Left to right: Bert Lexier, proprietor, Alexander Hrynchuk, clerk and Eric Osborne, a salesman for Tuckett Tobacco Company. Stag Billiards — a long time enterprise that endured from 1919 to 1976. Its name assuring you that it was a “men’s only” place — opened its doors in the new Bronfman Block on the corner of Third Avenue south and Broadway in August of 1919. There were seven snooker tables, one pool table, two bowling alleys, a barbershop, cigar stand and soda fountain. There even were a few gambling machines — Hand Load Jackpot countertop coin machines with fruit symbol reel strips. If you got the winning symbols on these machines, it was cigars that were handed out, not money. One machine remains from those Stag Billiards’ days. It can be viewed at the Western Development Museum in Yorkton. Most of the clientele were farmers, with about 25 per cent from the professional class. There was such a homey atmosphere that some regular customers brought along a favorite chair to sit in while watching an interesting game. One Bredenbury gentleman who hung a painting of his farm home above one of the tables, declared “I hung it there to make me feel more at home. It’s my second home anyway.”
This edition of History Corner originally appeared in the May 12, 2010 edition of Yorkton This Week.
Terri Lefebvre Prince
