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Willard
and Myrtie Paine founded Paine's Garage from an old
horse barn in 1935. They bought an old farm on Brewer
Road with an old barn and a new 2-story house with the
top story missing.
Willard
had worked at various garages, including the AH
Ford Garage on Fall Street in Seneca Falls. In the
early 30's he had his own shop on the canal behind the
Eshenhour Chrysler/Plymouth dealership on Main Street
in Waterloo. One day it caught fire, and the fire department's
hoses knocked his tools into the canal. He then rented
the Lake
Street Garage in Geneva, and worked there during
the day to provide monies to live, finish his home,
and build his own business. His wages then were around
$5.00 per week. He and Myrtie, who was pregnant with
Donald, shoveled wagons full of old manure from the
floor, and then shoveled in concrete to replace the
dirt.
The shop from
the south end taken around
1949 - 1950 |
Most
of the garage was built out of used materials and fixtures
that were scavenged from the local dump. He even used
an old chicken coop to add on an enclosure for his machine
shop.
He
began by repairing autos, trucks, and farm equipment.
Along with being a good machinist, he also was a very
skilled weldor, and turned a lot of old junk into good
working equipment. During WWII, he kept the local vehicles
and farm equipment rolling and working. The front bolster
on Farmall tractors frequently broke, and Willard made
a repair that alleviated the problem, a good thing since
industry was producing war machines, not parts.
The welder is one Willard built
to tow around for working on farm equipment, and
also to thaw frozen pipes in the winter. Photo taken
late winter 1940 |
He
worked briefly for the gravel pits on Rte 96, and built
an entire boom for an excavator from scratch. He bought
a broken Caterpillar Thirty bulldozer, repaired it,
and carved the rolling landscape into an airstrip. From
here he flew his Aeronca
Chief for many years.
Donald
worked around the shop, and on area farms while growing
up, and was also bitten by the mechanics bug. After
school, he worked at Sylvania 1 month, but didn't like
the monotony of factory work. He worked in Shortsville
for McGurk Chrysler Plymouth as a mechanic. He went
to work at the Willard Hospital in Oct 53, for 1 year,
then enlisted in the army, and wound up working on tanks.
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After
the service Donald went back to Willard Hospital. He
then married Nancy, and they moved to Rochester where
he worked for Seibert Chevrolet. He slowly worked his
way back to Brewer Road, where with the help of his
dad, he built a home near the garage.
The 55 dodge tow truck that Willard
built. The photograph was taken in the early 1960's |
It
was at this time in the early sixties that Don and his
dad started the Paine racing legacy. With an old '49
Chevy and a lot of ingenuity, they built the #7 late
model that was a dominant force at the area dirt tracks
in the hands of local driver Rollie Velte. They towed
the car to the track with another of Willard's homebuilts,
a 1955 Dodge 100 tow truck.
After
Willard's health problems, Donald took over the garage
in 1969. He continued repairing cars, and in 1973, he
obtained the Sno-Jet snowmobile dealership from Duane
Marx. This was the first step in the direction of retailing
and outdoor power equipment. In 1974, Ronald McGreevy
was hired right out of high school to help with the
growing business. Ron is still turning out excellent
work 29 years later.
In
1976, the Gravely franchise became available from LeBrun
Motors, and a deal was quickly made. From there the
garage acquired Poulan, Bolens, and Polaris. A second
mechanic, Dan Snook, was added at this time also. Polaris
and Bolens were quickly weeded out, and Simplicity was
chosen as a replacement in 1979. Stephen Paine, Don's
oldest son, started working in the auto repair shop,
and started racing at the local DIRT tracks.
The
80's saw a growth to 3 mechanics with Bob Paine, Don's
son, working in the lawn & garden shop. Racing became
a bigger part of Steve's career.
The
90's saw the passing of Willard and Myrtie Paine, and
the semi-retirement of Donald. The auto repair business
became the racing business, and was split off under
Steve as Paine
Motorsports in 1992. At the same time Bob took over
the garage part of the business, which was now fully
an outdoor power equipment shop. As Paine's Garage,
Inc entered the new millennium we have added only a
few lines to complete our product offering; Husqvarna,
Stihl, Toro,
and Echo.
Paine's
Garage, Inc. as it stands today
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Our
values today are still the same as they were in 1935;
integrity, quality, and customer service.
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