MATT GENTRY | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech associate professor Greg Tew (left) picks up his repaired shoes from Harley Helms' shoe repair shop.

MATT GENTRY | The Roanoke Times

Repaired shoes and boots stand among various collectibles at Helms' shoe shop.

BLACKSBURG -- Take good care of your Sunday shoes, because the New River Valley's last cobbler will close his shop next month after seven decades in business.

Harley Helms, owner and operator of Harley's Shoe Shop at 304 N. Main St., has been asked by his landlords, Ribble and Nannie Linkous, to leave the downtown shop where he has worked since 1938.

Helms was notified by handwritten letter Monday that he should clear out by April 20 to make way for a new, unnamed tenant.

"I don't want to go," said 84-year-old Helms, who was born deaf. Then he gestured around his shop, at a loss for words.

"He was really shocked," said Ruth Payne, Helms' older sister and guardian.

Helms never learned to read or write but has worked as a cobbler since he was 15. Although he received the eviction notice early on Monday, he didn't understand its meaning until he showed it to Payne.

"I don't know why he didn't come in to talk to us about it," Payne said of Ribble Linkous. "Harley has always thought of them as friends."

The shop doesn't generate profit anymore. But the family has been helping Helms pay his $350-a-month rent because working is so important to her brother's well-being, Payne said.

If they had been offered the opportunity to pay the new rent, which Payne said was going to be $600 a month, "we probably would have done that."

There isn't much Helms can do to contest the eviction. He's stayed on for decades through a month-to-month verbal lease that under state law can be terminated with little notice.

"The way it was always done was just a handshake and a gentlemen's agreement," Payne said.

After consulting a lawyer, Payne said she's decided they can only "bow out gracefully and try to get over the hurt feelings."

The Linkouses -- who are Helms' third landlords in that spot -- could not be reached for comment Wednesday or Thursday. According to town tax records, they purchased the building in 1999. It's assessed for tax purposes at $130,300.

Customers came and went from Harley's on Thursday morning, each expressing dismay when Payne told them the shop was closing.

"That's awful," Kat Meng said when she stopped by to pick up a pair of black high-heeled boots Helms had mended for her.

"I love coming out here to drop off my shoes," the Virginia Tech senior said.

First-time customer Greg Tew, a Tech associate professor, also stopped in to pick up two pairs of dress shoes that had been cleaned and repaired.

"These look much better," he said to Helms as he handed over $14 for the service.

Payne explained again that the shop would be closing. Helms shook his head. "No more," he said, gesturing at Tew's shoes.

"So they're evicting one of the few businesses left on Main Street," Tew said, shaking his head as he walked out the door.

Harley Helms has worked as a cobbler since he was 15 and has worked in downtown Blacksburg since 1938. He recently received a letter from his landlords asking him to leave his shoe shop. "He was really shocked," said his sister Ruth Payne (right), Helms' guardian.

Later by e-mail, Tew had this to say about the closing: "When you can't get things repaired it just reinforces our throw-it-away culture."

The loss of yet another downtown business also worries former Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, who has known Helms for years. High rents, deteriorating buildings, changes in the retail market, crime -- there are many possible causes of downtown's economic woes.

About two dozen storefronts nearby Harley's sit vacant. Mainstream Music, a downtown mainstay for several years, was the most recent business to leave the town's core. Owner Gary Everett moved to the north end of town.

"Here was a business which was a great fit for downtown," Hedgepeth said of Harley's. The eviction "may be good business, but it's really a lousy thing to do both to Harley and to the downtown, and to the New River Valley for that matter."

Since C&M Shoe & Leather Repair, another Blacksburg business, closed in 2004, Helms has been the only known cobbler in the area. His customers come from as far away as Wytheville, Radford, Pulaski and West Virginia, Payne said.

Helms' father, Howard, tried to send his only son to the school for the deaf in Staunton. But the boy cried so hard at the thought of being left behind, his dad brought him back home to Blacksburg and apprenticed him to cobbler Frank Mutter.

Growing up, Helms' three sisters weren't allowed to treat him as if his deafness were a disability. He was not to be coddled.

"We included him in everything," Payne said.

An avid hunter, fisherman and horse rider in his youth, Helms seems much younger than his 84 years. An amateur historian, he has filled his shop so full of historic Blacksburg photos it might well be the unofficial town museum. Photos of his bowling buddies -- bowling is his other reason for living -- fill one wall, while another is devoted to family photos spanning the generations.

In one photo, Helms is standing proudly at the door of his shoe shop. In another, he's posing with a citation-size fish caught on Claytor Lake. Many of those fish, now mounted, line the walls.

The store still functions as an old-fashioned community center, where police officers and workers from nearby businesses stop to chat.

Next month, all that will end.

"It'll be all right," Payne said, turning to pat her brother's arm.

Helms shrugged.