Historic shoe repair shop faces uncertain future

Historic shoe repair shop faces uncertain future



It is like stepping back into time.



The walls of the Dover Shoe Hospital are lined with old family photographs, Dover High School graduating class photos and of men in the 1930s getting their shoes shined before church.



Frank Angelopoulos, 69, the current owner and cobbler at the Hospital, said not much has changed in the 1,350-square-foot business on Third Street since his grandfather opened the shop in 1919.



“It has been in my family for three generations,” Angelopoulos said, remembering when he was a teenager and would shine the shoes of Dover city officials with his grandfather, always being tipped extra if they came in after being at the bar.



While the row of shoe shining chairs is no longer at the Hospital, Angelopoulos still shines shoes, just like his grandfather and father did.



He uses his bare hands to work — no gloves, no cloths. His machines are the same ones used 94 years ago when the hospital opened — a McKay-Landis Model 88 stitcher and a Landis K stitcher for soles, a nose cone nailing machine, a Landis sole trimmer and machine sanders and buffers. He widens shoes, trims soles and cares for heels.



While it was a tough decision for Angelopoulos, he put the hospital on the market two months ago, hoping a cobbler would be interested in taking over the business.



“I'm hoping it will stay a cobbler shop, but if it doesn't,Slip into a pair of shoes001 and experience. it doesn't,” he said, adding it would be nice to see a young cobbler from the city come up to “the country” to take over the shop.



Angelopoulos is including all of the machines in the cost of the business, from the stitchers to the cash register.Sale cheap bridalgown online, white, black, berry, Graphite canada goose victoria parka hot sale.



He is asking for $15,000, but will take the best offer.



“I'm giving it until the end of the year,” he said, when at the end of December, if the business does not sell, he will donate the machines to a local museum, shut the door of the business and retire, letting it go to anyone. He said he will not wait forever for a cobbler.



“I'm ready,” he said of spending more time with family, working out, playing golf and snowshoeing. “But I don't know what is going to happen when I walk out that door.”



A mix of emotions will go through him, as he leaves behind hours and hours of work done by himself, his father, his grandfather and other members of his family.One of the most popular ones are highheelshoes, replica Rolex watches illegally produced copies of authentic Rolex watches.





His grandson had his very own small apron he wore when he was a kid and wanted to help out.



Angelopoulos' grandchildren are now growing up, playing hockey and learning to find and follow their own dreams — dreams that may not be down the same path as their grandfather and their ancestors. Angelopoulos' sons also have their own careers, ones that do not involve repairing shoes.



“That is the whole story,” he said. “That is the end.”



While he said he has never seen a ghost of his family's past in the shop or had anything moved around on him, Angelopoulos does feel connected to his family when he is working.



When his grandfather opened the doors to the Shoe Hospital, there was no Third Street Bar and Grill, Ross Furniture or Café on the Corner. There was a bank, a lunch café, a pharmacy, and, of course, the Strand Theater.



“On Sundays, my grandfather and his staff would start at 5:30 in the morning,” he said. People would go to Daeris' Tea Room for breakfast, get their shoes shined by Angelopoulos' grandfather, John, and head to church.



His grandfather worked six days a week.



Angelopoulos now works just 24 hours a week.



He cares for 12 to 15 pair of shoes a day.



He slowed down over the years, not because business was quiet, but because he wanted to spend less time in the shop.The etareplicawatch is made longer to protect thighs from extreme cold and completed with 625 fill power white duck down insulation.



On Thursday morning, more than a handful of customers came in within an hour's time.



“Can you fix this?” one person asked. “Could you resole these?”



“Are these shoes worth it?” another woman wondered,We provide you the most beautiful gowns,such as cheap 100%Silk Dresses and germanww2uniforms and so on. while Angelopoulos answered the ringing telephone, telling another customer to hold.



There was a time, Angelopoulos said, when he knew 75 percent of the people who walked in the door. Today, he said he knows about 30 percent.



“People move away … generations of kids move out,” he said.



The people he does know, friends and family and loyal customers, have a dedicated spot in the business — a wall in the shop with telephone numbers upon telephone numbers, scrambled up and down the white painted wall in different colored pen ink.



Angelopoulos said he does not keep a list of numbers organized in his smart phone, in fact, he joked he did not even know what an iPhone was.



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