Steve’s Barber Shop Closes After 48 Years of Business

Saturday marked the end of a classic barber shop in Yakima that operated for nearly fifty years, but will now be a memory for many who frequented the social hub.

Steve's Barber Shop on Walnut Street across from Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center closed on Saturday and regularly served everyone from prominent professionals like doctors, lawyers and judges to common, everyday people, reports The Yakima Herald Republic. 

The topics at Steve's Barber Shop ranged from politics to how the Seahawks were playing with customers who were regulars for decades.

Brian Kores is a 45-year-old forklift driver whose late father was a regular at the shop and brought him at the age of 1 and continued his haircuts here ever since.

Having the shop close is heartbreaking for Kores who continued to come for his haircut as a memory of his father-and-son bonding.

Modern barbershops tend to be open for both men and women and offer more cosmetology and spa services, so the closing of Steve's shop is another sign of the end of an era for small, old-time corner barbershops that focus on men.

It's the same barbershop with little change since it opened in 1965 which makes it a piece of local history full of nostalgia and stories.

Some of the regulars at the shop over the years included the late Jimmy Nolan Jr., a Yakima television personality who hosted a children’s show on Channel 29 called “Jimmy’s Clubhouse,” U.S. District Judge Michael Leavitt, who died in June 2007, as well as former Yakima County prosecutor and retired U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan before he moved away.

Richardson plans on traveling now, but Charles Kirkpatrick, executive director of the National Association of Barber Boards of American in Arkadelphia, Arkansas doesn't believe Richardson will be able to be away for 90 days before he is right back to clipping hair.