Two sisters who spent their working lives at a Hamilton music store will close the iconic business by the end of the month.

The Music Box announced it would shut its doors after about 70 years in business.

Helena Escolastica, who ran the store for 13 years with her sister, Geneveve, said the closure had been a long time coming, with music streaming playing a role.

She added: “I’ve had a lot of people come in here almost crying, saying that they grew up knowing this place.

“So did I — I started here when I was 15 and I’m now 65. I’ve been here pretty much my entire life.

“I’ve seen people who used to come here when they were children — now they’re married and they’ve had their own kids.

“A lot of people have told us that we’re going to be missed.”

The Reid Street store has been a staple of Bermuda’s music scene since the 1950s.

It was bought by Charles Edward “Eddie” DeMello in 1974, who started working there as a teenager and stayed on board for 20 years.

Mr DeMello found fame as a promoter, bringing over talents such as Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles — and in turn, establishing The Music Box as one of the island’s top music retailers.

He recorded and sold music from Bermudian artists, such as Hubert Smith and his classic, Bermuda Is Another World.

Mr DeMello also moved the store from its previous Queen Street location to Reid Street and hired the Escolastica sisters.

Contrary to popular belief, Ms Escolastica said, the two were not actually Mr DeMello’s children, but distant relatives.

The pair lived in the town of Lomba da Maia in the Azorean island of Sao Miguel, where Mr DeMello also lived, before they moved to Bermuda with their family.

Helena Escolastica started working at The Music Box in 1979 at 15. Her sister started two years later.

“I needed a job,” Ms Escolastica said. “I didn’t know the first thing about music, not one, but I listened to it and I learnt all different kinds of genres.”

She and her sister saw the rise of different music formats at The Music Box, from vinyl to cassette and eventually to CDs.

Mr DeMello referred to the pair as “his daughters” because they became so close.

Ms Escolastica said that The Music Box lived up to its name by being more than just a record store.

The shop, founded on diversity, sold instruments, music theory books, music hardware and even offered music lessons.

Ms Escolastica said she and her sister later introduced yarn and crochet items, as well as handmade jewellery and DVDs.

The pair took over the store after Mr DeMello’s death in 2013.

Ms Escolastica admitted that the store’s end began a few years later.

She explained: “Things started getting a little bit slower.

“DVDs were sort of still doing well but then they just started fading out.”

Ms Escolastica said that, surprisingly, there had been a boost of activity during the Covid-19 pandemic because people had more time on their hands to learn an instrument.

However, the advent of music streaming, a lack of retail activity and declining interests in learning music made the business unsustainable.

Me Escolastica said: “Music is a luxury. Some people have to choose between learning and food.

“I keep remembering when things were booming. The guys from construction used to come in at the end of the week.

“They’d been working hard all week and they were going to spend the weekend at home just relaxing and listening to music, so they’d buy a bunch of CDs.

“That was a big part of the customer base that we had — but we’ve just had less and less people coming in.”

Ms Escolastica added that Hamilton had lost many parking spaces, which made the store less appealing to older customers.

She explained: “I’ve had a lot of people come and tell me ‘I’ve gone around the block several times and I’ve been here two or three times but there’s no parking in front of your store so I just kept going’.”

She added: “The majority of the younger generation have everything they need on their phones so they don’t really need to come and buy the physical thing.

“The other side of all of that is, because there’s not as much demand for CDs, they’re literally phasing them out.

“They’re not that readily available and the ones that are available are expensive as heck.”

Despite the closure, Ms Escolastica said that she was happy about the store’s role in people’s lives.

She said: “It’s helped a lot of people I think, because when you’re depressed, a little bit of music is going to brighten your day.

“We’ve helped a lot of students by having their music ready here where they don’t have to look for it.”

Ms Escolastica added: “Forty-three years is a very long time.

“We wanted to keep this going as much as we could because we knew that Mr DeMello loved this place and we wanted it to go so much further than it has.”

The Escolastica sisters will teach crotchet and knitting once The Music Box closes its doors.

“It’s going to be different,” Ms Escolastica admitted. “But maybe it’ll be a good different.”

The sisters gave their thanks to those who supported their store over the years.

Fighting back tears, Helena Escolastica said: “I’m sorry we couldn’t do any better, but it is what it is.”

Dale Butler, a former Minister of Culture, called the store’s closing “the loss of an institution”.

He said: “The Music Box was a place where you could go in, meet Mr DeMello, get a rundown of the musicians and in some cases even meet them.”

He added: “It became an institution where you could find all kinds of music. We are losing an institution here.

“It’s a sad, sad day.”

Mr Butler promoted CDs of Bermudian artists that continued to sell there.

He called Mr DeMello “way ahead” in recording Bermudian talent and encouraged others to buy and preserve the recordings as a part of Bermuda’s cultural history — even offering his services with sales until the store’s closure.