ORLANDO, Fla. — In 1971, when parts of Orange Avenue were still surrounded by orange groves, a young couple from Los Angeles relocated to Florida and decided to open a record store.

Everyone seemed to think they were crazy, even the company representatives that sold them records. “They saw us going out in about six months,” Hanna Skrobko said. “Surprise, surprise.”

More than five decades later, Skrobko is bidding farewell to the store she owned with her late husband, a place she said became a hot spot for fans of vinyl records and independent music.

“We made it because we were too full of ourselves to understand that you really can’t do this,” she said.

East West Records, which proclaims itself the oldest independent vinyl record store in Florida, will be closing at the end of the month, shutting the store at 4895 S. Orange Ave.

It held a sale last weekend, and it will donate its sign, a giant white square with the red-and-white East West Records logo, to the Orange County Regional History Center.

Skrobko and her husband, Roman, who died last year, owned the store until 2018 when they sold the property to current owner Bobby Serros. Serros, who grew up in the area and shopped at the store as a kid, then gave the store to his daughter Emma.

Emma Serros said she loved the store as a kid, too, long before her dad gave it to her.

“I got my first turntable when I was about 11 or 12,” she said. “I was buying records from Barnes & Noble because it was close to our house and my dad was like, ‘Hell no, I’m taking you to an actual record store,’ so he brought me to East West and I’ve been coming here ever since.”

The store is named East West Records, Skrobko said, after a Butterfield Blues Band album she and Roman agreed fit the store both for its catchy sound and to represent their cross-country move.

Its wooden bins displayed hundreds of records, and cassettes, CDs and DVDs were for sale, too. A web of colorful lights and records dangling from the ceiling danced overhead as store employees played music that shifted between classic and contemporary, showcasing tunes that spanned decades and genres.

When Emma Serros took over in August 2018, the Skrobkos had only one request: Keep the store open until 2021 so it could reach its 50th anniversary. That date is now behind them.

Skrobko said Serros did “a wonderful job” managing the store and helped it end on a high note.

“The very first 10 years and the last 10 years were the best, they were bookends of awesomeness,” Skrobko said.

After six years maintaining East West Records, Serros has decided to focus on her education. She is studying radiology at the University of Central Florida.

But she said she’ll miss the store’s regular customers, who would stop in to check out new arrivals or just browse the stands for hidden gems they may have missed.

“I had to call a couple customers and be like, ‘you’re not going to hear from me, don’t freak out when you can’t call the number anymore but I’m OK and this is my cellphone number’ so I can keep in touch with them,” she said. “I’m really going to miss a lot of my customers.”

David Porter, an Orlando resident and East West Records customer since 1974, said stopping in the store has long been part of his routine.

“I call it a drive-by,” Porter said. “It’s nice because there’s a little bin with new arrivals so when people bring in albums to trade, they put them right there,” he said. “If I don’t have a lot of time, I run out and see what they’ve got that’s just come in. It’s like a little ritual.”

Running the store was never easy, Skrobko said, but creating a place for vinyl music lovers made it worthwhile.

“The music and the friendships, all my friends I’ve acquired through the store. Long, lasting friendships,” she said. “There’s a whole lot of love in this place.”

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