By Dan Shine
Voice Columnist
Thomas’ Garage
Part II
See part 1
At the close of World War II, West Haven was no longer a borough of Orange; now it was a town unto itself. And this growing bedroom-community now boasted a total of ten miles of hard-paved streets! By now, Americans were attracted more and more to the ease and convenience of owning their own means of transportation, and locally, they began to shun the clanging trolleys that had been West Haven’s primary conveyance for eighty years. And as America’s love affair with the automobile grew and took off, Ever-Ready Service Center grew into a ten-bay operation, which was now known as Thomas’ Garage.
By this time, Ray Thomas was teaching his son Ed the elements of auto mechanics, as well as the science of small business management. Ed, the former would-be dentist, had a natural aptitude for both of these new tasks, and began to take on more and more responsibility. He and his new wife settled a couple of doors away from the garage and began a family. Their oldest son was Kenneth, to be followed by Richard and Gary.
Today, and with a chuckle, Ken Thomas recalls one of his earliest memories of Thomas’ Garage: He was a three-year old, pedaling his tricycle from his home to his grandfather’s garage on Washington Avenue in 1950, and when he pedaled into one of the garage bays, he and the tricycle fell five-and-one-half feet into the grease pit. The tricycle was wrecked, but Ken had the natural resilience of a young child, and escaped with only scratches.
There is an extension to this story: Later on in life, Ken—now a teenager–was cleaning the debris from a grease pit one Saturday, when he stood up too quickly and knocked himself unconscious on an overhead iron beam. He woke up some time later, lying face down in the sand lining of the pit, and he thereupon decided to preserve his dignity by not telling anyone what had happened.
In 1960, Ray Thomas retired and his son Edwin took over control of the business, adding used car sales to their traditional offerings of automotive maintenance and repairs. Ed’s sons subsequently entered the business on a full-time basis: Ken became General Manager, Rich ran the service department, and Gary ran the parts department. Ray spent a quiet retirement in his home on Sawmill Road, on the site where Denny’s now stands, and passed away in 1980.
Ed retired in 1981. By now, Thomas’ Garage was a franchised Subaru dealership. However, business differences arose between franchisor and franchisee, and the situation became more and more tense.
One Saturday afternoon in 1983, a suspicious fire broke out in Thomas’ Garage, and the building burned to the ground. The garage was rebuilt immediately, and continued in operation, although now without the franchise, and finally ceased doing business in 1991. At the time of its demise, Thomas’ Garage was the oldest business of its type in West Haven.
The building was taken over by West Haven Emergency Assistance Taskforce (W.H.E.A.T), which operates from that location to this day.