and registered charitable organisation.

 

 

- 30 -

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tammy Hardwick, Manager

Creston & District Museum & Archives

219 Devon Street, Creston, BC V0B 1G3

Phone 250-428-9262

www.creston.museum.bc.ca

 

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