Henry Smith Barber Shop
Known Name(s)
Henry Smith Barber Shop
Address
Mouldy Road Lawnside, NJ 08045 (Primary) (1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955)54 Mouldy Road Lawnside, NJ (Modern Address)
Establishment Type(s)
Barber Shop, Beauty Parlor
Physical Status
Extant
Description
1231 square foot single family home built ca 1925. Henry Smith's barbershop was in the basement while the enclosed front porch was Henrietta Smith's beauty salon.
Detailed History
Henry Smith’s barber shop was advertised in the Green Book from 1946 to 1955. Before and after those years, the Mouldy Road address was also home to Henry and his wife, Henrietta. The property was described as a 1,231 square foot single family dwelling, built circa 1925. While Henry ran a barbershop, Henrietta operated a beauty salon. Henry’s shop was in the basement and her salon was on the enclosed front porch. The shops had separate entrances; outside Henry’s shop stood a barber’s pole.[i]
Henrietta had owned the property for years before marrying Henry, and she had likely lived there with her first husband who was dead by 1930. Born in 1902, Henrietta was raised near Lawnside. She had attended Lawnside schools and was an Apex Beauty College graduate. Her parents were Howard and Edith (?) Davis. Henrietta (Davis) (Thomas) Smith died 15 September 1964.[ii]
Henry B. Smith was born and raised in Camden, New Jersey. His parents were Samuel G. and Tina G. (Jones) Smith. At age seventeen Henry worked in the shipyard as a laborer, and by age twenty-two, he was a full-time barber working from a shop on Ferry Avenue. When he married Henrietta in 1937, he was thirty-four. Theirs was her second marriage, his first. Henry was eighty-four when he died on 20 January 1987. [iii]
The Smiths one time home and business still stands on Mouldy Road. It is currently occupied as a private residence.
[i] The Negro Motorist Green Book, An International Travel Guide. New York: Victor H. Green and Co., Publishers, various years between 1936--1967. Digital images available at “Digital Collections,” New York Public Library (https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9dc3ff40-8df4-0132-fd57-58d385a7b928 : accessed 2/12/2023). See also: Zillow.com (https://www.zillow.com/homes/54-Mouldy-Rd-Lawnside,-NJ-08045_rb/38279237_zpid/ : accessed 12/26/2023), 54 Mouldy Road, Lawnside, New Jersey. See also: Mrs. Ellen Benson Lawnside, NJ, brief interview by Andrea N. McDonald, 26 January 2023; notes privately held by McDonald, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]. See also: 1940 U. S. census, Camden County, New Jersey, population schedule, Lawnside Borough, Enumeration District (ED) 4-89, sheet 11-B, household 197, Henry B. Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/23/2023), citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, roll 2322. And, 1950 U. S. census, Camden County, New Jersey, Lawnside, enumeration district (ED) 4-137, sheet 72, household 2, Henry B. Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/23/2023); citing National Archives microfilm T628, roll 5789.
[ii] 1930 U. S. census, Camden County, New Jersey, population schedule, Lawnside borough, Enumeration District (ED) 4-145, sheet 2-A, p. 221 (stamped), dwelling 25, family 26, Henrietta Thomas; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/23/2023), citing National Archives microfilm publication T626, roll 1324. See also: 1915 State Census, New Jersey, Camden County population schedule, Centre Township, p. 33-B, dwelling 747, family 750, line 87-89, Edith Davis household; digital image Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/22/2023). See also: New Castle County, Delaware, Marriages 1750-1954, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Hall of Records, Dover, Henry B. Smith-Henrietta Thomas, 11 January 1937; online images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 December 2023). And, “Mrs. Henrietta E. Smith,” The Courier Post, 17 September 1964, p.5, col.4; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 December 2023).
[iii] 1920 U. S. census, Camden County, New Jersey population schedule, Camden City, ED 57, sh. 5-B, dwell. 112, fam. 123, Tina G. Smith household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RNJ-ZQF?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AM45S-W7Q&action=view : accessed 12/10/2023), citing National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 1023. See also: 1930 U. S. census, Camden County, New Jersey, population schedule, Camden City, ED 38, sh. 10-A, p. 156 (stamped), dwell. 149, fam. 149, Tine Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/23/2023), citing National Archives microfilm publication
T626, roll 1321. See also: R. L Polk and Company of Philadelphia, Polk’s Greater Camden Directory, Vol. XXXIII, p. 1054; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12/23/2023). See also: “SMITH Henry B.,” The Courier Post, 22 January 1987, p. 21; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 December 2023). And, New Castle County, Delaware, certificate of marriage (1937), Smith-Thomas.
(c) By Andrea N. McDonald, Lawnside Historical Society
Written for the project, "Green Book Locations in Lawnside and Berlin," funded by the New Jersey Historical Commission
