Barbershop

Antonio and Rosalie Tomasino purchased two lots at the corners of Wilson and Victor Streets in Freedmen’s Town from H. J. Simpson for $850 in 1909.  The Tomasino family had emigrated from Italy to the United States sometime between 1886 and 1901, originally residing in New Orleans before settling in Freedmen’s Town.  Sometime between 1909 and 1912, the Tomasinos paid $1,875 to William H. Chryar, a Black carpenter, builder and contractor from New Orleans, to build several structures on the property, including a two-story house, a shotgun house, and three cottages.  The Tomasinos moved into the upper story of the two-story house in 1917, the lower floor being used as a corner grocery store.  This was a common configuration at the time, with numerous Italian immigrants operating corner grocery stores in Freedmen’s Town and living above or next to them.  The Tomasinos resided in the neighborhood until 1944.  Chryar, the carpenter, also lived in Freedmen’s Town for two years before decamping for Independence Heights, where he, too, opened a grocer’s shop.

The small structure at 1404 Victor Street was constructed around 1924, significantly later than the other buildings on the site.  It served as a residence for James Williams, a Black man, in 1924-1925; Williams also operated it as a barbershop.  The building may have been one of the first barbershops in Freedmen’s Town, though the 1917 Houston City Directory lists over thirty barbers who lived in the community and worked downtown.  The Coach and Orgen (“Negro” spelled backwards) Barbershops were two of the first Black-owned barbershops downtown.

In 1928, another Black barber, Earl T. Randon, lived and worked at 1404 Victor for a year.  In following years, a series of other tenants occupied the property.  Flossie Davis occupied the building for a couple of years starting in 1954, operating Davis Beauty Shop and also residing there.  From 1960 to 1963, Faye Tarver resided there and operated Tarver’s Beauty Shop there.  The cottage has been vacant since 1965.  

Black barbershops and beauty shops in communities like Freedmen’s Town were pillars of community strength and organizational strongholds against racial discrimination.  They functioned as social hubs and community centers, and provided a commercial opportunity for their Black operators - men and women - to gain a measure of financial independence.  As a result, the shops were not only outlets for entrepreneurial spirit, but served as a secure forum for the discussion and promotion of Black political endeavors.  They were among the few places where Black women and men interacted regardless of social class, educational attainment or occupation.

The wood cottage at 1404 Victor Street is typical of the small, single-story, one-or-two-room commercial buildings constructed in the side or front yards of primary structures in working-class Houston neighborhoods in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  The building is rectangular in plan, and is capped by a low-pitched, hipped roof with exposed rafter tails beneath the overhanging eaves.  Since acquiring the building, the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum has repaired the exterior siding and replaced the roof with historically-appropriate Berridge metal roof shingles.  In connection with other preservation activity at the Wilson-Victor site, the Yates Museum intends to add electrical and A/C service to the barbershop.

UNESCO Sites of Memory Slave Route

Two of RBHY Museum historic homes, the Workman’s Cottage (aka Barbershop) at 1404 Victor St. and the Rev. Ned Pullum and Emma Edding-Pullum historic home at 1319 Andrews St. have been designated as Sites of Memory associated with UNESCO's Slave Route project. Launched in 1994, the international and inter-regional project The Slave Route: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage addresses the history of the slave trade and slavery through the prism of intercultural dialogue, a culture of peace and reconciliation. It endeavors to improve the understanding and transmission of this human tragedy by making better known its deep-seated causes, its consequences for societies today and the cultural interactions born of this history.