After 77 years of repairing boots, selling shoes and offering one-on-one fittings, the Towson Bootery is closing.

The beloved shoe store, located in the Shops at Kenilworth, will close on March 23. They will be having a storewide closing sale beginning March 1.

Stefanie Rudolph, daughter of longtime owner and operator Alex Rudolph, said her father died on Dec. 31.

“Closing was mainly because nobody could do the things he could, or run it like he could. He did it in his way. It was untouchable,” Rudolph said.

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Her father lived and breathed the store, Rudolph said, and could only be convinced to leave town to visit family in New Jersey. Regular customers would come in for a shoe fitting — but also because they had become friends with Alex.

“You made yourself at home there. Everybody felt like they could just visit him. It was a home base for a lot of people,” Rudolph said.

Rudolph’s grandfather, R. Richard Rudolph, opened the bootery in 1948 on York Road in the heart of Towson. The store moved across the street once, and then to Kenilworth in 1996.

A historic photo from the Towson Booter that appears to have a tear down the middle. It shows a man behind the counter, a customer at the counter and several customers sitting and waiting.
A historical photo from the Towson Bootery shows the store in the ’70s or ’80s, Stefanie Rudolph said. This would have been the store’s York Road location. (Towson Bootery, Towson Bootery / Towson Bootery)

The Shops at Kenilworth is managed by Greenberg Gibbons, a mixed-use developer based in Baltimore. It’s home to about 20 stores and restaurants, including a high-end gym called The Mine, an Atwater’s location, a Trader Joe’s and several other eateries and boutiques. The shopping center welcomed Mucho Gusto Towson, a casual Mexican restaurant, in January 2024.

In an emailed statement, company spokesperson Alicyn Emerick said the shop — and Alex Rudolph — would be deeply missed.

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And, Emerick said, the shopping center is in solid shape.

“We’re actively pursuing new retailers and activations to add to the mix of our vibrant shopping destination,” she wrote.

The Towson Bootery was known for its one-on-one fittings — customers would get measured for foot size “the old fashion way.” They also offered shoe repair, shoe dyeing and orthopedic corrections.

Stefanie Rudolph said she has fond memories of playing in the store’s York Road location, running up and down the aisles, playing with shoes and smelling the polish.

“Then there would be the Fourth of July parade and you’d have the first row seat right there,” she said.

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Closing the store was a difficult decision, she said, because of how many repeat customers had come to depend on the establishment in some way or another. Rudolph said there are about seven employees at the store.

“I feel like I’m cheating people out of their institution,” she said.

People have been calling to share their sympathies since Alex Rudolph died, Rudolph said, and commenting that the closing must be a bittersweet feeling.

It is bittersweet, she said. But it’s also “gut-wrenching” to be closing.

“I feel for the customers, I keep saying, ‘I’m sorry for your loss, too,’” Rudolph said.