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“I said, ‘I have the exact table.’ We ended up moving it back to the Van Dusen. It was an 1893 Brunswick Monarch, a table made of many species of exotic wood with a distinctive cast-iron base shaped like lions, that was languishing on the third floor of the Van Dusen Mansion in the late 1960s.ĭecades later, the new owners of the mansion, which by then had been repurposed as an event center, were looking for a vintage pool table. “Especially in my earlier days.” He’d clean them up, only to find “just an ugly black pool table.”īut he’s also made some amazing finds, such as the vintage table he found in one historic Minneapolis building - then restored and ultimately returned to its original location. “Sometimes I’ve bought tables and can’t tell what’s underneath,” he said. Many of the old tables he’s acquired were initially so covered with grime, dust and years of accumulated smoke that it was difficult to discern what they were even made of. When Peterson visited there in the early ’70s, looking for tables, he found more than 50, along with cigar stands, spittoons, benches and chairs - a speakeasy-era still life, frozen in time. The Recreation Co., for example, opened in the 1920s during Prohibition and was used as a front for mobsters and gangsters including John Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson and “Machine Gun” Kelly, who ran a gambling operation from the basement. Peterson’s pool tables hold the often colorful history of the places they came from.

Paul (now the home of Park Square Theatre), and the Minneapolis Recreation Co., formerly on Hennepin Avenue. Paul Recreation Co., located in the Hamm Building in downtown St. Many of the tables in his collection came from the great once-prolific pool rooms of the early 20th century, including the St. “Instead of a formal dining room, we have a pool table.” The fourth, a prized Brunswick model with intricate wood inlay mosaics, has a place of honor on the main floor. “When we designed the house, we started with the lower level,” he said, including space for three tables. (Many of the rest are stored at the Peters Billiards warehouse in Edina.)Įven his house was shaped by his passion for pool tables. And his collection of vintage tables has ballooned to nearly 90, including the four he keeps at his home in Edina. “I gave him a few dollars and assumed his two leases and his store” on Nicollet Avenue S., near Lake Street.ĭecades later, Peterson still owns and operates Peters Billiards, now a game and home furnishings store in south Minneapolis. “I said I’d gladly buy it,” said Peterson, who was all of 22 at the time. About the same time, the owner of a small billiards store, Ken Peters, whom Peterson had befriended over the years, decided he was ready to sell his business. Greg Peterson lines up a shot at a restored antique pool table, one of four in his Edina home.īy his senior year, however, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be an architect. Peterson refurbished the old tables in his parents’ Minneapolis garage, then sold them, using the money to pay his tuition at the University of Minnesota, where he had decided to study architecture. Soon father and son were scouring classified ads and driving around the state, finding tables in Summit Avenue mansions, men’s clubs, taverns, pool rooms and even a farm in Wisconsin - where the farmer led them to his chicken coop. His supportive father became his accomplice, helping him sleuth out and acquire the gigantic collectibles that can weigh up to 1,600 pounds. Peterson was eager to put his newly acquired skills to work restoring vintage tables, a quest that would change the course of his life. Homemade tables were an interesting project, but he soon found himself fascinated with antique pool tables, especially the elaborate ones from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with their exotic woods, intricate details and fine craftsmanship. He was just 15 when he finished that first table. “I couldn’t afford slate, so I used particleboard.” So Peterson, already an ace in his school wood-shop class, came up with a design, based on his friend’s table, and started gathering materials. “I went home and said I wanted to buy a pool table,” he recalled. When Greg Peterson first played pool at a friend’s house, he liked the game - but he really liked the table.

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