City Barber Shop, downtown fixture for over a century, to close

Downtown Ellijay is losing a fixture of North Main Street, which is among the town’s longest operating businesses. 

If all goes according to plan, the City Barber Shop will be closing for good this week. Owner Marcelle Arnold Lowry said she expects Thursday, Feb. 22, to be the shop’s last day. 

Lowry, who’s owned and cut hair at the barber shop for 30 years, said it’s just time to retire. 

“I’m 71 and still in pretty good health. I would like to get out of here while I can still do some stuff for myself,” she added. “In 30 years, other than holidays or the week of July 4th when we’re closed, I’ve (probably) been out five days to take a day off and go somewhere for myself. I told one man if this place is open, and you come in and I’m not here, call the morgue!” 

Lowry is the fifth owner of the shop, which was first opened by old-time barber Merk Davis. It’s been nothing but a barber shop for around 120 years, she noted. 

“I used to have a picture of Merk Davis (on the wall here),” said Lowry. “He had a long mustache down to here and long fuzzy hair. He didn’t look much like a barber, but he’s who started it.”

‘Just barbers here’

There are few reasons the City Barber Shop (or Ellijay Barber Shop as it’s also been called) has retained its share of faithful customers for so many years. 

There’s the nostalgic feel and look of the place with its vintage, red, reclining barber chairs and wood-panel walls, which, until just recently, were covered with photos of customers and locals that spanned decades. A hefty rotary telephone on the back wall still works, and Lowry still uses it to take calls. 

“A little boy tried to use it one time to call his mama, but he said ‘Miss Marcelle, I don’t know how to do it!’” Lowry said. 

The main things that have kept customers coming back — other than they like how Lowry and barber Charlie Rose, who’s Lowry’s nephew, cut their hair — are the conversation and fellowship found at the barber shop. It’s long been a downtown hub for gossip, debate, tall tales and trading, Lowry confirmed. 

Not all customers are in need of a haircut each time they stop by. They just want to be in on the conversation. 

“I’ve heard a whole lot of tales in here,” Lowry said. “There’s been some of the biggest fish caught, some of the biggest deer killed and some of the biggest stories in the world told in here!”

The vast majority of the shop’s customers have always been male, but women do stop there to get a cut every now and then. 

“We’re just barbers here,” said Lowry, insisting she’s not a stylist or beautician. “I’ve got four or five female customers, but they get their hair cut real short like a man. Sometimes a girl with real long hair will come in wanting me to nip the ends off it, but 99 percent of my customers have been men and boys.” 

David Westmoreland, a former Ellijay mayor and city councilmember, said he’s been going to the hometown barber shop since he was barely old enough to sit upright in the chair. 

“Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, you either got a GI cut or a flattop. They’d always have whatever your favorite chewing gum was for the kids, and they still had shoeshine boys up till the ‘80s or ‘90s,” Westmoreland said. “It’s a colorful place and sort of an iconic place. Like the old drug stores, the barber shop was where you saw everybody.”

In spring and summer, there’s usually increased demand for the discarded hair that’s been trimmed at the shop, Lowry said. Several people who grow vegetable gardens use the shorn locks to deter animals like deer and rats from their plants. This year, they’ll have to look elsewhere for that spare hair.

“It’s something they ask for every year. They put it in a woman’s knee-high and put it on a stick. The deer can smell it because it’s got that human smell. Beauty shop hair won’t work because they shampoo it, but most of our customers don’t want their hair shampooed,” Lowry said. “Stuff like that is what I’m going to miss.” 

Not seeing her customers on a regular basis is what Lowry will miss the most. 

“I will miss my faithful customers so bad. Some of them followed me here from where I used to cut hair 35 years ago, and I have some who’ve been coming here (their whole lives),” she said. “I gave some of them their first haircut and their kids their first haircut. One man, who was 92, said he got his first haircut here.”

Lowry has also given last haircuts for customers who’ve left that wish in their will. 

“I said I’m not going to cut hair again, but I will continue cutting hair at the funeral homes (if) people have it in their will,” she said.

Anything might happen

Lowry, a Gilmer County native, had worked at a carpet mill in Chatsworth and the Lockheed aircraft plant in Marietta before coming on board at the barber shop in 1994. Shortly thereafter, then-owner Raymond Davis passed away, and Lowry later bought the business from his widow, Estelle, and son, Winston. 

She once had up to four barbers cutting hair, but now the staff is just Lowry and Rose, who’s been barbering alongside his aunt for 18 years. Business has remained strong through various economic shifts and changes in the business makeup of downtown Ellijay, she noted. 

“They just liked it in here and, if they liked your haircuts, they’d wait — even if they had to wait three hours,” Lowry said. “It used to be that Saturday mornings were standing room only in here.”

The shop’s storefront window, which overlooks the town square, and a nearby sidewalk bench have both provided a view of downtown goings-on for Lowry, her coworkers and other local merchants. 

Ray Norton, who runs the Beds Etc. store next to the barber shop, said he’s going to miss sitting on that bench with Lowry. Anything might happen if you sit there long enough, they noted.

“We’ve had lots of laughs and seen lots of stuff you would not believe,” Lowry said. “I’ve seen some of the funniest stuff that ever has been because you can see the whole town from right here.” 

When looking back at the last 30 years, Lowry remembered something that could’ve only happened at the barber shop. She said one of her regular customers suffered a stroke while sitting in the barber’s chair. Lowry got under him to prevent a fall to the floor, but the customer fell on top of her. 

Another customer who’d recently had a nasal operation rushed over to help, but when the man bent over, he sprang a severe nosebleed. Thankfully, all three survived the ordeal.

“It was on a Saturday, and the shop was full. Somebody called 911,” Lowry said. “When the ambulance pulled up and they came in here, they said ‘Well, which one is it?’ because we all had blood all over us!” 

Next phase

The barber shop will not be reopening as such under its new ownership. Boardwalk Pizza and Pub, which operates in back of the building, has also announced it will be closing and looking for a new location as a result of the building being sold. 

The space has been purchased from Lowry by Abbey and Tara Prieto, owners of local restaurants The Shack and Cartecay River Pizza Company. The next phase for the historic building is a restaurant that will specialize in pizza and tapas, noted Abbey Prieto. 

“We’re doing an extension of Cartecay (Pizza),” she added. “It will be something a little different with pizza, small plates and a full bar.”

Prieto said it may be as early as April when work starts to get the new business up and running. The building is in downtown Ellijay’s historic district, and she wants the exterior to keep much the same look as it has now. 

“I’m very blessed and humbled to have this opportunity,” Prieto said.

Although Lowry will be hanging up her shears for the most part, Rose plans to open up his own barber shop after the closing. Lowry said they’ll be cutting hair on North Main Street till the very last day. 

“It’s been fun in here. I’ve had good times and sad times. I’ve lost a lot of family while working here, as well as friends and good customers. I do want to say that I’ve had a lot of great customers,” Lowry added.

Westmoreland said he’s agreed to be Lowry’s and the City Barber Shop’s last customer. He was also the first customer for Lowry’s son, John Henry Allen, when Allen used to barber there.

“I’m looking forward to it. It will be a happy thing and a sad thing,” Westmoreland said. “It’ll be sad to see it go because it’s been such a big part of the downtown scene for so long.”