Tag Archives: Georgia Barber & Beauty Shops

Bennie Horton’s Barber Shop, Tennille

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As I continue to edit many of my older photographs on Vanishing Georgia, I keep finding surprises. This was a window shot of a barber shop in Tennille, one of my favorite towns to photograph once I learned I didn’t have to wait for the train all day! This photograph was made in 2010 so I’m not sure the barber shop is still there but I’m sure it’s well remembered and a local landmark.

Sue Burnham writes: Mr Bennie cut my boy’s hair for years. He was even known to walk up the block to our house to get them. He would say he knew those boys needed a haircut. You sure can’t find them like that nowadays. L. Vick remembers: Mr. Bennie Horton cut my hair in that shop for years. It was a one-of-a-kind place that I never left without a smile on my face.


Doug Anderson’s Barber Shop, Elberton

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Doug Anderson’s Barber Shop almost looks like a museum but has been a fixture in downtown Elberton for many years. It’s located in the basement of the old First National Bank Building and is a local landmark in itself. You might not be able to see them clearly, as I shot these through windows, but there’s an autographed photo of Brenda Lee, local photos and ephemera, and one of those tongue-in-cheek posters of a Native American promising “hair cuts, guaranteed painless and quick”.

Musician Seth Martin wrote on the Vanishing Georgia Instagram: tons of memories of this spot. First hair cut, Doug’s boots on the granite steps, cokes from old style machine, Hess trucks everywhere, the old tanning booths in the back, Doyle, etc., etc., etc., like a movie…

Susan Crawford adds: Doug Anderson was a piano student of mine in Elberton about 1974-5. He was already an established barber and also played in a band. At that time he drove a 1940s black Chevrolet. He got it when he was in high school and kept it in perfect shape. If he’s still driving it – and he may well be! – it might be worth a picture. Doug was a real gentleman.

My photographs of the shop date to the mid-2010s, but I believe the business is still going strong.

Elberton Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Dismuke Storehouse, 1899, Americus

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Built as a grocery store in 1899 by Joseph H. Dismuke, this structure also served his family as a residence. Dismuke was the nephew of Elbert Head, a well-to-do black farmer and philanthropist, from whom he initially acquired the property. It was sold to Janice Coleman in 1919 and briefly owned by W. C. Flatt before being purchased in 1922 by John Minyard, who added a cafe. The cafe was so popular, especially on weekends and special occasions when it sold alcohol, that the neighborhood came to be known as”Minyard’s Bottom”. The Minyards got out of the business by the 1950s and Earnest Wilson, then his son Clyde, ran a barbershop here until Clyde’s illness in 1978.

These memories come from Karl Wilson’s (Clyde’s son) “History of the Storehouse”, written in 1985.

[The storehouse was originally located about 20 feet closer to the corner of the lot but was moved during infrastructural modifications in the neighborhood in 1987].

National Register of Historic Places

Mr. Hair Barber Lounge, Fitzgerald

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fitzgerald-ga-mr-hair-barber-lounge-photograph-copyright-brian-brown-vanishing-south-georgia-usa-2016

This is a landmark of the African-American community in Fitzgerald. I believe it was a neighborhood grocery store before it became Mr. Hair.

fitzgerald ga mr hair barber shop photograph copyright brian brown vanishing south georgia usa 2016

Barber Shop, Cedar Springs

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cedar springs ga shotgun tenant house photograph copyright brian brown vanishing south georgia usa 2016

This is quite small, even for a shotgun house, so I initially thought it might be an old office building, but there’s another one on the property (which I was unable to photograph due to vegetation) which led me to believe it might be a tenant house. Pete Tyson clarifies: That was the first aid/hospital of Cedar Springs that Mrs. S. A. Wright told me about. It was moved there in the 1960’s from the little dirt road behind Johnny Golden’s store. It was a barber shop (drinking spot) that was run by Bill Adams and he later moved his shop to Columbia, Alabama, to the old Orr’s Gun Shop on Highway 52. The other was a beauty shop run by May Megahee.

William C. Evans notes: The building was moved twice. Originally it was a dispensary and band room at the Cedar Springs Academy. The first time it was moved, it was used as a post office. It was later moved again to its current location and was used as a barbershop. Dr. Crozier’s house was the medical facility of Cedar Springs.

Though it’s obviously best remembered as a barber shop, I’m identifying it by its original purpose.

Fickling Lodge No. 129, 1920, Butler

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butler ga historic fickling masonic lodge photograph copyright brian brown vanishing south georgia usa 2016

Note the ghost sign for the City Barber Shop on the right of the building.

Butler Downtown Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Barber Shop, Alma

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alma ga barber shop photograph copyrigh brian brown vanishing south georgia usa 2016

This is an excellent example of an old time barber shop. I got my first haircut in a place like this.

alma ga barber shop interior photograph copyright brian brown vanishing south georgia usa 2016

Precinct House, Holt

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Holt Precinct House Irwin County GA Photograph Copyright Brian Brown Vanishing South Georgia USA 2016

Besides a precinct house, this was also used as a barber shop. Katherine Griffin recalls: My Dad, Ed Grantham, used this building to barber for the area farmers on Saturdays until 9: or 10: pm. These old precinct houses are getting harder to find. I’ve photographed this one many times over the years. Tracie Lott Thacker shared my favorite memory of this place: My first ever vote was cast right here. I walked down the dirt road and my grandfather Cleon Lott and Aunt Karen Lott were working here that day.

Toby’s Motel & Grill, Alapaha

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Alapaha GA Tobys Motel Grill Photograph Copyright Brian Brown Vanishing South Georgia USA 2015

Built to lure travelers off busy US Highway 82 (likely in the 1940s), Toby Powell’s Motel & Grill is still relatively intact. The eclectic architecture of the office/restaurant at first appears to be a crumbling facade, but it was built that way! For a time after its original use was supplanted, it served as a grocery store and Virginia’s Beauty Lounge.

Alapaha GA Tobys Motel Grill Abandoned Photograph Copyright Brian Brown Vanishing South Georgia USA 2015

Below is a contemporary postcard view.

Tobys Motel Grill Alapaha GA Postcard 1950s Vanishing South Georgia USA 2015

Service Station, Leslie

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Leslie GA Sumter County Mid Century Gas Station Photograph Copyright Brian Brown Vaniishing South Georgia USA 2015

John A. Battle writes: This old service station in Leslie was owned by my sister and her husband, Fred (Buddy) Bass and Joanne Battle Bass, and operated as a dry cleaners and barber shop.