Queens Chapel barbershop, at 3108 Hamilton St. near the 711, has been operating for 85 years.
One customer, Melvin Franklin (“Frank”) Key, has been coming for more than forty of those years, since his father Melvin Key cut hair there. “I’m like his [Frank’s] daughter, he takes care of the barbershop,” says current owner Tina Nguyen, who has cut hair at the shop for about 30 years herself.
Key helped promote a party that Nguyen threw on Friday Jan. 9 to for the 85th anniversary of the barbershop. Nguyen’s three adult children and two grandchildren came to celebrate with cake and traditional Vietnamese food, alongside customers and city council members Joshua Solomon and Kelson Nisbett (both Ward 5) as well as Hyattsville Police Chief Jarod Towers and Deputy Chief Laura Lanham…