Holman's Barber Shop
National Register Listing
Street Address:
2128 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC (Richland County)
Alternate Name:
Holman Barber & Hair Styling;Modernistic Beauty Salon;Ret's Beauty Box
NRHP Nomination Form
Record Number:
S10817740181
Description and Narrative:
Holman's Barber Shop is significant at the local level for its association with Black barber shops' and beauty salons' important functions within African American communities, and its connection with Columbia's segregation history. Operating for over seventy years within Lower Waverly, Holman's Barber Shop reflects Black barber shops' vital roles within local African American communities and is one of the only mid-century Black-owned barber shops in Columbia known to still stand and have integrity to its earliest years of operation. Holman's provided Black Columbians and other African Americans with an alternative public space where patrons could meet, freely converse, and receive quality, convenient service without fear of the harassment and degradation that often awaited them in similar white-controlled establishments. The operation of first Ret's Beauty Box and later the Modernistic Beauty Salon in the other half of the building provides a parallel story of beauty care, social history, and upward economic mobility for Black women. The hollow concrete block commercial building endures as a reminder of Black entrepreneurship in the face as adversity and of African Americans' broader resistance to the system of segregation. The building's exterior remains largely unchanged since construction, with minimal cosmetic updates, and it overall retains its historic integrity from the period of significance. Listed in the National Register September 10, 2021.
Period of Significance:
1945 – 1975
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Ethnic Heritage: Black;Social History
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
2021-09-10
Date of Boundary Increase:
No Boundary Increase
County:
Richland County
