The Bloom building exterior on North West Street in Atlanta seems to be a flower itself. Its look is largely due to its longtime owner and talented interior decorator Bernice Hughes, according to present day owner Sy Guthrie. Bloom is a beauty bar salon.
Sy Guthrie is holding a post card dated 1912 which is showing the Hughes Hotel in 1912 at the location where today is the Bloom Beauty Bar. Guthrie believes today’s building was constructed in the 1940s.
WHERE IS IT?
Some buildings don’t get the attention they deserve. Perhaps they are not flashy or possessing some sort of reputation. They simply are graceful. This is the case with the Bloom building in downtown Atlanta. It is quite a pleasure and stylish. Your “Where Is It?” mystery question is certainly easy. You’ve noticed this building before. The question is what does “Bloom” offer the public? What is its business? Need a hint. Well, here’s one. The location is over 100 years and once was a hotel. See more of the story in the ANSWER that follows.
ANSWER
One of the beauties of downtown Atlanta is the former Hughes building, 105 North West Street, which is close to the library and looks across the railroad track toward the former train depot now chamber of commerce office.
The building is named Bloom. It is a beauty shop and is pretty and welcoming enough to cause one to look better just by coming near here. Like its name, it seems to be a flower itself.
This location was once the Hughes Hotel going back to 1912. This present building was built in the 1940s by owner Bernice Hughes who lived in the apartment upstairs on the second floor for 55 years. It was a flower shop called the Bernice Hughes Flower and Gift Mart.
Sy Guthrie purchased the building from Berniece, his great aunt, in 1983. It was renovated into a beauty bar in 2000. Business owner Hailey Williams has now created Bloom Beauty Bar for both men and women. Tanning, hair cutting, refreshing shakes and beauty aids are on the menu here.
The present building looks so well because -- owner Sy Guthrie says -- Bernice Hughes was a gifted interior decorator. She and her sister Irene Johnson created a number of works of interior and exterior decorating art for businesses in the region.
“We get a lot of compliments on the building,” Guthrie said. “I’m happy to talk about it. I love this building.”
That love helps this building bloom.