A little over 1-1/2 years ago, a downtown Warsaw fire caused interior and exterior damage to the building on East Center Street that not only housed apartments upstairs, but also Crystal’s Bar’lon Hairstyles for Men and a restaurant downstairs.
Since the Dec. 7, 2022, fire at 215 and 217 E. Center St., the property owner - Lemler Land Holdings - has repaired the damage and improved the building extensively.
Wednesday, Main Street Warsaw presented Crystal and Isaac Lemler with a $10,000 facade grant to be used toward those improvements, though Isaac was unable to attend the check presentation.
Crystal has owned Bar’lon for 10 years, having been at 215 E. Center St. for nine of those years.
“We were forced to clean up the front, and when we were told that we were going to get the facade grant, or a possibility that we may, we decided that we might do some balconies, so we added the balconies. The facade grant, basically, helped us pay for the balconies so that we could have it feel more like a downtown apartment up there,” she explained. “So there’s two different apartments that now have balconies that make it seem a little more downtown-ish. And then it helped the facade as well.”
Crystal said a lot of work has been done to the building since the fire and they’re still not done with it.

    A $10,000 facade grant from Main Street Warsaw helped Lemler Land Holdings improve their property on East Center Street, including the addition of two balconies on the front of the property. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“It’s been a long haul,” she said, adding that the facade grant will “absolutely” help with the improvements.
Bar’lon is a male salon. Mirabilia Massage, which offers massages for everyone, also is located in Bar’lon.
Everyone working within Bar’lon owns their own business. They each pay rent to have work space at Bar’lon. Bryte Cleveland owns Cleveland and Co. and she works with Bar’lon, while Mirabila Massage is Phyllis Brandenberger.
Bar’lon has a website at https://www.crystalsbarlon.com/.
Crystal said all the information, including hours, costs and making appointments, can be found there.
“Two days a week, we open at 7 and close at 4. And the other two days, we open at 9 and close at 6,” she said. “And then I think Bryte does 8:30 to 5 on Friday. So we’re Monday through Friday.”
Mirabilia Massage has similar hours, but everyone works their own hours. Most people book appointments online.
“We can do walk-ins, but we usually stay pretty busy, so I would say you’ve got about a 30% chance that it might work. So not very good, but it does happen. We do have walk-ins. We accept them as long as we have time to do them around our appointments,” Crystal said.
Hair cuts and styles are whatever the men request. She said hot towels are a big hit.
“Guys like it because even if they get something simple, it’s still a relaxing environment where they can come in and feel a little pampered. We get to know our clients really well. We build relationships here and not just do haircuts,” she said.