A Working Barbershop and Museum Underneath Billy Tripp's Mindfield
Mindfield and Master Barber Shop Menagerie Museum
Anthony Turner
Photographs by Fred Scruton: 2019-2023
Fall 2023 Update: The barbershop/museum is closed and the empty building/lot is up for rent.
Long located in front of Billy Tripp’s Mindfield on Main Street in Brownsville, Anthony Turner has turned his working barbershop into an eclectic museum for the Mindfield, the Civil Rights Movement, Soul Music, Elvis, and, as the sign on the front says: a “menagerie” of gifts and items from Mr. Anthony’s personal collection.
Inside, themed areas feature audio: Elvis, and Aretha Franklin sing, Martin Luther King speaks, and a Mindfield video documentary loops. Throughout the narrow pathways, inspirational quotes (mostly from Oprah and Steve Harvey) hang from the ceiling.
Mr. Anthony persuaded Vernon Winfrey (Oprah’s father) to attend the museum’s grand opening and a photograph of the two of them hangs proudly just inside the front door.
