Fire ruins legendary shoe repair shop but not support of Lockport customers
LOCKPORT — All day long they came by to pay their respects.
But the message was clear — a fire Tuesday that destroyed Macaluso’s Shoe Repair at 93 Locust St. had also taken a big piece of Lockport with it.
Owner Vincent F. Macaluso told The Buffalo News later that day that 40 to 50 people had come by as he sat and watched the building being torn down due to the fire.
He smiled as people shared memories with him, and he told The News, “I’m like a legend, I guess.”
Macaluso’s, plus a rear upper apartment owned by Macaluso and an adjacent Locust Street Hobby Shop were all destroyed in the fire. The fire was reported by Lockport police on patrol who saw smoke at 1:20 a. m. and by a female resident of the rear apartment who was alerted to the fire by her smoke detectors, according to Assistant Chief Patrick Costello.
No injuries were reported. Damage was estimated at $150,000, and the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
Costello said the fire became so intense that all Lockport firefighters were called in to fight the blaze, even off-duty firefighters. And 12 hours later, hot spots were still being checked.
“It’s totally gone,” Costello said.
In fact the building was so far gone that by the end of the day, demolition crews were on the scene.
Macaluso sat in a camp chair across the street, with his girlfriend Bonnie Bidleman, just trying to take it all in.
“I started with my dad at age 8. I’ve been in the business for 62 years,” Macaluso said.
He said the shop had been on Main Street and then for many years on Elm Street, but had been at the location on Locust Street since 1972.
He said he was able to save the antique cash register and the hand-painted Macaluso’s sign his father had made.
Macaluso said he’s not sure if he’s ready to retire yet.
“If I can find the equipment cheap, I would go back into it. I enjoy doing it, but I guess I haven’t had enough sleep to think about it,” Macaluso said.
Bidleman said people who live out of town make a point of coming to Macaluso’s to get their shoes repaired when they are visiting.
John Rosenburg from Prudden and Kandt Funeral Home on Genesee Street walked by to pay his respects, calling the loss a “real shame.”
Mayor Michael W. Tucker had been out of town, but came straight to the site when he heard about the fire.
“Everyone knows Macaluso’s Shoe Repair. Everyone at sometime has had a shoe repaired in there. It’s a terrible blow,” Tucker said. “He had hundreds of pairs of shoes and boots in there and he seems to know where everything is without even getting a ticket,” he noted.
Actually many more than a hundred, according to Macaluso.
“Thousands of pairs easily, but I knew where everything was and they liked that,” Macaluso said.
Lockport resident Daryl Meiser walked by and started questioning people: “Is that the cobbler shop [they are tearing down?] I have a shoe in there. They did wonderful work. My brother, my daughter, we all brought shoes here,” Meiser said.
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