A place full of history — that is how owner Frank Meadows describes the recently closed Crosstown Barber Shop.
The barbershop opened in 1952 at Crosstown Shopping Center on 10th Street and remained there until it closed a few month ago due to an IU renovation project.
“It wasn’t just, if you need a haircut walk through my door,” Meadows said. “If you need to know where a hardware store is, walk in and I’ll tell you a great place to go. If you want to know a beautiful place to hike in the forest, walk in my door and I'll tell you where to go.”
Meadows, age 55, worked there for almost 32 years, starting as just a barber. Later, he took over the operation.
He said he became a barber because he likes interacting with people. Over the years, he said parents have came in and thanked him for how he helped their children while they were at IU.
Crosstown closing down did not come as a surprise to Meadows.
“I knew it was going to happen a long time ago, it was just a matter of when,” he said.
That did not make leaving any easier for him.
“It was very odd locking the door the last time,” he said. “After that many years, it was just weird knowing that was the last time I was locking the doors and walking away.”
Earlier this year, he was unable to work because of a shoulder surgery. During that time he put a sign up telling people to go to Bill’s Barber Shop on South College Avenue because he said he knew the owner Marilyn McGinnis did good work.
Since closing Crosstown, he started working at Bill’s Barber Shop.
“Once I came over and met her, it was a done deal,” he said. “She's a wonderful woman. We just combined two barbershops and two clientele.”
McGinnis told him that none of her clients were students but that has since changed.
Now, there have been days when there are more IU students in the shop than townspeople, he said.
McGinnis said she was lucky to get Meadows and his co-worker, Angela Calabrese, to move to Bill’s Barber Shop. Before that, she said they were planning on cutting back the hours they were open.
"It changed everything," she said.
Meadows said he will miss the history the shop had.
“Well known, quasi-famous people that came in there, we had all their pictures and all their autographs on the wall," Meadows said. "Everyone really liked it.”
Meadows said the photos and memorabilia that used to adorn the walls of the shop are all at his home except for two pictures, which now sit at his station at Bill's Barber Shop.
One is of a bobcat that lives in a cave behind his house.The other is a photo of IU President Michael McRobbie cutting his hair. McRobbie cut Meadows hair for a Locks of Love campaign 10 years ago. Meadows said he has been cutting McRobbie’s hair for over 20 years.
The photos show two things he loves — the outdoors and being a barber.
He said one thing he loved about cutting hair was all the different people he would meet.
“It was almost like going to school everyday,” he said. “There was always someone to learn from.”
One of his past clients was 2017 alumnus, Kevin Beckner. Beckner said he liked that he never knew what conversation he would have while he was there. Beckner said one conversation sticks out in his memory.
“We were talking about various things and he pulls out a book of all these pictures of caves that he has,” he said. “He walked me through all the different caves in southern Indiana, some of which he’d been through himself.”
Beckner said Crosstown had a classic barbershop feel and the colorful history of the location was apparent .
“I thought that was a very cool snapshot into IU history, that the same barbershop had been there for so long and served so many different generations,” he said.
Beckner said he was sad to hear the barbershop was closing — he came back time after time because they always did a great job.
“You always imagine that your alma mater is just exactly the same as you left it,” he said. “It’s a little sad to hear that it’s closing just because its been there for so long and it’s been a mainstay on IU campus.”
