Scratched into the bottom of a 3-inch tall cup, crafted from the end of a copper pipe, is the date May 28, 1945.
This is one of Anthony “Tony” Consiglio’s heirloom possessions that he uses daily in his work at Branford Shoe Repair shop.
The date signifies the opening day of Consiglio’s father’s shoe repair shop, Mike’s Shoe Repair, in New Haven’s Westville neighborhood.
This is where the younger Consiglio, now 84, started working, after school and on Saturdays, when he was 11 years old.
“He had a little shine stand in the corner of his store,” Consiglio said, referring to his father.
Today, the cup is used for water to soften leather before it is sewn, “so the needles go through,” he said. “I use it every time I stitch.”
Consiglio hails from a long line of ancestors who chose careers in leather goods, including his great grandfathers who made shoes in Amalfi, Italy and his paternal grandfather, Anthony, who was a shoemaker in the Italian Navy.
His daughter, Andrea Consiglio Gladwin, also shared what she called a family “fun fact” that her father’s brother, Joseph Consiglio, is a retired ferrier, who worked on horse hooves.
Consiglio took over his father’s shop as a ninth grader at New Haven’s Sheridan School.
“My father had a heart attack, and I had to run the shop for him,” he said.
He never completed high school.
It was in West Haven that the then 25-year-old Consiglio set up his first shoe repair shop, West Haven Shoe Repair.
Katherine Turcio, 91, remembers frequenting this shop when she lived in West Haven. She brought many items to Consiglio, but the most important job she ever gave him was repairing the orthopedic shoes for her two young sons, John and James.
“They only had one pair, so I said to him ‘Could I have them in a rush because they don’t have any other shoes?’” the now Old Lyme resident said. “He said, ‘Leave them and then come back.’”
“We would go home, and they would nap and when they woke up from their nap we would go back to the shoe repair and the shoes were always ready,” she said. “He really stopped what he was doing and did their shoes so they would be ready when we got back.”
Consiglio has maintained this reputation since starting his own business in 1966.
“I try to please everybody and accommodate everybody,” he said. “I’ve got second generation customers.”
“I do the work as fast as I can and give them back what they want,” he said. “I put the best on, I don’t use anything cheap. I try to give them the best for their money.”
In 1975 Consiglio moved to the 360-square-foot Branford location at 1203 Main St. Shoe repair shops are rare in Connecticut.
The bell rings as each customer opens the door to enter or exit the store. Scattered around the shop are repairs of shoes, boots, pocketbooks and belts yet to be started, work in progress and completed projects ready to be picked up.
Consiglio rings up each job on an R.C. Allen Business Machine cash register, made in Grand Rapids, MI. It was his father’s original machine at Mike’s Shoe Repair.
The wall space around the front counter is covered with family photographs, accolades and news stories about the family over the years, some showing signs of aging, yellowed and faded.
On a recent Monday afternoon March Ring brought in a cherished pair of her husband’s shoes and left them with Consiglio to repair the soles.
“When something’s broken, he likes to fix it instead of replacing it,” the North Branford resident said, referring to her husband. “I offered to buy him a new pair.”
Pointing to a pair of burgundy Florsheim shoes, she said they were a gift from her husband’s father, an attorney, when his son became an attorney.
“I’ll take care of them,” said Consiglio.
“I’m sure you will,” said Ring.
A Facebook post on the Branford, Connecticut site, written by Gladwin to celebrate her father’s 50 years in town, has garnered some 1,000 likes and more than 300 comments.
Gladwin got choked up as she talked about her father’s dedication.
“I’m so proud of my dad because he provided a beautiful life for me and my siblings and my mom,” the Guilford resident said, wiping away tears.
“He worked every day, six days a week,” she said. “There was no shutting the store down for anything. Any time I had an event or someone had an event, he could come later. He wouldn’t shut the door. He was always here for his customers.”
Consiglio recalled the hernia surgery he had some 10 years ago.
“I had it on a Friday, and I was here Saturday,” he said. “I didn’t work; I just sat.”
He told his wife, “I’m going to take in work and, most of all, take in money.”
Consiglio and his late wife, Laura, raised Gladwin, 55, and her two siblings, Renee, 62 and Michael, 60, in New Haven.
Laura Consiglio, who died in 2021, worked in the New Haven public school system to provide health benefits for the family.
Every single day Consiglio visits her grave at Branford’s St. Agnes Cemetery, before going to his shop at 7 a.m.
“I’ve got to talk to her and tell her what’s going on with the kids,” he said.
Consiglio opens his door at 7:30 a.m. to welcome customers and locks up at 4 p.m.
Daily, Consiglio said he has “heels, soles, shines, sewing on the sewing machine.”
Every job is unique.
“Everything is different, and everything is a different job,” he said.
With expertise in all things shoe related, pocketbooks and zippers are done by Consiglio’s employee, Ron Pantalena.
Consiglio didn’t hesitate when asked about the most challenging job he ever had.
“A 4-inch build up on one foot,” he said. “That was tough.”
“You have to take the sole off and raise it 4 inches because his leg is short,” he said. “Then you have to put the sole back on and then he has to walk normal or else he’ll be tripping all over the place.”
For years Consiglio has been trusted with the shoes from the nuns residing at Guilford’s Monastery of Our Lady of Grace.
All the soles are rubber, “everything is quite (there),” he said.
“A lot of them come in and I see the toes in their shoes are all worn from kneeling,” he said. The colors all off. I polish them and put a little dye on them.”
This work is all gratis.
“I tell them I can’t charge God,” he said.
“He tells them to pray for our family,” chimed in Gladwin.
Consiglio has no local competition.
“I’m the only one from Branford to Rhode Island,” he said.
How does this make him feel?
“Tired,” he said.
Consiglio has no immediate plans to close up shop and waxes nostalgic about the life he built for himself and his family.
“I had a good life, I think so,” he said. “I tell them all the time, don’t cry for me because I had a good life, I had a good wife, I had good kids and I got a good business.”
“And he’s a good dad,” said Gladwin. “He always was.”
Branford Shoe Repair, 1203 Main St., Branford, CT; 203-488-4420.