The moment seemed so unreal, Jan Honeycutt and I had to take turns sitting in one of the barber chairs before we could really believe the new Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum really exists.

Jim Spears and Honeycutt offer Linda a G.I. haircut in the barbershop where Elvis was shorn.

For the last 12 years I’ve been writing about the efforts of Jan and her special education economics students at Beard Elementary to convince area leaders and officials that converting the old Fort Chaffee Reception Center building into a museum would be a really good idea. Thousands of new soldiers were once processed through Building 803 as they began service to their country, including rock’n’roll legend Elvis Presley, who got his world famous first Army haircut there on March 25, 1958.

And last month, while sitting in one the barber chairs on loan from Ray Firestine, Jim and Chris Marshall, Bill Ramage and Phil White, admiring additional authentic ’50s barbers tools supplied by Ken Hardcastle, Jan could finally see her students’ decade-old dream beginning to come true. “I’m all shook up,” she quipped.

After Jan learned in 1995 that Building 803 could be one of many to be demolished when the base was to be closed in 1997, her students began trying to save the building so it could be used to attract visitors. Though Jan won the support of many locals and leaders for the idea, no workable plan emerged until this April.

That’s when Ivey Owen, executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, learned of and got excited about the barbershop project. His proposal, which was unanimously approved by his board of directors, was to create a new 55-acre museum district on the FCRA property and fund the transformation of Building 803 into the Fort Chaffee barbershop Museum as the district’s centerpiece.

Jan, her eight current economics students and other Beard Elementary representatives were among the press and other guests invited to tour the barbershop at 803 Terry last month. Two other new museums, the Enchanted Dollhouse Museum and the Vietnam Veterans Museum – are within walking distance of the barbershop.

All three museums open to the public this month – the Dollhouse Museum and Vietnam Veterans Museum by appointment only (479-452-4554), and the barbershop on Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. beginning Sept. 1.

Carolyn Joyce, tour and travel sales director of the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau, has trained volunteers to staff the barbershop and still needs a few more to help show off one of this area’s newest attractions.
The other half of Building 803 displays artifacts, photographs and information from Fort Chaffee’s history, from its beginning in 1941 as Camp Chaffee through its decommissioning in 1997.

Now that the museum has been established, all kinds of possibilities exist for its continued growth and development, Owen predicted.

Recent publicity has led to the discovery of many people who witnessed the Elvis haircut and have interesting stories to tell about it. Many more may also have great Chaffee memories they could share. Perhaps videotaped interviews with those people – similar to the ongoing Fort Smith Historical Society’s World War II oral history project – could be organized. Excerpts of those interviews could play continuously.

Maybe a new website could also be established for documenting first-person stories. And Jan says she would be thrilled to receive some of those accounts for her students’ literary program.

Also, Jimmy Don Peterson of Muldrow, whose father, James, gave Elvis his first G.I. haircut, is a licensed barber in Arkansas and has said he might be persuaded to appear for a special event or two at the museum to offer a couple of haircuts. And, maybe retired barber Fred Kinslow of Greenwood, who was present when Elvis got his haircut and served as an advisor to the restoration, could recruit some barbers to offer G.I. cuts as a regular museum attraction.

If it can be imagined it can be done. Jan Honeycutt and her students can testify to that!

Also in the barbershop building, a spacious museum covering the entire history of Camp Chaffe, later Fort Chaffee, is open to the public starting Sept. 1.

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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