Rachel Schmidt carefully cuts a rectangle of blue felt — one of the final steps to building a pool table from scratch. She uses a technique that’s been in her family for longer than a century.
Her great-great-great-grandfather, Ernst Schmidt first sold ivory goods and billiards supplies. He sold the first complete A.E Schmidt pool table in 1882 — just seven miles from where Rachel prepares the cloth coverings for every table sold. Six generations after the company's founding, siblings Rachel, Stephanie and Michael Schmidt go by a simple philosophy.
“If it's not broke, don't fix it. We figured out a good way that works, a system that works,” Stephanie Schmidt said. “We just want to make a table that's going to last different generations.”
The family works with 14 employees at a south St. Louis factory where they spend an average of four to six weeks completing one table. From a showroom attached to the factory, they sell more than 600 pool tables each year.
“I don't really think there's another job out there that you could get as much out of as we do now,” Stephanie Schmidt said.
In 1850, Ernst Schmidt advertised “work and repairs of all kinds done with neatness and dispatch.” He crafted pipes, handles and billiards supplies. The ivory balls became worn with use, ensuring returning customers and his business grew as St. Louis did. By the 1880s, Ernst Schmidt’s son took over. Oscar Schmidt learned from his father’s work, and more than a century later, his descendants are doing the same.
“You come in on Saturday to learn all the skills,” Rachel Schmidt said. “We came in on Saturdays, priced stuff, you know, but [Oscar] learned how to use lathes.”
Their father, Kurt Schmidt, quietly works with the same equipment as his father once did. Things are steady now, he said, but it hasn't always been easy.
“In an especially bad recession, my dad said ‘If I have to carry this business on my back to get through this, that’s what I am going to do,’” Kurt Schmidt said. “That statement is the core of why we have lasted so long — never give up.”
His great-grandfather kept the business alive through the start of automation, prohibition and the Great Depression.
“Don’t worry. Money will be tight, but we can weather any storm,” Oscar Schmidt wrote to his employees. “I’ve been through many tight times, and the company that can hold on will be stronger when the storm has passed.”
Oscar Schmidt and his sons worked to expand the business despite economic downfalls. They opened a real estate partnership and stored repossessed tables in their newly acquired buildings. The Schmidts sold pool table parts, radio and restaurant supplies through the Great Depression.
His sons Arthur and Harold Schmidt took over after returning from World War II. After Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason starred in the 1961 film "The Hustler," billiards boomed and pool tournaments rose in popularity.
The pool room craze eventually died down. Kurt Schmidt found tables in the factory’s basement, possible remnants of those repossessed during the Depression. He repaired, finished and sold them during another recession in the 1980s.
“It was just every corner, there was something that we could fix up and sell,” Kurt Schmidt said. “It was a very difficult time for all businesses.”
He’s still involved with each table, giving his stamp of approval before sending work to a customer. He leaves the designing to his children, though.
Rachel Schmidt’s mid-century modern table is a bestseller. Custom pieces sit everywhere from cruise ships to art exhibits. World-famous rock stars chose one in particular, a table made with wood recovered from a shipwreck.
“Whenever the Rolling Stones come in, they always play on this one,” Rachel Schmidt said. “I've also heard that it was maybe in one of the houses of one of the royal families.”
The custom offerings mean most of the work is done by hand. Still, it’s not without the help of a few machines. The newest, which uses a computer program to cut intricate shapes, is about 20 years old. Even Kurt Schmidt doesn’t remember a time without Wanda, a machine which drills holes to fit wooden pegs.
“We had ordered another machine for the guys. A new one, state-of-the-art and no one wanted it. We ended up reselling it. This old stuff just keeps going and going,” Stephanie Schmidt said.
The 124th table of the year is finished in early February. Kurt Schmidt, 60, said his daughters and son have made the business more organized and efficient. Still, he won’t retire until they tell him to, he has more to learn.
“They're advancing and learning and teaching me things I never knew before,” Kurt Schmidt said. “I enjoy enough for three lifetimes. I think my parents would be pleased with the fact that this has continued.”
