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The doors of 121 Baltimore Street had been closed for more than a month in 1914. Many people thought the bowling alley that had occupied the space had gone out of business and they were right. However, V.T. Wolford and his son were set to open something new and better in the business space.
On Sept. 3, 1914, the Cumberland Press announced that a new club called The Smoke Shop “will throw open its doors this evening as the finest cigar store and pocket billiard room in the state.”
The bowling alleys were gone and in their place were five of the finest pocket billiard tables available. As for the cigars, “The management has endeavored to place in their store every known brand of high-grade cigars, tobacco and cigarettes and have adopted as their motto for this department, ‘We dare you to ask us for something in our line that we haven’t got.’,” according to the Cumberland Press.
The interior had been redesigned and painted by a popular Baltimore decorator at the time named Herman DuBrau. DuBrau had been born in Prussia in 1865 and graduated from the Royal Arts Academy in Berlin, Germany, as a “Master of Arts.” He emigrated to Baltimore in 1892 with his wife and two daughters where he embarked on a career as a mural artist and decorator, who added his touch to many of the public buildings in Baltimore.
The doors to the club opened at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 and by evening’s end, more than 1,500 people had passed through. This is an even more-astounding number when you consider that The Smoke Shop was a gentlemen-only club.
“Many of these were traveling men and they were high in their praises, saying that ‘The Smoke Shop’ is the finest billiard room in the state,” the newspaper reported the following day.
Wolford gave away cigars as souvenirs to commemorate the opening.
While such stores are rare today, in the early part of the 20th century, they were quite common. Herman Miller wrote in his book “Cumberland, Maryland through the eyes of Herman J. Miller’’ that downtown Cumberland had four cigar and tobacco stores and five pool rooms in 1910. By 1930, that number had risen to nine cigar and tobacco stores and five pool rooms.
James Rada Jr. is a freelance writer who writes a monthly Looking Back feature for the Times-News. His e=mail address is jmrada@yahoo.com.
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Related Photos
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This photograph of the Baltimore and Centre streets area was taken in the early 1900s and is from the Herman and Stacia Miller Collection, courtesy of the city of Cumberland. Herman and Stacia Miller Collection
New business opened downtown in 1914
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