Barber Shops

Remember the Barber shops of yesteryear?  Marion had several barber shops through the years.  I remember two of them that had the old Barber Poles. One of Main Street, it's location now included in the People's Bank location. The old poles, truly a thing of our past, and probably a collector's item. They always fascinated me to watch as a child as the stripes would swirl around and around.  

The best known old Barber shop of Marion was located on East Carlisle Street and it belonged to Walter McConnel and Blanton Wiggins.  It was built in 1919. What was so unique about this Barber shop was that when it was built McConnel and Wiggins had their own water and heating plant installed in the basement and it was equipped with showers.  Public showers for the gentlemen of the town what a luxury. You could come in and have a haircut and shave and for a quarter you could have a shower in the facilities in the basement. (I did not know about these showers until several years ago.)  

This Barber shop was located in the office room next to the Alley way on Carlisle St.  In 1987 Roy Rogers of Fredonia, who started working for McConnell in 1971,  and Tim Harrison owned the Barber Shop and closed this location and in 1987 reopened their shop two doors from this present location, in the office that Andrews Jewelers operated for many years.  Roy and Tim are shown in the picture at the right in the old shop before it was relocated up the street.

Some years later, the People's Bank bought this whole block and Roy and Tim moved their shop to another historic building on Main Street.  If fact, the People's bank today has two of Marion's old Barber shop locations covered with it's offices.

Today Roy's Barber Shop is the only old-time men's Barber Shop still operating in Marion.  How fortunate for Marion we still have unique shop.