Tai Lee figured she’d learn a thing or two about Iola’s history, especially now that she occupies one of the town’s oldest buildings.
Mission accomplished.
Lee, owner of Jo’s Men’s Grooming, has relocated to 9 W. Madison Ave., opening her new location this week.
With the project, Lee has found a few notable artifacts, some dating back to the late 19th century, such as an antique floor jack, an old brush, and even a broken piece of crystal.
But her most treasured discovery came from a pencil.
Signatures from several of the building’s previous owners adorn a barren wall of what is now a utility closet. Most notably, Lee found a signature of a merchant dated Jan. 24, 1895. The temperature that day was a mind-boggling 14-below zero.
Others signed the building in pencil or ink, mixed in with other random scribbles added through the years.
So, of course, Lee felt obligated to keep up the tradition. She added hers on Dec. 22, when the high temperature in Iola was a crisp minus-2.
“Pretty cool, right?” she asked.
PUTTING a barber shop into the building involved more than just adding a couple of chairs and mirrors.
The biggest hurdle involved extending water service closer to the front of the building.
That task was handled by Eric Anderson of Anderson Plumbing, who had to hand dig a tunnel through layers of rock, asphalt and dirt beneath the structure.
“Eric was such a trooper,” Lee said. “He worked hard and never complained at all.”
It was there that Anderson uncovered many of the building’s artifacts, including perhaps the most bizarre find of them all: The mummified remains of a rat, which Lee speculates may have perished in a fire that damaged a portion of the building around 1920.
She’s holding onto the preserved remains for now, an unusual showpiece, she admits.
