Phil’s Shoe’s, 7332 Elgin Ave. in Rhawnhurst, recently closed after more than 60 years in business.
A sign in the window reads, “Closed. Out of business (retired).”
A larger signs contains the message, “The DiGiulio Family wishes to thank all of their customers and friends for their many years of support. We have been privileged to serve the footwear needs of Philadelphia since 1950 and are now retiring. Please accept our heartfelt thanks for your loyalty. We have been blessed with a wonderful group of customers and employees and will miss you all.”
The message concludes with the Irish blessing, “May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.”
Phil’s Shoes was a business that had been in the DiGiulio family for six decades.
Its storied history in the Northeast started in the early 1950s, when the large DiGiulio family lived above a vacant storefront at 998 Anchor St. in Oxford Circle.
Phil DiGiulio was friendly with Monsignor Walter A. Bower, pastor at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, which was directly across the street. Back then, St. Martin’s was selling shoes and uniforms out of its auditorium/gymnasium.
Bower, though, wanted to free up that space for student lunches and basketball practices and games. The pastor asked DiGiulio if he would sell the shoes out of the storefront.
Eventually, DiGiulio opened a business of his own, operating four storefronts along Loretto Avenue. There was a women’s store at Cheltenham Avenue that later relocated to Sanger Street. The men’s store was at Carver Street. The children’s store was at Anchor Street.
Business was so good that in 1976 Phil’s expanded to a larger location on Elgin Ave., right near the intersection of Castor and Cottman avenues.
By the mid-1990s, though, faced with a fire and a changing Oxford Circle neighborhood, which resulted in fewer Catholic school children, the last of the Loretto Avenue stores closed. ••
