Adjoining downtown Springfield tavern and historic upstairs pool hall investigated by TAPS on Ghost Hunters in 2008 — Steve Gonsalves's hometown haunt.
201 Worthington St, Springfield, MA 01103
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Theodore's full BBQ + bar menu; Smith's Billiards charges per hour for table play. No paranormal admission — both are public-access businesses.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Theodore's ground-floor entry is accessible; Smith's Billiards occupies the upper floor of an adjacent historic building.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · Downtown Springfield Worthington Street tavern district · Ghost Hunters Season 4 'Hometown Haunts' filming location (2008) · Historic billiards hall operating continuously upstairs
The pair of buildings at 201 and 207 Worthington Street sit in downtown Springfield's historic tavern district. Theodore's Booze, Blues and BBQ operates from the ground floor at 201 Worthington, branded around blues music, Southern-style BBQ, and a long-running cocktail menu. Smith's Billiards, located one floor up in the adjoining building at 207 Worthington, is one of the oldest pool halls in the region; the upstairs room retains its vintage billiard-hall character with antique tables and pressed-tin trim.
The two businesses operate as a single hospitality complex. Theodore's directly advertises that pool time at Smith's is comped for diners, and Smith's customers can order food downstairs and have it delivered up. The block has changed hands over the decades, but the layered use of the upper floor — variously as a bowling alley, a pool hall, and a social club — is the most consistent point made by paranormal accounts of the property, which tie phantom-bowling sounds to the now-vanished alley.
Downtown Springfield's Worthington Street corridor has been continuously occupied by taverns, pool halls, and entertainment venues since the late 19th century. The building stock dates broadly to the early 1900s, in a city center that grew on the back of the Springfield Armory and the surrounding manufacturing economy. Theodore's signature presence on the block — a brick facade with neon and a recessed entry — has made it a fixture of Springfield nightlife since the late 20th century.
The building reached its widest audience in 2008, when the SyFy series Ghost Hunters filmed Season 4, Episode 21, 'Hometown Haunts,' on location. TAPS investigator Steve Gonsalves had grown up in the Springfield area, and the episode framed Theodore's / Smith's as his hometown haunt. The episode aired on October 29, 2008.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of the Theodore's / Smith's complex centers on the upstairs floor of the building. Multiple staff and patron accounts collected by haunted-locations directories describe the distinctive sound of balls rolling across the wooden floor when no one is playing — a phenomenon paranormal commentators connect to a bowling alley said to have occupied the upper floor decades before the pool hall. Accounts also describe whispers near the bar, footsteps in empty rooms, cold spots, and the apparition of a young boy seen sitting on one of the pool tables (per HauntedPlaces.org).
The building's central paranormal anchor is its appearance on Ghost Hunters, Season 4 Episode 21, 'Hometown Haunts,' which aired October 29, 2008. TAPS investigator Steve Gonsalves had grown up in the Springfield area, and the episode framed Theodore's and Smith's as his hometown haunt. According to summaries of the episode and BusinessWest coverage, the investigation reported sudden temperature drops, objects falling from walls and shelves in the basement, and the distinctive sound of pool balls dropping into pockets on the first floor when the area was closed and empty.
The phantom-bowling claim is the building's signature: it is the detail most consistently repeated across directories, the BusinessWest write-up, and the Ghost Hunters episode synopsis. The young-boy apparition is also widely cited, though without name attribution, and paranormal sources frame it as folklore rather than tied to a documented death at the site.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Sit down for a casual BBQ-and-blues dinner at the ground-floor tavern featured in the 2008 Ghost Hunters episode 'Hometown Haunts' — TAPS founder Steve Gonsalves grew up nearby and brought the team to investigate after staff reported pool-ball rolling sounds, footsteps, cold spots, and a small-boy apparition tied to the building's prior life as a bowling alley.
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