A renovation tale of a 1916 building

131 1st Street North, Small Town USA

The first buzz Cut

Everyone seems to be curious about what is going on at the old barber shop. First, it's getting a buzz cut (torn apart) so it can get put back together. The building went up in 1916 and was intended to be a barber shop from the start. The upstairs is said to have originally been a doctor and dentist office. The last barber, Sylvester Seymour started shaving stubble (say that fast 4 times) and giving flat tops back in the '40s. Sy cut hair for 68 years. His wife passed away in 2009 and at 91 years old Sy went into the nursing home and died a year after his wife. He was still cutting hair up till a couple years before that. After having scissors in his hands for 68 of his 91 years he could probably cut hair blindfolded. Talk to anyone and they have a story about getting their hair cut by Sy. Did he cut many new little boys hair when he was in his 80's? A few, but he did continue to have regular customers who have been sitting in his chair for as long as they can remember. You can probably pick them out walking around town, they are the old guys with long hair now that Sy is no longer in business to trim them up. As for a close razor shave, he probably quit lathering faces in his 70's for safety reasons since shaving a face is more dangerous to do blindfolded.




The only Skyway in Town

You read that right.  Skyway.  A skyway would be an area connecting two buildings together via a covered walkway surrounded on the outside by, well.... the outside.  There are some very interesting stories about this skyway.  It connects the upstairs apartment with the upstairs apartment in the building next door.  The upstairs of Kegs is (or was) connected to the next three buildings.  One of those buildings, (the old flower shop?) was a brothel.  Yes, a skyway and a brothel both on the same street.  Makes a person wonder how many men told their wives they were going to the dentist upstairs and only made it as far as the top of the barber shop stairway where they took a right instead of a left? Might explain dentures.  Currently the skyway is closed to traffic.  Daylight can be seen coming through the walls and it is unsafe, and the building inspector would like to see it go.  Eventually that piece of building history will come down.  Another bit of interesting trivia, the barber shop in the early days was also a bath house.  People without indoor plumbing could come to the shop, pay a fee and take a bath.  On the main floor were two small "bath" rooms with a tub and sink.  One has since been turned into a closet, however the other still has the original tub and sink.  Do you think there is any call these days for a bath house?  If so it will be added to the list of potential businesses, but a new tub would definitely be needed!