Spain

Spain’s Beauty Parlor was listed in the Green Book from 1947-1955 as “Spain—614 Atlantic Avenue” under “Beauty Shops” in Greenville.¹

Spain’s Beauty Parlor (also Spain Beauty Salon) was located at 614 Atlantic Avenue and was owned by Mrs. Mattie Spain. It was advertised with the slogan “where there’s beauty there is charm.” The business had four licensed operators in 1946 who specialized in curling, marcelling, finger waving, manicuring, and shampooing.²

The history of Spain’s Beauty Parlor is complicated. An advertisement in The Carolinian named Mrs. Mattie Spain as the owner of a Beauty Salon at 614 Atlantic Avenue in 1946. In the 1949 directory Mattie was listed as owning Lincoln Beauty Shop at 611 Atlantic Avenue (she was listed as working at Lincoln Beauty Shop in the 1947-1948 city directory; Ledora Hunter was listed as its owner). By 1951, Spain had opened Atlantic Sandwich Shop in the same building as Lincoln Beauty Shop. The sandwich shop closed around 1955; Lincoln Beauty Shop remained at 611 Atlantic Avenue until around 1957. In 1958, Spain moved her beauty shop to 611 Albemarle Avenue, located in “The Block” (an African American business district in what is now Uptown Greenville), and resumed using the business name “Spain’s Beauty Shop.” Spain closed the beauty shop altogether in the early 1960s and took a position as an agent with NC Mutual Life Insurance Company.³

Mary Mattie Barnhill Spain was born in 1910 in Pitt County. She grew up in Belvoir, Pitt County and moved to Greenville after marrying her husband, Tony Spain, in 1929. She passed away in 2001.⁴

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 65; Green, 1948 Green Book, 62; Green, 1949 Green Book, 56; Green, 1950 Green Book, 62; Green, 1951 Green Book, 53; Green, 1952 Green Book, 53; Green, 1953 Green Book, 53; Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53. 
2. “Spain Beauty Salon” (ad), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), September 7, 1946, 2 (digital image 10), accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
3. “Spain Beauty Salon” (ad), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), September 7, 1946, 2 (digital image 10), accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; Miller’s 1947-1948 Greenville City Directory, 207, 260 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1949-1950 Greenville City Directory, 227, 289 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1951-1952 Greenville City Directory, 108, 226 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1954-1955 Greenville City Directory, 108, 288 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1956-1957 Greenville City Directory, 328, 411 (alphabetical listing), 411 (street listing); Miller’s 1958-1959 Greenville City Directory, 339, 340 (alphabetical listing), 425, 427 (street listing); Miller’s 1960-1961 Greenville City Directory, 348 (alphabetical listing), 434, 435 (street listing); Miller’s 1962-1963 Greenville City Directory, 367 (alphabetical listing). 
4. Mary Mattie Barnhill, August 22, 1910, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Birth Indexes, 1800-2000, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, Belvoir, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Mattie Barnhill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Mattie Barnhill and Tonnie Spain, January 5, 1929, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2001, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Mattie Barnhill Spain, May 15, 2001, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com.