When Rick Meier first opened Rick’s Roffler barbershop in 1975, the south side, he said, didn’t have a whole lot going on.
While much has changed over the years, much also remains the same. Restaurants, bars, and dairies have come and gone, community gardens have succumbed to retail, and several businesses, like Meier’s, are still thriving.
On June 5, Meier will celebrate his 50th year of cutting hair on Park Street.
For most of his professional career, he’s owned the small, corner building at 1305 S. Park St., in a building he says once housed a Tastee-Freez.
An avenue of change
Ice cream must have been particularly popular back then. Meier recalls an ice cream shop at Bancroft Dairy that “would blow your mind.” It only offered ice cream cones, he noted, but people came from all around to get a tasty treat. A Borden’s Dairy was also not too far away. “We used to get ice cream there, too.”
Remnants of the old “Bush,” or the Greenbush neighborhood, which housed much of Madison’s immigrant population at one time, were reflected in restaurants such as Namio’s Supper Club and Josie’s Spaghetti House. There were other changes as well. “We had a pancake house by the Labor Temple, and there was a grocery store where the post office was.”
At one point, he said, there were 13 different medical-related offices on Park Street, from a hearing aid business to the hospitals, and a multitude of gas stations earned the street’s nickname of “gasoline alley,” he said.
Several businesses still remain, like Quality Hardware. Other long-timers he mentions are Hill Electric, Triggs Plumbing, Fraboni’s, and H&H Heating.
“Even then, Park Street was the gateway to the city.” Still, he said, people kept asking why he wanted to locate on the south side, where crime waves ebbed and flowed. “I once thought of moving to the west side because crime was so bad. Luckily, it never affected my business. ”
But it got pretty close.
A Fotomat kiosk used to be located in the Rick’s Roffler parking lot. “One day, the Fotomat lady came over. She was real quiet. ‘Would you call the police?’ she asked? I asked why. ‘I just got robbed,’ she said. That was the only time we ever had an issue.”
As president of the area’s local business association for two years, Meier said the group focused on attracting businesses to the south side. “There was a time when Park Street was considered a bad area,” he noted. “I told the mayor once to change the street name to Park Avenue, or something else. We were afraid people would move off the street, but a lot of them stayed.”
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A good trade
Rick’s Roffler has been for sale for a number of years, but Meier appears surprisingly content to continue in his trade. And why not? His clientele, perhaps diminishing by age, remains loyal and keeps him busy about four days a week. One customer still drives down from Oshkosh once a month to get his color tweaked.
At 74 years of age, Meier’s prostate cancer is being held at bay and he’s feeling good. If he did sell the business, he’d likely rent a chair somewhere else and continue doing exactly what he’s done for so many years.
“It’s hard to sell a business nowadays,” he admits, adding that he’s received some offers that fell through.
Meier says the number of barbershops has waned over the years, with only a handful in the area still remaining. “Years ago, when I went to barber school, we only worked on men.” Beauty schools changed that, so Meier’s shop became licensed to operate as either a barber or a beauty salon. “I think five to 10 years from now, there won’t be any barber shops left. I don’t know why the young guys don’t pursue this. It’s a good trade.”
Endless possibilities
He watches with interest as changes occur in the Park Street corridor, including the rise of mixed-use apartment complexes, and believes such development will only help fuel area businesses. “Why wouldn’t a neighborhood want that? This is a perfect location, near the Kohl Center and the Coliseum. We have grocery stores, coffee shops, hardware, gas stations, hospitals, and the lake all within walking distance.”
Redevelopment could turn South Park into the next Monroe Street, he predicts.
“I think Park Street is on the move. It will be the place to be in business, and younger people are moving in.”
Which may make it easier for him to bow out one day.
“It’s been a real good 50 years. The day I lock my doors here I’ll have tears in my eyes.”
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