Need a Haircut? Look for his Barber Pole
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Jerome Franklin, owner of the Starting Line Up barber shop downtown, soon will add the most iconic symbol of his industry to his shop – a barber pole.
The city Design Review Board gave Franklin permission Tuesday morning to install the red, white and blue pole outside his shop in Realty Tower, at a height at least 8 feet above the sidewalk.
“It’s the classic look. You drive down the street and see a barber pole and it stands out,” he said. “A lot of people don’t have barber poles anymore so it gives it that classic, traditional feel.”
The barber pole dates to the Middle Ages, when “barber-surgeons” performed such services as bloodletting and tooth extractions as well as haircuts and shaves.
The lighted, rotating pole – 23 inches high — will cost $350, and Franklin said he has seen them priced at more than $1,000. He said he would order the pole immediately after the meeting adjourned and install it upon arrival. The committee was enthusiastic about the addition to the downtown landscape.
“We have not done one of these before. That’s cool,” remarked John DeFrance, an architect with Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects, Youngstown, who serves on the committee.
Franklin, who has nine employees, moved the shop downtown a year ago this April. It had been on Hillman Way and Market Street.
“The place is hopping. He’s doing a good business there,” William D’Avignon, deputy planning director and chairman of the committee, reported.
Business is “great,” Franklin confirmed, “what I expected. But I also have room for more.”
Pictured: Jerome Franklin
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
