ROCHESTER — Immediately after 104 yrs of conserving Rochester’s soles,
the famous Boston Shoe and Boot Mend
is completely ready to pack it in and close up store.
Pete Chafos and Jerry Haas are arranging to retire at the close of Might. That usually means closing Boston Shoe and Restore, which they have operated at
for 50 a long time. Even so, the business enterprise dates back considerably additional than that.
The mall location was a youthful sibling of the initial downtown Boston Fix store, which first opened its doorways in 1917 at 1 S. Broadway, up coming to exactly where Michael’s Restaurant eventually would be developed.
Ken Klotzbach / Article Bulletin file picture
Andy Chafos, Pete’s father, joined forces with his business spouse, Frank Mammasis, as owners of Boston Shoe Mend in 1921. The pair ran the prosperous store with its 10 shoe shine chairs on the chaotic corner.
Pete Chafos, 77, began functioning in the store as a shoeshine boy at 7-several years-old or so.
“I acquired rather fantastic at it. I was the richest kid in quality university with ideas and things,” he stated.
Jerry Haas, 79, was hired in 1960. Chafos explained the pair have worked with each other for so lengthy that lots of people today feel they are brothers.
When Boston closes for superior, the just about 60-12 months-aged Rochester shoe restore organization that Chafos jokingly phone calls an “upstart” — Thee Only Shoe Fix — will be the final a single standing in a city that at the time had 18 to 19 shoe glow and repair retailers.
Thee Only Shoe Repair service, owned by Jim Derouin, is found at 908 N. Broadway.
