You might say that Grant Kendall shapes history by cutting hair at his small Springfield barber shop along Route 66.
“This is really just an old-fashioned barber shop like it was in the ‘40s,” Kendall says. “Everything is all the same – all this stuff is original.”
“Except his prices,” one customer jokes.
Grant Kendall owns Springfield’s Route 66 Barber Shop, a business that began along Route 66 in 1948.
There’s just one chair in the small shop, where the 37-year-old, third-generation barber serves customers from a menu of barber-shop fare: Cuts, trims and shaves with a straight-edge razor. And with each one, he continues a story started in Springfield back in 1948.
“When you come in here, I treat you like a neighbor,” Kendall says. “I think we do sell a good haircut here, but we specialize in relationships.”
There’s just been three owners of the small shop on west College Street – also known as Route 66 – since its start just after World War II.
According to Springfield newspapers, it was founded by Milford Mullen, who built the shop in 1948; in 1955, son Don Mullen joined him, and ultimately cut hair for more than 55 years.
Related Post: 6 Facts to Know about Springfield's Shrine Mosque
In 2011, when the younger Mullen decided it was time to retire, the Springfield News-Leader did a story on the milestone moment, concluding with Mullen’s hope for the future:
“As for the barber shop, Don hopes to rent it out, perhaps to a young new barber who’ll set his sights on a 60-year career,” the article concluded.
That article caught the eye of Kendall’s father, who was a barber in Kimberling City at the time. Back then, the younger Kendall was in his early 20s and a barber in St. Louis, and his dad thought the Springfield shop might be a good next step.
“My dad calls me that day and says, ‘Listen, you need to 411 a guy named Don Mullen,’” Kendall recalls.
He did, and they worked out a deal. Just a few weeks after the article ran, Kendall was cutting hair in the longtime Springfield shop.
The Influence of Route 66
Route 66 Barber Shop is located along west College Street.
One might say that Route 66 has been in the shop’s background since its start, but that’s not true – it’s in its front yard, so to speak. The shop’s spot on the famed Mother Road has forever connected it not only with Springfieldians in the north-side neighborhood, but the rest of the country and beyond.
“When the Ozark Jubilee was going strong, lots of people would come into town on Route 66,” Mullen said in that 2011 News-Leader article. “Now I look out the window and there’s tour buses stopping by. They’ll get out and take pictures and occasionally come over here to take pictures with me.”
Related Post: Rockwood Motor Court inducted into Historic Hotels of America
The relevance of Route 66 to the barber shop has changed with time. Today, the Mother Road stop draws tourists and travelers as well as folks from right down the street.
About 15 years later, those tourists are still coming, Kendall says. A draw is a mural painted by local artist Farley Lewis on the building’s west side proclaims it as the “Oldest Barber Shop in Springfield” with “On Rte 66” in small letters underneath. (At least one operating shop beats it for oldest in greater Springfield. That’s the Walnut Street Barber Shop, which opened in 1943.)
“I was a young kid and had a great idea about the mural,” Kendall says. “And then now that's brought me people from China, Spain, just all over the world, and then that's put me on a global platform, such as different magazines and different newspapers.”
But, still: “This is a neighborhood barbershop that I've been blessed with,” Kendall emphasizes.
Related Post: Route 66 Car Museum in Springfield ties to one man’s passion
Homemade connections
Customers often sit and wait for their haircut or shave — and that’s part of the experience.
But it’s really not about the novelty at the barber shop, which is typically filled with local guys who often live nearby. Waiting may be part of the draw for customers, who come through the door and settle into a chair until it’s their turn.
“The reason I came back – after last time, I just felt really good,” says John Barrera, on his second visit, who stopped by for a shave. “You know, it feels good while you're here, and that feels good when you leave, you're gonna come back.”
On the flip side, another customer has been coming in since 1969. That year, he got out of the Air Force and moved down the street from the shop.
“He does a good job,” he says of Kendall.
Route 66 Barber Shop’s has a “Motivation Board” that showcases meaningful things Kendall has heard and wants to share with others.
Others’ time is counted through different metrics.
“It's been easy, two football seasons,” Kendall says in measuring how long customer John Isbell has been coming in. The two met through connections Kendall has with the pool-playing world. “So see, I'm thinking maybe three football seasons. Me and him go to football games together. I can accumulate how long I’ve known him because we say, ‘What about this team?’ ‘What about that team?’”
Over his years of ownership, Kendall has firmly established his own legacy at the shop. It shines through as he talks and works, so enthusiastic at times he could be compared with a preacher sharing the barber shop gospel.
“They know, if they come here, I'm always going to be pretty positive for the most part,” Kendall says. “Most people are God people that come in here. I'm a big God guy. I'm a conservative person, but I got people who aren't conservative come in here on that. But most people are ‘God’ people. If you come here, I'm gonna say, like, ‘Hey, God is gonna watch over you. I'm gonna pray for you, and I'm gonna do it.’”
One example of that faith is the divine guidance Kendall shares about how he came to own the barbershop and surrounding property from Mullen. After the young barber took over the shop, they had talked about some figures — but couldn’t agree on what a final price should be to officially sell the property.
“He says to me, ‘Grant, give me and my wife a couple of days, maybe even a week, we'll call you back. We'll give you a price,’” Kendall recounts. This time, he says, Kendall said he decided upon a number and told his dad and grandmother that if he was offered that price, he would take the deal.
“Don Mullen calls me back two days later, says, ‘Grant, this is the price me and my wife agreed on,’” Kendall recounts. “It was the same price that I said, ‘God if you give it to me, I'm pulling the trigger today.’
“God has a hand in all things we do, if we would allow Him to,” Kendall adds. “And it's a fact that I was a young kid getting out of barber school, and I needed a guy like Don Mullen, and God – He connected me and him, and ever since then, we've both been blessed.”
In a way, that faith is also seen on the shop’s motivation board, a small whiteboard near the door. In dry-erase marker, Kendall has penned thoughts that represent moments of inspiration in his life. One he points out is “Benefits are out of this world,” which he says was shared by a preacher who didn’t make much money.
“I was teasing him, and I said, ‘As rich as you are,’” Kendall notes. “He said, ‘Grant, my benefits – they're out of this world.’ I said, ‘I gotta write that down, right there on the board.’”
At the end of the day, while the shop is about a good haircut, it’s also about life.
“I think there's other barbers in this city that give good haircuts,” Kendall says. “I think that when you come here long enough, you're like family.”
Want to visit?
Springfield’s Route 66 Barber Shop is located at 2418 W. College St., Springfield. It’s open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
More Resources
