Joseph Papin’s drawing of the Bowery from yesterday’s post (March 27, 2024) includes a row of buildings – two of which housed the Tri-City Barber School – 206 and 204.
The NYC gov website lists the address of the School as 206 Bowery – “Tri-City Barber School (c. 1933-46” (https://www.nyc.gov/assets/lpc/downloads/pdf/proposed_landmarks/206 Bowery House.pdf). Indeed, the 1933 photograph from the New York Public Library collection shows the Tri-City Barber School at 206 Bowery (as well as a competing one, the Central Barber School, located at 200 Bowery). The earlier photograph used in Windows on the Bowery, (Bowery Alliance of Neighbors), also shows the Tri-City Barber School located at 206 Bowery.
However, this location changed to 204 Bowery. A 1949 column, “My New York” by Mel Heimer, reads:
“One of the business establishments [on the Bowery] is the Tri-City barber school at 204 Bowery, where about a hundred earnest young men meet daily and learn how to be, as we say, tonsorial artists [the work of those who give shaves and haircuts].
“The Bowery is a fine place for barber schools, because there are always countless be-stubbled citizens on hand who are willing to risk their lives under the tyro’s razor in return for a free shave [tyro means novice].” (Mel Heimer, My New York, printed in The Kane Republican, Kane, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1949). Note that “Windows on the Bowery” also shows the Tri-City Barber Shop at 204 Bowery (https://www.boweryalliance.org/windows-on-the-bowery/#p-34 in their 1975 photo) as does this little close-up section of Joseph Papin’s drawing:
According to Esther Crain (Ephemeral New York), the Museum of the City of New York’s updated Changing New York states: “Upon completion of a 10-week course, a student was a ‘full-fledged professional barber’ and could find a job at a starting union wage of $22.50 per week.”
Joseph Papin, “Eddie, the chair salesman”, next to the sign for “Tri-City Barber School, 204 [Bowery].”
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