De Van Beauty Shoppe, located at 70 N. Howard Street in Akron and managed by Mrs. C.S. (Chrisella Spencer) Hendricks, held an opening on April 19, 1937. Ads appeared for the beauty shop in the Akron Beacon Journal in August 1939 and in the Call and Post from January to March 1940. The Call and Post ads list Mrs. C.S. Hendricks as manager and Gleda (Coleman) Taylor (graduate of Erma Lee’s School of Beauty Culture) and Louise Riley as operators. De Van Beauty Shoppe was also listed in the 1940 Akron Negro Directory under Beauty Shoppes and in the Akron City Directories for 1938-1939 (shop address 70 N. Howard and home address 518 Crouse are listed in the entry under Hendricks, Mrs. Chrisella). A separate ad was also included in the 1940 Akron Negro Directory for Mrs. C.S. Hendricks, beautician, at the 70 N. Howard Street address, with the tagline “We go a long way to make friends.”
In the Akron City Directories for 1939-1940 through 1946 the beauty shoppe is listed under DeVan, with same address of 70 N. Howard and then is listed at 41 ½ N. Howard for 1948-1949. There are no more De Van entries after 1949. In the 1951-1952 directory, Mrs. Hendricks is listed as a beautician at Mathews Beauty Parlor, so it Is likely De Van closed at some point between 1949-1951. 70 N. Howard St. is the same address as the Ritz Theater, which opened in 1949 according to the Akron Beacon Journal, so it is possible the shop was displaced to the 41 ½ N. Howard location by the new theater or due to Mrs. Hendricks’ divorce proceedings as described in a Call and Post article.
After the 1951-1952 Akron City Directory edition, Chrisella Hendricks was listed as an operator for Mathews Beauty Parlor in subsequent editions until her death in 1967. Born in Alabama around 1901, she was married to Lovell Hendricks in 1928 and had two sons. She was active in the beauty industry in Akron, serving as vice president of the Akron Chapter of the Ohio Association of Beauticians for 1938 and as a member of the Akron Business Alliance. She also attended a Beauticians convention in Toledo in 1941, gave testimony regarding legislation affecting the beauty industry in the state of Ohio and was active with other community events including a youth vocational opportunities forum in conjunction with the Akron Community Services Center. She was later active in the Glamourette Beauticians Club. After her divorce, she became head of her household as noted in the 1950 Census records with her occupation listed as beautician. She passed away in 1967.
Green Book Details
De Van Beauty Shoppe appears in the Green Book as Beauty Salon from 1939 to 1949 at 70 N. Howard St. in Akron under the category Beauty Parlors.
Resources
- Advertisements for De Van Beauty Shoppe. Akron Beacon Journal. August 4 and 6, 1939.
- Advertisements for De Van Beauty Shoppe/Shop. Call & Post. December 23 and 30, 1937, January 6, 1938, January 11, 18, and 25, 1940, February 1, 8, 15, and 29, 1940.
- Akron City Directory, 1935 – 1969.
- “Beauticians Push New Organization.” Call & Post. March 17, 1938.
- “Business Alliance Outgrowth of Recent Business Clinic Here.” Call & Post. July 13, 1946.
- “Church Splits as Husband Names Pastor as Homewrecker!” Call & Post. September 3, 1949.
- Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photograph Collection, Box 9, Folder 398B, University of Akron Archives and Special Collections.
- Kingsberry, A., ed. Akron Negro Directory. Akron, OH: Kingsberry, 1940.
- Marriage Record for Chrisella Spencer. Summit County Court of Common Pleas – Probate Division; Akron, Ohio; Vol 54, 1928, Summit County, Ohio, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com.
- “Mrs. Frances Samples.” Call & Post. August 2, 1941.
- “Mrs. Sherrill Makes Impassioned Plea for Negro Beauty Operators at Final Hearings on Ohio Wage-Hour Ruling.” Call & Post, March 29, 1941.
- “Negro Forum Set Tonight.” Akron Beacon Journal. March 20, 1947.
- Obituary for Chrisella Hendricks. Akron Beacon Journal. July 9, 1967.
- Price, Mark J. “Local History: Akron Landmarks in Black History.” Akron Beacon Journal. February 28, 2022. www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2022/02/28/black-history-akron-landmarks-martin-luther-king-sojourner-truth-frederick-douglass-lebron-james/6909705001/.
- “Second annual masquerade charity dance of Glamourette Beauticians Club.” Akron Beacon Journal. October 29, 1958.
- “To Open New Beauty Salon.” Call & Post. April 15, 1937.
- 1940 United States Federal Census for Chrisella Hendricks, Akron, Summit, Ohio; Roll: m-t0627-03177; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 89-110, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com.
- 1950 United States Federal Census for Chrisella Hendricks, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Akron, Summit, Ohio; Roll: 1217; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 89-243, [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com.