At the corner of Lockwood and Big Bend in Webster Groves, the white-and-brick building with a rounded roof raises no eyebrows from passersby, blending right in, as it does, with the hominess and warmth of Webster’s Old Orchard neighborhood.
But step inside and you’ll see a rare 30-foot lamella ceiling and hear the whine of hairdryers.
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This is The Boulevard Hair Co. Opened in December 2016 in a former gymnasium, it was recently named one of Salon Today magazine’s 2017 Salons of the Year. The drastic, unique makeover of the 1920 building features a mezzanine for extra styling space and styling stations handcrafted from reclaimed barn wood.
Throughout the two-year renovation, Boulevard’s owners, Abigail Culleton and Sierra VanMeter, made it a priority to keep the building’s historical elements—the original gym floors, the basketweave ceiling, the trusses bearing scorch marks from a fire that almost destroyed the building decades ago—intact. Many who come into the salon aren’t just clients; they’re also longtime residents of Webster and Kirkwood who want to relive fond memories.
“We’re hoping to keep as much of the history as possible,” Culleton says. “We love it. We had one guy come in and say he had his first kiss here.”
One wall of the salon, covered in framed photographs from the 1960s–1990s, tells the story: The building was erected nearly 100 years ago by the Knights of Columbus as a gym to be rented out to local schools. In 1960, John Stevens purchased the building and eventually opened the Sterling Pen Company in it. After a 1970 fire, the company moved out of the space and used it as a warehouse. For many years thereafter, it sat empty.
In 2015, Culleton and VanMeter envisioned the building as the perfect place for their new salon. (Culleton owned Abigail’s on DeMun for seven years, but when talk arose of selling the building or tearing it down, she joined forces with fellow hairstylist VanMeter to open The Boulevard instead.)
While the duo worked on the metal-and-wood interior design, Blaes Architects transformed the building. “The nature of the building—it just worked great as a salon,” says project manager Brian Kissling, “especially because of the amount of original wood and the wood lamella ceiling. Both those features just give it an incredibly warm feel.”
Delays and challenges—including concerns about sound, because the space is so open—inevitably ensued.
“We thought it was going to be extremely loud,” says VanMeter—but the wood helps soften the space, and she and Culleton say they can work downstairs and not know that upstairs it’s a “madhouse.”
The redesign caught the attention of salon equipment company Buy-Rite, which nominated The Boulevard for Salon Today’s contest. It ended up being awarded the grand prize, beating out salons from across the country.
“Hopefully this brings some light to Missouri,” Culleton says, “like, ‘OK, that [salon] is cool. What else is in St. Louis?’”
