Tom's McLean Service A Brief History of Tom's Tom Corner (left) with Bob Charters of Stull Equipment Co., circa 1968 (Tom Corner photo)     Tom's McLean Service was started in 1953 by Thomas Edmond Corner, whose family owned the property on which it stood. Located at the northwest corner of Elm Street and Poplar Drive, the lot contained the family residence (built 1934) which faced Elm Street, and replaced their original home which had been destroyed by fire. Directly behind it was a smaller wood-frame home, which had served as the temporary family residence while the 1934 home was being constructed. The lot is located with Ingleside, a planned community that pre-dates the use of the place name McLean.(See Bob Stoy's excellent McLean & Fairfax County page for more about the community called Ingleside.)     The lawn mower repair shop was started in a cow shed at the northwest corner of the lot. Once-rural McLean was then beginning a period of massive development, with subdivisions springing up where dairy farms once stood. Thousands of new residents now had lawns to maintain, so it was a good business to get into at the time. The people never stopped coming, and the business thrived during the 1960s and 1970s. Tom sold many brands of mowers over the years, including Lawn-Boy, Jacobsen, Ariens, Toro and Yard-Man. Factory authorized service for Briggs & Stratton, Clinton, Jacobsen, Lauson, Lawn-Boy and Power Products engines was done on-site.     Labor totals for the month of May, 1958 reveal Tom's at that time to be very small business. The shop grossed about $175.00 labor, mostly sharpening reel mowers, along with a few rotary mowers and a handful of tune-ups. Tom was dedicated to the trade, and would travel around the country to attend service schools provided at OEM factories or regional distributors. Tom received his Clinton Engines Certification at Maquoketa, Iowa in 1959. The new McLean Post Office opened directly across Elm Street in 1962, an indicator of the massive growth in the area. The business just kept coming to Tom's, who brought in more mechanics to handle the work. These included Melvin Wright, Harry Baker and Clyde Ashby, among others.     At some point in the 1970s, Tom expanded the footprint of the shop by building a cinder block wall which wrapped around the west and north sides of the original wooden building, and covered with a tin roof. This was to house the increasing volume of mowers checked in for repair, at times numbering in the hundreds. This area was dug out to allow the addition of a mezzanine to increase capacity, which was completed in the mid-1980s. After the upper level had been completed, incoming mowers went into a door near the front entrance, and were wheeled into the lower level, or "the hole". The opposite end of this line, which emerged at the back of the building, was where the mechanics would draw their next repair job. Thus, the entire mass of lawn mowers had to be moved forward periodically. Once completed, repaired mowers went back in the front entry way, but were diverted up a ramp to the low-clearance mezzanine. The lower level of the hole flooded regularly during heavy rains. This area of the business was either warm and humid, or freezing cold, depending on the season. January 1982 view of the main shop at 6834 Elm Street. This is fairly representative of how the shop looked in the 1970s. In the winter, the garage door remained closed, and a customers used the side door to enter. Far left: a Craftsman lawn mower on its way into "the hole".     The tiny shop on Elm street contained a small parts counter and approximately three mechanics stations, within a single room. There were several aisles of parts shelves, most of which were partitioned from the main room. Most of the floor was concrete, except for the parts areas behind the counter which had wooden floors. More parts were stored in the attic, which was accessed by an interior ladder. A narrow staircase, approximately 12" wide, was added around 1982. (This staircase survived the final remodeling and was later relocated) The building was heated by an oil-fired furnace located in the northwest corner, and air conditioned by opening the garage door when the weather was nice. When the block wall for "the hole" was constructed, a long parts room was formed between the block wall and the west wall of the building. Through a small door behind the counter, one would enter this room which was known as "The Freezer". Its odd engineering, sandwiched between the old shed and the new block structure, resulted in temperatures much colder than the outside air. Anyone who ever experienced The Freezer can attest to this fact. The open areas of the shop itself were not that much warmer. Mechanics would often draw a mower from the cold "hole", and warm it in front of the heater, to aid in starting.     There wasn't room to spare in the tiny shop, so eventually the "white house" or "the house" was incorporated into the business. This building was east of the main shop, directly behind the Corner family home, which still stands at 6830 Elm street. This small wood frame home was, according to Tom, built quickly to house his family after a fire destroyed their original home, which was directly across Elm Street. The new residence was built by 1934, was in 1964 listed as 208 Poplar Place. The house number of the white house is unknown, but was probably the same as the larger house. By the 1980s, VDOT had extended Beverly Road from the McLean Bowling Center to Elm Street. The white house had a basement garage, and a driveway leading to Poplar, but this was filled in as a result of the road realignment and grading. The basement of the white house became the riding mower repair shop, accessed by a concrete ramp through a door cut out of the west side wall. There were no windows, so ventilation was poor, but it had a furnace, and was by far the warmest place in winter. In summer, it was naturally cool and comfortable. Above this, on the ground floor, was reel mower sharpening machine used by John Payne, who was a friend of Tom's who once lived across Elm St. on Poplar. The third floor contained engines and other parts until 1982, when Jack Wright remodeled it into an apartment.     