The Fudoli Music and Repair Center on Main Street in downtown Butler was cleared out Thursday.

The golden sign? Gone. The phone? No longer in service.

Another store, Fudoli Music and Repair Center, has closed on Main Street in Butler. The only outward sign it existed is a black fabric awning with the words “Fudoli Music” in white script.

On Thursday, what remained in the building, including a lonely tuba, were packed into a box truck parked at 142 S. Main St. with the name Wally Yaracs Family Auction on the side.

Patty Schorr, who owns Mystique Moon Antiques & Artisans next to the music store, said the owner of the music shop, Ron Fudoli, was a sweet man.

“He was a kind man,” Schorr said. “His customers thought the world of him.”

A Fudoli music shop has been a mainstay in the Butler area for at least 55 years.

A classified ad in the Butler Eagle on Oct. 13, 1966, has a Fudoli Music Shop located at 120 E. Wayne St. Two years and a day later, another classified ad in the Eagle has a Tony Fudoli Music Shop located at Point Plaza. Tony Fudoli is Ron's father and the founder of Fudoli Music and Repair Center.

The music store later moved to 113 E. Brady St. before that property was sold and the business moved to its Main Street home. The move occurred between 2002 and 2003, according to Eagle reports.

With Fudoli closed, only one music store is left open in Butler, May's Music Shoppe on East Jefferson Street.

May's is prepared to keep the county's musicians playing, said owner Josh May. But becoming the only music shop in town isn't as much of an opportunity as it might seem. For May, it's more worrisome than exciting.

“Lots of customers have come in and said, 'I bet you're excited to be the only music store,'” May said. “Quite honestly, I'm not. Competition keeps everything level. It keeps everyone in line. The last thing I would hate to see is another mom-and-pop shop be gone.”

May's Music Shoppe has been in the family for three generations, so for May, seeing another multigenerational business in town close is sad.

“I hate to see all that, years and years of family involvement, just to close doors,” May said. “No fanfare, no goodbye, no nothing. It's a shame. I wish I could say it was great to be the last man standing, but it's sad.”

The Eagle spoke with Ron Fudoli briefly Thursday as he was moving items out of the building, but he was unable to talk at length. As of press time, the Eagle was unable to reach Fudoli for further comment.