Milwaukee's 'Handsome' corner swells with memories, new bright

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Nov 2, 2007 by Sean Ryan

Richard C. Moore established Handsome Barber Shop on the corner of North Teutonia and West Center in 1967, the same year Milwaukee's black community rioted for opportunity and fair housing.

His former and current customers, now grown up to become graying or bald state and city officials, came back on Thursday to remember the old times and try to resurrect them. State Sen. Spencer Coggs, Milwaukee council President Willie Hines and Antonio Riley, executive director of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, remembered hanging out at the Panther's Den club, eating at Robbie's Sandwich Shop and snookering at Ebony Cue.

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"This is a historic corner," Coggs, D-Milwaukee, said. "Unfortunately, I went to JJ's Barber Shop, but when they were full, (Handsome) let me in."

Now Richard has died, and his two sons, Haralson and Thaddeus, run the business. They will have a corner space to continue their work in the new 24-unit, $5.1 million Teutonia Gardens affordable-housing project for which ground was broken ground on Thursday.

Thaddeus said his family dreamed about redeveloping the empty lot behind the shop for 40 years. It's now a lawn, but it used to be a parking lot for the Briggs & Stratton facility that left the area long ago.

"Back then, it was a real business district area until the economy phased off a little bit and a lot of crimes and drugs started filling in," he remembered. "A lot of people left.

"This community can finally change," he said from the podium talking to a gathering with many youths from the area. "As for the young folk, you can do anything that you want to do. Just don't give up. ... Your dreams can come true."

"There were days when Haralson thought this was not going to happen," said Ralph Hollmon, Handsome Barber Shop customer and president of the Milwaukee Urban League. Hollmon concluded his remarks with an axiom that the Moores exclaimed with him. "God may not come when you want Him to, but He's always on time."

Hand of God or no, the Teutonia Gardens project, being developed by Horizon Development and Maures Development Group, will breathe new life into the area. In addition to the 24 apartments, most of which will be for low-income renters, there will be 5,000 square feet of retail space and a 24,000-square-foot garden for residents, local schools and community groups to use. It's planned for completion in July 2008.

Melissa Goins, president of Maures Development, is a graduate of Marquette University's Associates in Commercial Real Estate program that aims to bring more Milwaukee residents into the real estate business.

She got partnered with Horizon Development through the WHEDA's mentor-protege program. Her company received $4.14 million in WHEDA tax credits, making Maures Development the first company owned by a black woman to receive them. The project plans to have 40 percent of its contracting dollars go to minority-owned companies.

"I'm glad that the fire that was ignited in 1967 is still blazing," she said. "Life is hard. But it's not about what life brings to us, but what we do with what life brings to us."

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Milwaukee's 'Handsome' corner swells with memories, new bright

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Nov 2, 2007 by Sean Ryan

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