Donald Davis Jr. sands a shoe sole.

THOMASVILLE — Family, dedication to service and variety of trades characterize an area of downtown Thomasville that is currently receiving revitalization attention.

Waldrep’s Service Cleaners and Davis Shoe Repair are two established, family businesses on the 200 block of West Jackson Street. Both businesses have grown over the decades and are excited about the ongoing effort to rejuvenate their area of downtown.

“When I was a teenager, this area was booming,” Eddie Waldrep Sr. said. “There were clothing stores, grocery stores, a fruit stand, a dime store…and now it’s trying to come back. It’s a tight-knit bunch of people. Everyone down here is good people.”

The Waldreps took over the Service Cleaners business in 1984. Prior to that, the business was owned by the Yarbrough family, which started the company with fellow local business man Al “Snap” Dixon. The Waldreps don’t have an official opening date, but have been told it was originally called “The Press Club.” They are in the process of researching their storefront’s history.

Eddie Waldrep Sr. and his wife, Rose, first ran the business. Their son Eddie Waldrep Jr., who helped in the store, took over in September 2014.

“In the beginning, everything they cleaned was men’s three-piece suits and women’s long dresses,” Eddie Waldrep Jr. said. “Clothes are more casual now than they used to be.”

The Waldreps have stored and cleaned countless items over the years, everything from wedding dresses to elf outfits to top-of-the-line tailored pants.

“We once had a bride on her wedding day call and tell us she had hung her wedding dress on a light fixture and when she went to take it down the fixture broke and cut her and she got blood all over her white dress,” Rose Waldrep recalled. “All of the cleaners in town were closed, but we opened the store and took it in, turned on the machines, cleaned it and delivered it to the church just in time for her to put it on and walk down the aisle. She is still a customer years later.”

The Waldreps have updated the storefront while trying to keep in touch with the area’s past. Rose Waldrep, 68, remembers walking by the store as a youth and seeing the old Service Cleaners Time clock above the door…the same one still in place today.

“We restored the front of the building to the way it looked in the early 1960s, but we have a modern look with the old style,” Waldrep Jr. said. “We’ve changed the lettering font on the front windows to look how it did, and we’ve restored the store’s sign.”

They’ve also added antique touches inside and out to provide a bit of charm and whimsy.

“We found the store’s original cash register and started using it again,” Waldrep Jr. said. “We have an old iron and ironing board, a classic Singer sewing machine, a wash pot and scrub board, and an old timey washing machine with ringer. Customers like the old antiques and say they bring back memories for people who used those types of items in the past, especially the washing machine. People come in and say, ‘I remember when I got my hand hung in one of those wringers!’”

A few doors down is Davis Shoe Repair, in the Davis family since 1982. Prior to this, the shoe repair shop was owned by Ralph Scott. An exact date is not known by current owner Donald Davis Jr., but he estimates the store has been open 40-50 years.

His father, Donald Davis Sr., bought the shop from Scott in 1982.

“At the time, there was a restaurant across the street and one day my father and Mr. Scott were there just talking,” Davis said. “Mr. Scott told him he was going to retire and my father asked him what he was going to do with the business. Mr. Scott jokingly asked if my father wanted to buy it. My father thought about it and, after a few weeks, decided that he would try apprenticing there when he wasn’t working at his used furniture business. He decided he liked it, closed up the furniture business and bought the shop. We’ve been here ever since.”

The elder Davis tried to get his son to work with him, but the younger Davis wanted to try something different. He became a draftsman, but eventually realized there was a business right in front of him and he should give it a try.

He did, realized he enjoyed it and that was it. Davis bought the shop from his father in 1992, and the duo worked together until the elder Davis’ death in 1996.

His storefront hasn’t changed much over the decades, other than the lettering on the windows, and he still uses the original equipment put in when the store first opened.

“I’m blessed with being good with my hands, I enjoy that aspect of it, and I enjoy the people,” Davis said. “It’s something different every day. Though it’s basically the same job, you have to approach each item differently. You have to think about the job in reverse. You have to know how to put a shoe back together before you can take it apart.”

Davis said you can tell a lot about a person from the way they wear a shoe.

“Most men wear out the left shoe first, especially those that drive,” Davis said. “They place their left foot on the ground first and spin on that foot. If someone has broken an ankle or a leg, they tend to favor that side and the wear shows on the shoe. And, there are more people than I would have ever dreamed who have one leg shorter than the other.”

He’s also tried to make something from just about any type of material.

“I had a lady from Tallahassee who brought me all kinds of things to try and one time we made her a purse out of a rug,” Davis recalled. “She came in recently and told me, ‘You can’t imagine how many people have tried to buy this purse from me.’”

Both families attribute their success to their customers.

“The reason we are still here is because of our customers,” Eddie Waldrep Jr. said. “They are not just customers, but life-long friends. We’re now cleaning for the third generation of families. We take pride in our customers’ garments.”

Davis said his customers are “the reason I’m able to stay in business.”

These businesses have watched the years pass along their area of West Jackson Street, and they hope to see years more. Both families are excited about the City of Thomasville’s current efforts to revitalize the area.

This effort includes exposing the bricks along the road, new businesses moving in, and future sidewalk revitalization and pot hole fixing projects.

Davis is glad for the attention to his block of West Jackson Street. He thinks the area’s eclectic gathering of shops – from service providers to knitting materials to wine to a gym – gives it a special edge.

“I’m tickled,” he said. “Businesses are being renovated, and new businesses are moving in down here and drawing people here. Hopefully, I’m supporting these businesses with my customers and they are doing the same my way. I’m glad to see our block finally getting some attention, whether it is renovations of buildings or it’s all coming together and looking better here. I look forward to the finished product.”

Waldrep Jr. is also glad the block is “finally getting some attention” and feels the changes “have been good.”

“The 200 block has always been a service oriented block,” he said. “This revitalization effort has brought in new businesses, we’ve seen younger generations open up shop, and the foot traffic has increased a whole lot. We’re seeing traffic we never saw before. People are walking by and checking out the shop, and our business has increased dramatically.”

The City of Thomasville and Main Street have done a good job of focusing on downtown, Davis said, and Thomasville’s downtown is a rarity in Georgia.

“Our downtown is thriving and there are a lot of good businesses down here,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of people from Tallahassee say they’d rather shop in Thomasville because it is smaller and more personable.”

And, it’s never too late to discover West Jackson Street.

“I’ve had people who have lived here all their lives walk by and say, ‘I didn’t know a shoe shop was here,’” Davis said. “Just stop in and visit with some of the store owners and talk with them about what is going on down here.”