Jacksonville Barbershop

Did you know that Jacksonville has had a barber shop since the 1850s?

The shop itself has moved around a bit for most of the time it has stayed in its current vicinity, moving between 135, 145, 155, and 157 W. California Street and the ground floor of the 1870s Masonic Hall.   

One of the longest serving barbers, and the first town barber “with training,” was George Schumpf.  In 1873 he purchased Blackwell’s barbershop lodged in the notorious El Dorado Saloon.  The saloon stood on the corner of California and Oregon streets from 1852 until the building was destroyed in the town fire of 1874 along with most of the town’s early wooden structures,

Schumpf immediately rebuilt, erecting the brick structure at 157 W. California, and by November of that year he was occupying his new brick establishment.  In addition to shaves and haircuts for men (and women), patrons could also enjoy “neat bathing rooms and bathtubs” where they could obtain “a bath, hot or cold.”  Although Schumpf lost ownership of his shop in in 1882 due to poor business speculations, he remained “the town barber” until his death in 1897. 

We know that a Mr. Murphy was operating the barbershop in 1911 at the current site, and that a William Puhl was subsequently the barber (and subject to a rather messy Halloween trick—see our Holiday History website page). In the 1930s the barbershop occupied a shop facing S. Oregon Street in the Masonic Hall, and in the 1950s, the barbershop briefly occupied a building at the corner of North 4th and California (our current People’s Bank) before returning to its current location.