Guitar Works, the Evanston music shop that has sold and repaired guitars since 1979, will permanently close on Tuesday, Sept. 1, ending a 47-year run on Main Street.

Owner and founder Terry Straker announced the closure Saturday, Aug. 1, in an email to customers, citing years of unprofitability, rising property taxes, and import tariffs on guitars and accessories.

"The store has not been profitable for some time and has never really recovered from the COVID era downturn and the change in consumers' buying habits started in the COVID era," Straker wrote in the announcement.

The store at 709 Main St. sits in the Main-Dempster Mile commercial corridor, where it joins a growing list of recent closures. AMC Evanston 12 shut down for renovation on Sunday, July 19, and 17 Plant Based closed after six months at the Hilton Orrington.

Katherine Gotsick, executive director of Main-Dempster Mile, called the closure "a big loss for Evanston and Main Street in particular." She told the Evanston RoundTable that the situation extends beyond one shop, pointing to high property-tax valuations and the broader difficulty of running a retail business in the post-COVID economy.

Straker's connection to guitar repair predates the store itself. In 1972, he dropped his own guitar and couldn't afford a professional fix, so he taught himself the craft. He opened Guitar Works at 739 Main St. seven years later, then moved four doors east to the current 709 Main St. location in 2000 for more space.

Over nearly five decades, the shop drew nationally known musicians. Touring acts including The Who and Los Lobos patronized the store. The late folk artist John Prine and the Indigo Girls were customers. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and the band Styx bought guitars there, and Chicago blues players Buddy Guy, the late Lonnie Brooks, and the late Honeyboy Edwards used the shop for gear and repairs.

The store never recovered. Straker wrote that it had been "a privilege" to be known as "Terry from Guitar Works" for so many decades.

Guitar Works will hold major sales throughout August before the Sept. 1 closing date. No replacement tenant for the 709 Main St. space has been announced.