Bailey’s Purchase Service Station From Mobil Corporation.

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Excerpted from the Cricket, November 8, 1985: 

Leased Since 1948, Guy and Laura Bailey of Highwood Road will no longer have to pay rent to Mobil Corporation.  On Monday, October 28 of this year, they purchased the station from Mobil, almost thirty-seven years to the date they first began leasing the business.  A brief history finds that the original building was put up by Essex County Club sometime between 1921 and 1923 so that the club’s tractors could be refueled without going onto the town’s or the state’s roadways.  They didn’t have the tractors registered back then.  

In 1928, Standard Oil of New York (SACONY) bought the station and ran it.  Guy's father, Leone F. "Bill" Bailey took it over in 1931 and ran it until his son Richard was killed in 1942 during World War II. Following his son's death, the elder Mr. Bailey gave up the service station and went to work for the war effort. From 1942 until 1948 after Mr. Bailey left the station, a Mr. Gibson, also known as "Gibby" to many, ran the business for Mobil. Following the war, Guy went to work at the Texaco station down the street in what was once Boyd's Livery Stable. In 1948, Mobil came to Guy and asked him to take over running their station. He and Laura talked with Mr. Harrison C. "Harry" Cam, then President of the Manchester Truist Company, and they secured a loan to purchase the needed gasoline, oil and other supplies to get started. 

On October 18, 1948, the Bailey’s went into business.  Laura says, “in those days Guy worked seven days a week for eighteen straight months from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.”  Most of his early business included putting cars of summer residents up on blocks for the winter.  This, of course, included winterizing the engine and draining water from the engine block.  In the spring, around April, the process was reversed. 

The usual business practice (for his summer customers) was to begin charging gas, oil, tires and repairs when they arrived in the Spring.  They would get a bill monthly but it wasn’t until the following April that the Bailey’s received any money. 

Lifts, to work under cars, hadn’t come to Bailey’s yet.  It wasn’t until 1958 when Mobil remodeled the service station, that Guy got out of the “pit.”  At that time they also added another bay to the garage.  This station’s exterior walls had what was referred to as “mirror walls.”  They were actually large tiles that reflected images.  They were red, white and blue according to Laura. 

Another new facelift came in 1973 when the station was remodeled again to its present state of architecture. 

Bailey’s has been truly a “Mom and Pop” operation with Guy running the station and Laura serving as financial advisor and bookkeeper.  When the Commonwealth went to the once-a-year inspection system with the so-called computer machine inspections, Bailey’s was the first and still is the only station to put in the $17,000 piece of equipment in Manchester. 

Upon the purchase of the station from Mobil, the Bailey’s daughters, Laurie and Bonnie Bailey Singleton, along with Bonnie’s husband, Bob, sent their parents a large bouquet of balloons to celebrate the momentous event in their parents’ lives. 

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