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.




Treasures Found



An old newspaper is tacked onto a piece of wood.  The advertisment is for perfumes and other smelly stuff, but there probably wasn't any Evening in Paris perfume in the mens barber shop.  Maybe they bought that to take along when they crossed the skyway for their rendezvous?


When early craftsmen sent out new doors they would write the name of the person and the town they were headed too on the door frame.  This one was discovered, can you make out the name?





Here we have an antique dustpan.  It works similarly to the ones the guys in white have walking around in theme parks scooping trash into it.  From the American Furniture company, buy a couch and receive a shiny new dustpan.