Forrest Barber Shop is a 100-year fixture on Broad

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Downtown Rome has changed tremendously over the last century, but one business, the Forrest Barber Shop, is still serving customers in much the same way it did when the shop opened 100 years ago.

Forrest Barber Shop is believed to be the oldest business in the district that’s been in continuous operation at the same location. The barber pole has been spinning daily at 432 Broad St., except for Wednesdays and Sundays, of course.

Current owner Debbie Bell said Ward Beecher Horton opened the barbershop in 1915. Hoke Cummings and Griffin Braden took over in the early 1940s, with Herman Cooper occupying the third chair. A number of years passed before Cooper decided to go into real estate and tried to convince Cummings and Braden to join him.

“They wouldn’t do it and the rest is history,” Bell said.

Cummings and Braden worked together for more than 50 years before Braden suffered a stroke and couldn’t cut hair any longer. Chuck Lanham came on board in 1976 and later took ownership of the shop. Cummings stayed on until 1991, when he finally retired after 59½ years behind the barber’s chair.

Lanham ran the shop until he passed away in October 2007.

There have been a few changes over the years — most notably, women manning the clippers in the shop traditionally staffed by men.

In addition to Bell, who joined Lanham in October 1984, Connie Shurley has been behind one of the chairs since 1994. Sharon Lindsey joined the staff seven years ago.

Bell said the increase in the number of women doing traditional barbering is probably the biggest change she’s seen in the industry over the last 30 years.

“We’re taking over,” Shurley said.

Prices have gone up over time. Bell said a haircut cost $5.50 when she started, with a 50-cent discount for senior citizens. Ten years later that had jumped to $9, with seniors getting $1 off. Today, the regular cut costs $14, with a $1 discount for seniors.

Bell said she never had the desire to be a women’s hair stylist.

“I always wanted to be a barber. I started to cut hair when I was in high school,” she said.

She cut hair for her father and four brothers, and then word got around. Before she knew it, folks in the neighborhood started showing up at her home when they needed a haircut and couldn’t get to the barbershop.

“It was just something I liked to do,” she said.

Bell said she couldn’t find a school for barbering back in the ’80s, but someone told her about the Forrest shop on Broad Street so she decided to give it a try.

“The very first time I came in here Chuck had me using clippers,” she said.

Shurley got into the business at the suggestion of her mother-in-law. Shurley said she tried hair styling with women but only lasted about a week and a half.

“I decided I didn’t want to fool with all that hair,” she said. “I don’t do my best work with scissors, and I like to use the clippers.”

‘Longer than I can remember’

Forrest Barber Shop has always been a part of the Forrest Hotel — now Forrest Place — with the owners renting space in the building.

Much of the furnishings are original, or close to original. That includes the marble and glass mirrors on the wall behind the barber chairs, and the plumbing.

“We had a plumber in here once doing some work on it, and when he left he told us, ‘just be careful turning it on and off,’” Shurley said.

The chairs that are now in use were purchased in 1956. Bell said she isn’t sure if that makes them second- or third-generation chairs.

Allen Madden of Rome was getting his hair cut Thursday morning. He said he’d been coming to the Forrest Barber Shop longer than he could remember — although he did recall why he shifted his loyalty from another longtime shop on Broad Street.

“When they went to appointments, I changed,” Madden said. “I wanted to be able to come in whenever I needed to.”

John Youmans of Rome said he’s been coming in to the shop for 10 or 12 years.

“I just like the way they do it,” Youmans said.

One of the most popular things the Forrest ladies do is use a Genie massager to give customers a shoulder and upper back rub once their haircut is complete.

“They had those when I first came here,” Bell said. “I don’t know where they came up with the idea, but it was a good one!”

Bell said she’s cut all the different styles through the years and was never afraid to try custom cuts. She recalled that a young man came in right before he was heading off to college and wanted something very different.

“He wanted sunglasses, a mustache and sideburns cut into the back of his head,” Bell said. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”

If history repeats itself …

Children may offer the barbers their toughest challenge. Bell said that little boys tend to get their first haircuts anywhere from age 1 to 18 months. She and Shurley did recall one youngster with a head full of hair who was brought in for his first cut at four months of age.

And the babies come back. Bell spoke of a customer who’s been a regular for 80 years, and she’s been his barber for 30 of those.

“I have a good many families like that — kids that were children when I came to work here, and they’ve got grown children now themselves,” she said.

Former Rome city commissioner Bill Fricks is another who’s been getting his haircut at the Forrest Barber Shop for almost 80 years.

Fricks, who owned a furniture company in the same block of Broad Street, said he remembers playing with Griffin Braden’s children — Donald, Frank and Bobby — as a youngster.

Bell and Shurley said that different customers occasionally prefer one of the barbers to another and are willing to wait a little for the right chair to come open.

“Some of them start with you and want to stay with you,” Bell said.

“But we share pretty good around here,” Shurley chipped in.

If history repeats itself, Bell will have at least another 10 years at the shop. But she’s reasonably sure that, by then, someone will be in one of the other chairs, ready to take the keys to the future.

Source: Rome News

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