A Timber Landing, Then A Card Room
How a weighing shed for the district’s cedar trade became a five-table card lounge on Molesworth Street.
Cedar, Then Cards
For the best part of sixty years, red cedar felled upriver in the Big Scrub came down the Wilsons River by raft and was weighed and tallied at this shed before the timber went on to market.
A grocer, then a menswear outfitter, kept the front counter busy for decades once the cedar trade wound down, and the high windows stayed exactly as the timber agents left them.
The felt tables went in a few years back, and the room settled into its present life without much need to change the building at all.
1900s
Built as a weighing shed for the district’s cedar trade.
Mid-century
Traded as a grocer, then a menswear shop.
Today
A five-table card room, run by a house dealer.
About The Room
Do you have to be a member to play?
No membership is needed. Anyone eighteen and over is welcome to walk in.
Can a group book the room for a private night?
Small groups can book part of the room on a quiet night; ask at the counter or by phone.
How long has the same crew run it?
The current house dealers have covered every night between them for the past three years.
Where does the name Baysidemaro come from?
It’s a made-up word, chosen because it read well over the door — there’s no deeper story to it.