Tom's McLean Service

Tom's McLean Service
Interior Remodel, circa 1989

    I can't remember the exact date, but sometime between late 1988 and early 1990, we decided to do a major overhaul of the interior of the main building. The reason was mainly due to heat, because the oil-fired furnace had died, and this building was colder than you could imagine in winter. In fact, the interior parts room was known as "the freezer", because it would get colder than the outside air temperature. This building was really an old cow shed, with lofts that exposed the ground floor to the attic. The walls were practically devoid of any meaningful paneling, so whatever heat was produced was quickly lost.

    Prior to construction, the remaining workbenches and shop tools were relocated to the ground floor of the white house (which will be shown in the next chapter). This would free up the main building to house our first-ever new equipment 'showroom', such that it was, and eliminated the dust and noise present when mechanics worked here. Also, several shelves of obsolete lawnmower parts were emptied and moved to the yard for disposal. Many of these parts were as old as the shop itself, covered with decades of dust. It took some convincing to get Tom to agree to this, as it was against his nature to throw anything away. His shop was indeed known as source for obsolete parts, so much that even our engine distributors would call if they needed something no one else could find. However, demand for these items had dried up, and we convinced him of the need for space for our working inventory. The old parts went to Mike Twigg, an RBI service man who collected old mowers and parts. Among the parts were about 2-dozen used impulse (wind-up) starters from the 1960s, for which Tom's was just about the last place these were ever to be found.

    The interior walls were stripped of what pressboard coverings were left, and there were some real surprises found behind them, some of which are shown on this website. These included old parts, service tickets, calendar pages, etc. One gasket board was removed, revealing (on its back side) a poster showing the line up of Jacobsen lawn mowers for 1967. At this time, fluorescent lighting was added to the parts rooms, which were like elongated closets. For the first time in anyones memory, you could actually see without a flashlight. Volumes of old parts manuals were cleared out to make way for more current literature.

    The final operation was installation of sheetrock on the interior walls and ceiling. This turned Tom's from a freezer to quite literally an oven, and greatly improved employee morale. Because this was Tom's McLean Service, the sheetrock we used was not new. We brought over sheets stored at Tom's Kensington Road house, which had been sitting for at least a decade. These were not 8, 10 or 12-foot sections. Rather they were oddball 9-foot long sheets for a government-spec job that Tom had acquired from surplus! Tom had lived through the Great Depression, and he had also built a few houses in his lifetime. We cut the sheets to fit, applied drywall mud, and even painted the place. Life was good.

Mike Kiernan preparing a wall for sheetrock. This is the north side, behind where Harry Baker's bench used to be. The patched-over hole in the wall is where an exhaust fan was located to clear smoke and fumes. For most of its existence, there were several mechanics working in this building. Note the loft above, containing grass catcher parts. The loft ran along the north and east sides of the interior.

Original 1934 structure was now visible, as the remains of the old blue pressboard wall covering lay on the ground.

Same area, looking towards the northeast corner. The sheetrock is being installed, and the loft has been painted high-visibility yellow. There is the ancient Baldor grinder on the bench, and at far right (behind my finger!) was the side entrance, barely visible.

The northeast corner wall and the phone, which contained the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' of Tom's McLean Service. Scrawled over several decades, many old and faded phone numbers are visible behind the new, including McLean Auto Parts, McLean Hardware, McLean Service Center, and a Briggs & Stratton engine model number. There were employees, friends and customers including Tom Corner, Vinnie D'Agostino, "Mom" (Dorlene D'Agostino-Vinnie's mother), Harry Baker, Jack Wright, Jeff Mortellaro, Lew Cossaboon, Rollie Blue, Mike Kiernan, myself (four different numbers!) and ol' Charlie Baesgen.

Visible behind the modern touch-tone wall phone is the outline of the old pay phone, which was installed in the 1960s or 1970s by Tom. The dual-bell ringer above had a very distinct tone which I will always remember, and I was told there was once a bell outside the building facing the yard. The pressboard paneling, painted light blue, dated to the earliest days of the business. The white-colored side door led out to the yard, and had slippery and dangerous concrete 'ramp' for a threshold. It also had a low overhead clearance due to the loft hanging down. This is was why the side entrance was eventually blocked off from the public.

Mike Kiernan's Australian Shepherd named Norton, lounging behind the parts counter. There were frequently canines on premises. Tom's German Shepherd (1970s?) was reputed to be vicious, and was probably used for security. Jack Wright had a Husky-mix named Blader; she used to sit perched upright on a stump outside the door, and learned to catch and eat bees and wasps. Norton was a friendly dog who loved everyone, especially Mike Volz, who stopped by almost every day.

Unfortunately underexposed shot of the east wall and loft, looking upward into the attic. This illustrates the clearance hazard of the loft above the side door (barely visible at extreme left), as well as the hopelessness of keeping heat in this building. The sheetrock eliminated the problem. The parts boxes contained spark plugs and other point-of sale items for the counter.

Unrelated image from the same roll. John Saunders working on his 1982 Dodge Mirada on a cold afternoon, while talking with Rodney Corner. This was in the alley between the Animal Hospital and the white house.

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7/18/2021 (revised 05/31/26)