Historic Williamstown Barbershop Changing Clippers
 Roger St. Pierre, left, shakes hands with new barbershop owner Duane Griffiths. Empirecutz will open under Griffiths' management on Tuesday. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The longest operating business on Spring Street has changed hands.
St. Pierre's Barbershop, founded in 1915, will no longer exist as such.
After owning and operating the family barbershop for 38 years, Roger St. Pierre, 65, has sold the business to Duane Griffiths of North Adams who will rename it.
"Duane is a good fit and I'm confident he will have respect for and continue the traditions of St. Pierre's Barbershop," St. Pierre said last week as he and Griffiths met at the barbershop.
Griffiths, a barber for nine years, two as a master barber, graduated from Rob Roy Academy, a hair and beauty school in Worcester.
"This is my first business venture by myself," he said. "I have been a barber so long I feel I have all the knowledge to run a shop. It has been a dream of mine since I was old enough to go to the barbershop by myself."
In the years Griffiths' dream was on hold for a couple of reasons, he worked as a certified nursing assistant and an ambulance driver, cutting hair only on weekends.
"My wife motivated me to go back to school to become a full-fledged barber," he said.
Now that Griffiths has an opportunity to name his own barbership, the sign in front will read Empirecutz Barbershop.
"Empirecutz is not just a name. I'm also thinking of the Empire State Building," he said.
The Empire State Building was not far from the Bronx, where Griffith, a native of Jamaica, grew up. At the age of 21, he moved to the Berkshires and now lives in North Adams with his wife and their three children, two boys and a girl.
"The boys will come to the barbershop to 'supervise,' sweep the floor and keep the lollipop jar filled," said Griffiths.
As a youngster, Griffiths spent a lot of time in the neighborhood barber shop.
"It was a good place to hang out," he said, implying he could not fall into trouble there.
Here in Williamstown, Griffiths and St. Pierre first met in February, when Griffiths visited the barbershop.
"Around that time I had reluctantly put an ad in a local paper for the sale of the barbershop," St.Pierre recalled.
He already had cut back on the number of hours the barbershop was open in a precursor to retirement.
"It was a busy day when Duane came to the shop. He said he just wanted to look around," St. Pierre said, and added with a smile, "and look at us today."
But it was not the ad that lead Griffiths to visit the barbershop.
"I went to Spring Street to see a space that was for rent. The owner of that building told me that Roger wanted to sell his barbershop," Griffiths explained.
St. Pierre took more into consideration than the strictly business aspects of selling the barbershop.
"From our first meeting, I got good vibes from Duane that he would be a good guy for the shop," St. Pierre said. "A barber needs to be able to talk to people – be a people person. You can read the papers and get pretty jaded, but when you get to talk to people on a one on one level, you find out there's a lot of nice people in this world and that we all have something in common.
"Duane is only 32. He will build a lot of friendships and a life here."
One of the thing Griffiths likes about being a barber, he said, is that the stories you hear are all different.
The barbershop's clientele can expect to soon find new comfortable chairs in the waiting area as Griffiths will make cosmetic changes to the shop.
But he said he would keep to the important and sentimental traditions of St. Pierre's Barbership, including friendliness and good service.
One of those traditions will be "the Walk," a Williams College custom dating back to 1971.
The Ephs football team, after winning a game at Weston Field, walk to St. Pierre's to engage in harmless fun, such as warbling songs and upperclassmen cutting freshmen hair.
Sports Illustrated called it "the best postgame tradition in America."
St. Pierre's legacy also will not be forgotten nor will its history," Griffiths said. "It helped pave the way for Empirecutz Barbershop's vision to come to fruition."
Empirecutz will open on Tuesday, April 21. Thereafter the shop will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 to 5.
Roger St. Pierre will work Mondays in transition to retirement, as part of an agreement between the new owner and former owner.
Tags: barber, barbershop, new owner, spring street,
