Historic Hood River
Barber Shop
7-17-2015
Notes
Notes indicate this barber shop and shoe shine was located near Second and Oak. I think that combination of wallpaper and tile would induce hallucinations. What color do you think they were?
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
Bill Seaton
That location of 2nd & Oak and the size of the room we are looking at could make it the precursor of the Bon Ton Barber Shop that I knew in the 40’s and 50’s.
L.E.
My goodness!!! Hood River had enough business to keep four barbers and a shoe shine man busy?
Looks to me like a shanghai place down on the Portland Waterfront. They walk in, become dizzy and disoriented and off they go to a ship for a long journey.
Arthur
In 1905 there was a barber shop at the west end of the Brosius Block, in 1909 it was in the middle of the Brosius Block. In 1909 there was another one on the north side of Oak where the First National Bank Building now stands.
It would be fun to pull up some old flooring and discover that tile.
James Holloway
Cool shop, look at those brass spitoons!!!
L.E.
Maybe when the crews came in from the logging camps, they could keep this place busy.
We had a great uncle in the family who was a captain or something like that in the Merchant Marines. His last wife, maybe #4, had a barber shop down on the Portland waterfront.
Her chair sat in our basement for years. When you were little, the chair was fun to spin around in. As you got older, you got to hear what the barber shop probably really was, and then the chair took on a whole new fascination.
judy
My friend, Jim Mehlhoff, had the Bon Ton Barbershop for many years. It really was a lot smaller than this picture depicts. Maybe another shop? This is a large shop with four chairs. When beauty salons started cutting men’s hair, the old fashioned barber shop went by the wayside.
Pam K
Can someone please tell me what the large openings on the ceiling near the back of the room are? Would attic access have two openings such as this?
Jeffrey Bryant
Hood River Glacier, 1925-04-02, page 11 says “Ralph W. Barton, who recently purchased the First National barbershop, has added an up to date beauty parlor as a feature. The new department will be in charge of Ruth Reed, skilled hair dresser and beauty expert from Spokane.”
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1925-04-02/ed-1/seq-11/