Over the last 144 years, the Lincolnway Barbershop in downtown Plainfield has seen plenty of customers pass through its doors.

On Wednesday, the shop gave its last haircuts as the business at 24045 Lockport St. closed its doors.

Longtime customer Chris Porro of Crest Hill felt honored to be the last customer to sit in one of the barber chairs at the shop and receive a haircut.

Porro liked the fact that Lincolnway Barbershop was an independently owned barbershop that had a friendly atmosphere and also offered plenty of opportunities to socialize.

“It’s old-school,” he said. “It’s homey. You don’t see many barbershops like this. And they gave me a good haircut every time. You have to keep coming back when it’s good.”

Because Porro was the last customer, owner Don Kinley paid for his haircut. To celebrate Lincolnway Barbershop’s 140th anniversary in 2021, the business offered $1.40 haircuts to customers.

Barber Jim Ganta has given Porro many haircuts over the years. He has worked at the shop since 2009.

With the shop now closed, the 77-year-old said he plans to officially retire.

“I’ll have good memories of all the clients that we had come in and out of here and I’ve got great memories of the owners that treated me so well when I was here,” Ganta said. “Those are the things I’ll always remember.”

He plans to keep in contact with Kinley.

“We both live in the same town and we have each other’s number, so we’re not going to be strangers,” Ganta said. “I wouldn’t want it to be that way.”

Both Kinley and Ganta live in Plainfield.

Kinley is the fourth generation in his family to own Lincolnway Barbership. His great-grandfather, Albert Worst, established the shop in 1881.

The 89-year-old Kinley said now is the right time to close the shop, even though it was a hard decision to make.

Even when he was in high school, the Plainfield native wanted to be a barber.

“I went to barber college and then I knew that I’d probably would have to go into the Army, so I volunteered for the draft,” Kinley said.

“I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for two years,” he said. “On Saturday mornings, I would go to the PX barbershop and cut hair and then in the afternoon, I’d go downtown to cut hair at the civilian barbershop.”

That was in 1956-57. Kinley met his wife, Sharon, while he was in the Army and they got married in 1957.

Kinley liked being a barber and always tried to improve his craft.

“I wanted to do my very best,” he said.