Feature Exhibits – gradyhistory.org

The Barbershop

It's a small town; everybody eats in the same cafe; everybody gets their hair cut in the same barber shop. That kind of community building, I think, begins to bridge those gaps.

Joe Thompson

The museum’s exhibition of a full-service barber shop was a functioning enterprise for 79 years. Opening its doors in 1921 with four professional barbers by owner Ben Lundy, it remained in operation until it was donated to the Grady County Historical Society in 2010. In the 1920s it was considered “the most modern barber shop south of Atlanta.”

In 1936 the barber shop was purchased by Frank Massey and maintained by him until his death in 1965. One of his barbers, Winfred Robinson, bought the business and ran it until his retirement in 2010.

Long a popular Saturday stop for generations of Grady Countians it became much more than a just a place to get a haircut or a shave. Much like Floyd’s barber shop in Mayberry, it became the local information hub where people could catch up on the latest news and gossip. While they waited, pairs of combatants would play checkers while a group of kibitzers would gather around them and tell them what they were doing wrong.

Frequently, people still come to the barber shop’s front door attempting to get a haircut. When told that it is no longer a working establishment they will often tell the staff how they came there as a boy. They would relate how they would climb up the chair to sit on the board that elevated them to the height where the barber could ply his trade and receive their first haircut while their mother sat nearby crying.

Today, barbers from near and far visit the old Graco barber shop to see the former tools of their trade. Architects and contractors from other locations come to take pictures to assist in their local restoration efforts. And little boys come in with their dads and grandfathers and try to imagine a Saturday afternoon in a small crowded barbershop filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of another time.

Rooms of the Past

Food brings back memories. I had a mom that wasn't a good cook, so I would eat my grandma's food. It was amazing because it brings back a time almost in Technicolor. I see her house, I see her stove; I think about what it felt like when I was sick, and it felt like love.

– Debi Mazar

The newly renovated West Gallery features recreations of rooms from typical homes at the turn of the last century. The four rooms and back porch faithfully portray a living room, dining room, bed room, and kitchen. Each sectioned off area was carefully researched and assembled by Grady County Historical Society board members to best represent home-life in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

The kitchen scene is especially detailed with a cast iron wood burning stove and a wooden icebox. The back porch is complemented with nearby wash pots, an old well, and an outhouse. The bedroom has two chamber pots, a bed warmer, and an antique iron bed among other furnishings. The dining room is furnished in a somewhat later period and represents a more upscale lifestyle. The living room is a cozy representation of an evening by the fireplace after a hard day of work.

Grady Crossing Railroad

The one moral, the one remedy for every evil, social, political, financial, and industrial, the one immediate vital need of the entire Republic, is the railroad.

– Rocky Mountain News 1866

First donated to the Museum in 2012 and subsequently through the following years, the collection of authentically recreated scale models of historic trains delights young and old visitors. Consisting of five fully functioning trains and meticulously detailed scenery, the set up was donated by former resident Hampton Ward, now of Atlanta.

Historically accurate trains depict the actual life-sized cars that served this area of South Georgia. Of special interest is a replica of the old Pelham and Havana Railroad which, although never completed, served most of the projected route for a decade. Nicknamed the “Poor and Hungry” from its initials, the railroad is legendary for the personal service it provided to area residents.

Other railroad memorabilia donated by Mr. Ward details the history and romance of the rails, its daily operations, and mechanics. Signal lanterns, spikes, flagman and conductor uniforms, china cups and saucers, signs, schedules, original photographs, and much more recreate the sights and sounds of a bygone era. Children come in with their parents and grandparents to see the trains but all leave with the childlike wonder of the rails in their eyes.