Being recognized by the city for decades of service to their Pacoima neighborhood feels long overdue for the Carter family.
On Saturday, the city of Los Angeles honored Stylesville Barbershop & Beauty Salon with a landmark plaque memorializing its, “post-World War II development of the African American community in Pacoima.”
The Carter family gathered close relatives, years-long clients and friends for the big day. Bright purple and black balloons brought the shop to life, adding a festive touch to its faded paint and well-worn barber chairs.
“We are marking and permanently protecting Stylesville and documenting its rightful place in history as the oldest Black-owned business in the city of Los Angeles,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who represents Pacoima, said in a speech. “I’m incredibly proud to be here to help celebrate this moment with the entire family, and with our proud community that wants to continue to uplift these voices each and every day.”
First opened on Van Nuys Boulevard in 1957 by Freddie and Ollie Carter, Stylesville was the go-to spot for the latest hair styles during an era when the San Fernando Valley was heavily segregated. Freddie was 28 at the time, and according to a story in The Times, “scores of black-owned businesses ran along the boulevard.”
Ollie Carter, 94, still owns the shop, and Barron Ward, 63, who grew up in Pacoima in the ‘60s, said she gave him his first perm.
“Oh man, across the street in 1967, me and my brothers used to come here every single weekend. Freddie, the owner, used to sit us on this little wood thing to get a haircut,” Ward said. “Mrs. Carter put a perm in my hair in ‘79. I had the perm and then I went bald after that, cut it off.”
Like many who knew Freddie, Ward said he was always looking out for his people.
Ward, who owned multiple cars at one point, was called out by Freddie, who encouraged him to invest his money in property instead.
“I love him for that,” Ward said.
Fred and Ollie’s daughter, Nella Carter, 75, said her parents moved the shop from across the street to its current location in 1977. The couple took over The Dew Drop Inn, a jukebox joint, and turned it into a beauty salon. As the years went by, the Carters purchased the building next door, turning it into a barbershop.
Lois Barnes, Carter’s goddaughter, said her parents took her to the beauty salon countless times.
“My family came to Pacoima in 1952, when it was nothing but dirt roads and no streetlights,” Barnes said. “It was easy to grow up here because we could be kids. You know, back that way, there were a lot of fruit trees, mountains where our parents would go jack rabbit hunting, and all kinds of stuff like that. It was really, really nice.”
Barnes said her godparents were, “instrumental in building this whole community.”
“They’ve always given to the community. When people couldn’t afford to get their haircuts, food and stuff, they were always there for them,” Barnes said. “You could see Freddie Carter just about anywhere doing anything for this city. That’s what everybody says.”
A picture of Freddie Carter inside the barbershop has a news clip in its corner from a 1987 L.A. Weekly article featuring Stylesville.
“Since the 1890s, for black men new in town locating the right neighborhood barber to properly tend to your fade was more important than securing a subscription to a daily newspaper,” the article by Lynell George read. “Not just a place for a quick trim and shave, the corner barbershop served as an invaluable information pipeline. This central meeting became an ersatz social club for a group of regulars whose lively discussions ranged from current events to up-to-the-minute gossip.”
Ronald Love, 78, from Pacoima, stopped by the shop everyday after school in the ’50s, and fondly remembers, “meeting everybody.” Darrell Morris Jr, 62, from Oxnard, still drives to the shop every weekend, and says Stylesville stands as a monument to the importance of Black preservation.
“Being a part of this community…there’s no other place like it,” Morris, who grew up in the house behind Stylesville, said. “A lot of people come back here to visit, who still have homes here, some with sporadic businesses. It’s reshaped the dynamic of how people get along.”
Morris said he’s seen all the changes Pacoima has gone through — including a demographic shift.
By the 1960s and ‘70s, tensions between the growing Latino population and Black residents erupted. In the 1980s, the Black population fell from 20% to 10%, according to The Times. Today, Pacoima is about 90% Latino, according to United States Census data.
“I look at them as my new friends. It’s a cycle, that’s all,” Carter told The Times in 1999. “Hispanics were here, then we came in, now the Blacks have sold almost all the businesses. Most of the Blacks who owned things around here are, well, you know . . . they died. I was a lot younger than most of them when I started here.”
Ward notes that many Black-owned businesses have disappeared from the area. Nella adds that only the pawn shop up the street remains from those days — though it’s no longer run by original owner.
Rita Cofield from the Getty Conservation Institute said Stylesville symbolizes the enduring presence of the Black community in Pacoima. The plaque, she added, “is a beacon of hope.”
Nella took over the shop after her parents retired. Freddie died in 2004, and when Nella needed to care for her aging mother, Nella’s son, Gregory Faucett stepped up to take Nella’s place. She occasionally cuts hair by appointment.
“My grandmother and grandfather did a lot in this community,” Faucett said as he shyly addressed the crowd from, “the bottom of my heart.”
As people made their way to the front of the shop for the plaque reveal, Cultural Heritage Commission President Barry Milofsky, turned to Faucett.
“You kept it alive,” Milofsky said of Stylesville.
“That’s my main thing,” Faucett said.
Faucett pushed his grandmother outside the shop in her wheelchair, and together they unveiled the plaque alongside Councilmember Rodriguez.
“You did it,” Faucett whispered to his grandmother.
The duo stared up in the sky as dozens of lilac balloons burst into the sky.
“I have no words, just thank you,” Ollie said.
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