StylesVille: How Pacoima’s Oldest Black Barbershop Became a City Landmark
- Crystal Jackson
- Oct 14, 2025
- 4 min read
Pacoima Historical Society is celebrating a new chapter in community history with the recognition of an everyday landmark that helped shape Black life in the northeast Valley. StylesVille Barbershop & Beauty Salon, long regarded as the oldest continuously operating Black-owned barbershop in the San Fernando Valley, is now officially a Historic-Cultural Monument, thanks in part to a nomination supported by the Pacoima Historical Society and the African American Historic Places, Los Angeles (AAHPLA) initiative. This honor affirms what Pacoima residents have known for generations: StylesVille is more than a business—it is a living archive of neighborhood memory and pride.
After a decade of uncovering and sharing Pacoima’s rich history, the Pacoima Historical Society is proud to have joined the community in unveiling a new historical plaque at StylesVille Barbershop & Beauty Salon on Saturday, October 11, 2025. The ceremony took place in Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez’s district (CD7), where she opened the program alongside representatives from the City’s Cultural Heritage Commission, StylesVille’s beloved family matriarch, and Crystal Jackson of the Pacoima Historical Society. Following the plaque unveiling, neighbors were invited to stay for a block party-style celebration featuring music, fellowship, and storytelling, a fitting tribute to a place that has always felt like an extended living room for the community.
From Segregated Valley to Safe Haven
StylesVille’s story begins in 1957, when Freddie and Ollie Carter opened their barbershop on Van Nuys Boulevard during a period when the San Fernando Valley was still largely segregated and restrictive housing covenants limited where Black families could live and build businesses. Having met as students at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, the Carters moved to Pacoima in the early 1950s, joining a growing African American community that was carving out space and opportunity in the northeast Valley. Their new shop quickly became more than a place to get a trim; it emerged as a neighborhood mainstay where customers could relax, talk freely, and connect with one another in a safe, affirming environment.
In 1967, the Carters moved StylesVille to its current location, a former Dew Drop Inn restaurant and bar just across the street from the original. To comply with state requirements that male and female hair services be separated, they transformed the business into both a barbershop and a beauty salon under one roof, allowing families and couples to have their grooming needs met together. This practical adjustment also deepened StylesVille’s role as a multigenerational gathering place, where elders, kids, and everyone in between shared stories, news, and wisdom in a space that felt like home.
A Family Legacy and Community Anchor
As Pacoima changed around it, with postwar Black-owned businesses lining Van Nuys Boulevard, followed by waves of Latino entrepreneurship and new immigrant communities, StylesVille remained a steady presence. The shop passed into the hands of the Carters’ daughter, Nella, and later their grandson, Greg Faucett, who continues to run the business as a classic neighborhood barbershop grounded in care and trust. Greg often describes his role as “a therapist with a haircut,” capturing how deeply StylesVille’s barbers and stylists are woven into the neighborhood's emotional and social fabric. For many families, multiple generations have sat in the same chairs, watched their children grow up in the mirrors, and marked milestones, from first-day-of-school cuts to wedding trims, inside the shop’s walls.
Today, StylesVille stands as one of the last remaining Black-owned legacy institutions on this stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard, a reminder of the business corridor that once anchored Pacoima’s mid-20th-century African American community. Its endurance reflects both the Carters’ determination and the community’s commitment to supporting a space that has long supported them.
Recognized as a Historic-Cultural Monument
StylesVille Barbershop & Beauty Salon is now formally recognized as one of just six sites designated as Historic-Cultural Monuments under the African American Historic Places LA (AAHPLA) project, a citywide effort to document and protect places that illuminate Black history in Los Angeles. This designation recognizes the building not for its architecture alone, but for its association with Pacoima’s development, Black entrepreneurship, and the neighborhood's social life over nearly seven decades.
By securing this status, Pacoima Historical Society and its partners have helped ensure that StylesVille’s story will not be erased by redevelopment or forgotten as demographics shift. The new plaque and designation affirm that the everyday spaces where people gather, talk, and care for one another are just as historically important as courthouses, mansions, or downtown monuments.
Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future
StylesVille’s journey, from a small barbershop opened by a young couple in the 1950s to an officially recognized historic landmark, mirrors broader currents in American and Pacoima history: segregation and migration, Black homeownership and business building, community persistence through economic ups and downs, and the ongoing fight to preserve cultural memory in neighborhoods under pressure. Through oral histories, photographs, and public storytelling, Pacoima Historical Society has worked to document this legacy and bring it into the larger narrative of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles.
As the plaque was unveiled on October 11, StylesVille’s recognition as a Historic-Cultural Monument became more than a title; it became a promise. It signaled that the stories, struggles, and triumphs of Black families in Pacoima will be honored in the historical record, and that future generations will know why a little barbershop on Van Nuys Boulevard became such a big part of the community’s heart.
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