Phone photo 1521

 

The Olympic Club woodstove and poolroom, Centralia, Washington

From what I have been told, my grandfather basically lived at a pool table here in the 1930s-1950s. He "owned" the table closest to the stove (although I'm sure that original table has long since passed on).  This place was pretty much a seedy dive when I first visited it in the 1970s, but it has since been McMenaminized just like the Spar in Olympia and many other Washington/Oregon local icons. This place includes a family dining area in a room where I formerly observed old guys in fedoras smoking cigars and playing cards. The Wm. Hoss building is next door to the McMenamins complex.

Phone photo 1520

Wm. Hoss

1908

Building on Tower Avenue, Centralia, Washington, bearing the name of my great-grandfather's brother. I understand several nefarious activities took place in this structure. The youngest of five children, William "Willy" Hoss lived from 1865 to 1933. The family arrived in Lewis County in the mid-1870s.