Pink and orange hues set the backdrop of a mural featuring the couple who opened Ideal Barber Shop in East Austin in 1948. On the other side of that wall, the couple’s grandson now works the chair his grandfather once claimed.
Leonard F. Hill's shop is the oldest Black-owned barbershop still operating in Austin. It was a place for congregation amid racial segregation; somewhere civil rights discussions took place, but also somewhere to simply gather. To honor its history, another grandson — Javier Wallace — commissioned the mural.
Wallace, the founder of Black Austin Tours, said that as East Austin has become a more desirable area, property values have risen, making it difficult for local businesses like his grandfather's barbershop to stay afloat.
“[I hope the mural brings] a renewed economic engine and light into this area to see how best we can mitigate some of the historical and contemporary losses that Black people have with property,” he said.
He said Ryan Runcie was the only artist who came to mind to paint the mural — largely due to his talent, but also because he wanted a Black artist to honor the shop’s history.
“We still see people making decisions based on their identity,” Wallace said. “So I thought his identity would be well-suited for the historical identity of a barbershop — a Black barbershop.”
Runcie, known for community-centered murals and vibrant multicolored portraits, said he worked closely with the Hill family to tell their stories. His mural will feature QR codes linked to his interviews with them.
“Hopefully the stories help to extend the history beyond who [Leonard] was as a person,” Runcie said.
He also worked with the family to map the mural’s layout. It features elements like barbers cutting hair, St. John Baptist Church and a baseball player — each symbolizing parts of Leonard Hill’s character and legacy.
“It was a fun way to capture who he was and how he impacted the community,” Runcie said.
The mural centers a portrait of Leonard and his wife, Rosa Hill, painted in Runcie’s signature polychromatic style.
“Behind every good man is a woman,” Kendell Hill, one of the Hills’ eight children, said. “My mother was part of the process; she helped that barbershop to get started.”
Kendell's older sister, Joycelyn Hill Catron, said they grew up in a segregated society, so her parents emphasized Black pride.
“We were always told that we were not better than anyone, but to be proud of who we were,” she said.
Leonard extended this mentality to his shop.
Until 1966, Texans had to pay a tax to vote, which stood as a barrier for low-income residents and heavily impacted Black communities. But Kendell said her father valued civic engagement, so he registered his shop as a poll tax collection site. A Black-owned site was a less hostile alternative to paying at the county courthouse, Wallace said.
To honor that initiative, the mural will feature a ballot box.
“They were not the 'big civil rights leaders,’” Wallace said. “Nonetheless, they were still touching the lives and heads of all the people from every walk of life.”
Although the mural focuses on the Hill family’s story, Wallace said, it isn't just about them. This is reflected in the text Runcie will incorporate in the work: “An East Side Story.”
“We know that there are many thousands of Black families in East Austin that have similar stories," he said.
Cornell Hill, who co-owns and runs the shop today, noted that he still keeps his grandfather’s razor and the first set of clippers he gifted him. Like his grandfather, he welcomes everybody to his shop.
“I'm open to anybody who wants to come in [for a] cut — straight hair, Afro hair,” Hill said. “Because hair is hair. … We're one nation under God, meaning we need to learn to deal with all walks of life — in hair textures and hairstyles.”
