Century-old William Byrd Hotel Barber Shop shuttering as landlord seeks new operator

The nearly 100-year-old storefront with striped barber’s pole fronts Davis Avenue off Broad Street. (Jonathan Spiers photos)

It’s not the first time in its nearly 100-year history that the William Byrd Hotel Barber Shop has closed its doors, but for patrons and employees of the old-school, walk-in-style hair salon, they hope it won’t be the last time.

The longtime barbershop on Davis Avenue, in the base of the former hotel high-rise across Broad Street from the Science Museum of Virginia, is shuttering at the close of business Saturday as the current leaseholders and owners look to line up a new operator.

Bill Robertson, who with his wife, Denise, took on the barbershop last year when it was slated to close after another operator change, said they elected not to renew their lease because of personal reasons and economic factors that are requiring them to focus on their other salon, Brovado Barbershop in Midlothian.

Bill Robertson

“Given the economic climate and the uncertainty, and personal things going on with us, we just felt we couldn’t at this time renew that lease and commit to another term,” Robertson said.

“The decision didn’t come lightly. The reasons we really wanted to take it on was for the same reasons that everybody wants to see it stay open,” he said. “We had to focus on (Brovado), because we’re seeing it out here: Everybody’s having to choose between gas, groceries and a haircut.”

However, the William Byrd barbershop may not be closed long, as Robertson said he has a meeting next week with the building’s property manager, Epoch Properties, and a potential new operator that he said is one of several who have expressed interest in taking it on.

“Nothing’s done yet, but I’d give it a better than 50-50 chance,” Robertson said of the prospective operator he’s meeting with, who he’d contacted to help put out feelers. “I had just reached out to him asking him to put the word out, and he said, ‘Well, heck, I might just be interested myself.’

“It’s more of just a change of hands,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be closed for any significant length of time.”

Ivona Preisner hugs a client goodbye after his haircut Thursday.

That’s welcome news to the barbershop’s longtime patrons, as well as to its barbers and stylists, some of whom have worked there for decades.

Ivona Preisner, who has cut hair there for nearly 20 years, said word of the barbershop’s impending closure spread quickly among its clients, who she said range from residents of the renovated building’s senior apartments to all ages from across metro Richmond.

“We have lots of unhappy people who’ve been coming here for years,” Preisner said of the patrons who want to see the shop kept open. “Customers have been coming here for a long time. The grandparents came, then the father, now their children come and they bring in their children.”

Preisner has worked at William Byrd Hotel Barber Shop for nearly 20 years.

With the news that its doors may be reopened soon, Preisner added while tending to one customer’s hair, “At least we get a little smidgen of hope, because last week we didn’t have no hope. We thought we were all going to be out of a job, which nobody wants to be out of a job before the holidays.”

Matt DeWorken of Epoch Properties, which manages the building for owner William Byrd Hotel Associates, said the goal is to keep the barbershop open, as it essentially has been since the hotel opened in 1925.

“We’re having a meeting next week with a potential operator, and we’ll see where that goes,” DeWorken said. “We definitely want it to stay open, but somebody’s got to have the right licensing, insurance and whatnot to keep it up and running.”

Robertson said he and his wife searched for a manager who could run the barbershop full-time but could not find a qualified candidate before they gave their notice last month to William Byrd Hotel Associates. The entity, which also owns and leases the barbershop, is made up Virginia Community Development Corp. and housing nonprofit Project:Homes, which renovated the 11-story building in 1996 and again in 2017, when they wrapped up an 18-month, $5 million upgrade.

The 11-story former hotel across from the Science Museum of Virginia is now apartments for seniors.

“The staff there is mainly just part time, so what it really needs is a full-time person who can be there and really commit to turning it around,” Robertson said. “The decision didn’t come lightly. We definitely wanted to try to see it through, and that’s why we worked to find someone else to take it over, because we wanted to see it continue. We just knew that we weren’t the ones to be able to do that.”

Kimberly Cogbill, a cosmetologist and barber who has worked at William Byrd since the Robertsons took it over a year and a half ago, credited the couple for keeping the barbershop open. She said it closed for a time after the departure of previous operator Joanne Williams, who took it on after longtime barber William “Willie” Carlton.

Kimberly Cogbill, left, with Ivona Preisner and a client.

“They saved it,” Cogbill said of the Robertsons, noting improvements including an online booking system and new and refurbished barber chairs provided by the landlord.

“I guess the pandemic hit everybody hard. They just want to handle that one,” she said, referring to Brovado. “A lot of these people have been here forever and they’re just shocked. But we’re hoping that someone will take over and we can just have a smooth turnover.”

Willie Carlton outside the barbershop. (Obituary photo)

Carlton, who owned the barbershop from 1960 to 1995, had worked there since 1948 and continued to up until his death from cancer in 2013.

News clippings posted in the shop note Carlton’s and the barbershop’s history and clients, which over the years included former governors Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe.

“We’re getting new people all the time,” said Cogbill, who said she cut McAuliffe’s hair during his term. “We have our regulars. We have four or five generations up in here.”

Cogbill said she’ll be working Saturday before the doors are closed at 1 p.m. Of the barbershop’s future, Cogbill added: “I have faith. It’s been here since 1925.”