Downtown Durham, North Carolina is filled with old tobacco warehouses, more and more of them now being converted into hip lofts, offices, and retail shops. Durham’s renaissance has come slowly, and only after decades of dormancy. Native son Gayford Caston has a small shoe repair shop on Main Street. He’s open 7 days a week. When he’s not fixing torn leather on his old Singer sewing machine, replacing worn soles on his shoe jack, or erasing black marks on scuffed boots, Caston loves to chat, and reminisce about the old Durham, with his customers.

Gayford Caston, Main Shoe Repair Man, Durham, North Carolina from Jill Strauss on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Jill Strauss who produced this piece for “The Short Audio Documentary,” a course taught by John Biewen at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

You can also check out Jill’s photo slideshow, here.