Many communities had more than one dedicated lawnmower repair shop, and McLean has had at least three, which were Tom's McLean Service (Elm Street), McLean Lawnmower & Bicycle Center (directly across Elm Street from Tom's!) and Lane's Garden & Equipment Co. (Old Dominion drive, next to the old Laughlin house). Additionally, every hardware store provided some level of lawnmower sales/service, including Allen's, McLean Hardware, Langley Hardware, and McIntyre Hardware. Even Dart Drug was selling Toro mowers in the 1970s! Regionally, nearby repair shops included: Arlington: Lane's (Vernon Robinson) Falls Church: Alpha Lawn & Garden (Don O'Meara) Fairfax: Blamer's (Joe Blamer) Vienna: Vienna Lawnmower (Faye LeCompe) and Arrington's Sterling: Sterling Mower (Rollie Blue) Great Falls: Cossaboon's (Lew Cossaboon). These men knew each other on a first name basis, and often traded shop-to-shop. Vernon Robinson of Lane's was one of the nicest persons you'd ever meet. Lew Cossaboon and Rollie Blue were personal friends with Tom. Faye LeCompe always attended service schools in a suit and tie.     In 1978, Tom Corner sold his business to employees Vincent D'Agostino and Jack Wright. The Corner family house at 6830 Elm Street was leased as a commercial space to Animal General Hospital, which shared the gravel parking lot with the mower repair shop. Tom retired and bought a house in Corpus Christi, Texas. He spent the winters there, and would return during warm weather to help out at the shop. He owned a house on Kensington Road in McLean, in which he rented out the main floor, and used the basement as a warehouse for the mower shop. Overstocked new lawnmowers were stored here, along with loads of building materials. When not in Texas, Tom bunked in a room on the upper floor of this house.     Financial difficulties forced Tom to take back the business around 1984. He still spent winters at his home in Texas, so during those months, he left the day-to-day operation of the shop to his son Rodney Corner. By this time, Elm Street had been completely transformed into a small office park, and Tom's property contained some of the last remaining original structures from the Ingleside community, east of Dolley Madison Blvd. The gravel parking lot was paved during this period, and curbs and gutters installed along the Elm Street frontage. With the area now mostly devoid of trees, the shop really stood out aesthetically, and was the subject of numerous citizen complaints. It was also the last mower shop left in town, and was busier than ever.     In late 1990, The Corner family accepted an offer to purchase their property and the mower business from Scott Murnan, who was leasing the Animal General Hospital. Murnan considered demolishing the three buildings and replacing them with a high rise. Ultimately, however, he decided to keep the mower shop open under the old name, and revitalize the building. The amazing transformation of Tom's took place in early 1991, and when completed in May of that year, was nothing short of a miracle. Although mostly cosmetic in nature, it was dramatic, considering how far the buildings and property had deteriorated. Murnan operated the shop until 1993, when the doors of Tom's McLean Service closed forever. By agreement, Alpha Lawn and Garden took over the phone number, and business was referred to their shop.     The current owners of the property demolished the main shop building at 6834 Elm Street. A new low-rise commercial structure was built on the site, to almost identical dimensions and with a strikingly similar appearance. The Zillow listing for 6834 Elm says the structure was built in 1934, but that is incorrect. The building at that address was built sometime around the late 1990s. The old white house (painted grey in 1991) was demolished, and is now part of the parking lot. The Corner family home at 6830 Elm street remains, also as a leased commercial space. THE PHOTOS     Most of the photos of Tom's McLean Service on this site were taken by myself, when I worked here in 1981-1983, and again from 1988-1991. Sadly, I don't have any images of the place prior to 1982. The quality of many of my photos is poor, having been taken with a pocket Instamatic camera. Crude as they may be, they are likely all that remains of the memory of Tom's McLean Service. (January 1982) The view from the front of Tom's, looking across Elm Street. The brick house belonged to the Charters family, who lived there through the 1960s. The house occupied the site of the original Corner family home which burned down. The 1964 address was 115 Elm St. The white house in the background was the former home of John Payne, who was then retired and living on Caldor Rd. Mr. Payne sharpened the reel-type mowers for Tom, and still performed this service until he died in 1983. He was the father-in-law of Mike Volz, a regular visitor to the shop during the 1980s. Payne's grandson Brian Volz, is an alumnus of the Tom's crew. (January 1982) The McLean Bicycle Shop (6829 Elm St.) was also directly across from Tom's, between the Post Office and the Charters house. When this was taken, the proprietor was a man named Pete Oliverio (1926-2021), and as the sign indicates, he also sold Mopeds. Back during the 1960s and 1970s, this shop competed with Tom's, doing lawn mower repairs. The bike shop, along with the Charters and Payne houses were demolished in January, 1983 to make way for the FedEx building, which currently occupies the property. The bicycle shop relocated to the a house on Chain Bridge Road next to McLean Service Center. (December 6, 1983) Photo taken from upper floor of office building behind the shop. You can see the stockade fence, which was erected from used sections around 1982. A tarp covers a rear section of roof which had recently collapsed. The Tom's parking lot was un-paved at this time, and there were no curbs or gutters along this corner of Elm street. Across the street is the newly constructed FedEx building, and the U.S. Post Office (built in 1962, and still standing). Tom Corner, circa 1950s or 1960s. Many thanks to Gary Blue who identified this as the radio center for the Fairfax County Fire Department. The call letters on the board read "KIF 337". The Department was a big part of his life, and always talked about his days there. (Tom Corner photo) Some of Tom's old patches, from his shop shirt and from the McLean Volunteer Fire Department. RETURN TO THE TOM'S McLEAN SERVICE PAGE 8/18/18 (updated 05/31/26) © 2018, 2021, 2026 All Rights Reserved