Apex Beauty Parlor
Known Name(s)
Apex Beauty Parlor
Address
211 W. Main Charlottesville, VA
Establishment Type(s)
Beauty Parlor
Physical Status
Extant
Description
This building is an Italianate two-story, two-bay, fourteen foot wide structure. It has pressed brick laid in running bond, a metal cornice, and a recessed east side entrance.
Detailed History
According to a 1979 survey on the City of Charlottesville website, 211 West Main was a tailor shop, then a jewelry store from 1931 - 1948 then an optometrist office from 1950 - 1978. A.G. Bennett, tailor, owned the building from 1910 through at least the survey year, 1979. This address now houses the four-room Townsman boutique hotel. City Directories in 1938, 1940, and 1942 list the Apex address as 279 W. Main, not 211 W. Main. In the 1950, 1951, and 1953 directories, the Apex has the same address as the Carver Inn, 701 Preston Ave.
City Directories indicate that Fowlkes may have operated the Apex for much of its history. The 1950 City Directory also lists her name under the Carver Inn. In 1959, under her name it says “Carver Inn and Carver Inn Beauty Shop” with the address of 701 Preston Ave. Per Ancestry, Beatrice was married to Ivan Fowlkes, they had one daughter, Pearl. Ivan died in 1944; Beatrice died in 1969.
As for Bennett, who apparently owned the property, the 1920 census lists Arcle G. Bennett, Swedish, as a tailor born circa 1870 who rents a house on Dice Street. in 1920. In 1920, A. Gilbert Bennett, a Swedish tailor born in 1871, is the only person in his household on Main Street. The 1930 census places retired, single, Swedish tailor A. Gilbert Bennett, born circa 1870, in the Bennett Building at 257 West Main Street (was this a different building or was the street renumbered?). Two nephews, Henry, age 13, and Axel, age 15, live in his household. Everyone on this census page is white. The 1940 census lists Alex G. Bennett, age 74, as living in the Martha Jefferson Hospital, where he has lived since 1935.
