After 60 years, Stark’s garage to close doors
Saratoga Springs auto shop gained clientele through trusted service
Sid Stark keeps a list handy in his top desk drawer. The owner of Stark’s Auto pulls it out and looks at it every time he starts to waver.
It’s a lopsided register of his business’s pros and cons. And at this point, the discomforts are outweighing the benefits.
“The city has changed a lot,” said Stark, whose 60-year-old Excelsior Avenue garage will close on Friday, May 18. “We deal with cars that are at least 5 or 10 years old. It’s a much more upscale community now. The people whose cars we work on usually don’t live in the community anymore.”
That’s clear just by looking outside of the garage’s office win-
drivers would find after exiting the Northway. After graduating from Saratoga Springs High School, he headed for college. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute he studied chemistry. He then began a career as a high school science teacher, leading classes in Earth science, chemistry and physics — first at Greenwich Central School and then at Vincentian Institute in Albany.
When the Vincentian Institute started to downsize its staff in the 1970s (it closed in 1985), Stark went to work with his father.
“He was my mentor,” Stark said.
Henry Stark retired from the business a year later at age 68, but his son kept the garage open, becoming known for the basics: inspections, oil changes, brake adjustments and tire and muffler installations.
“I didn’t get rich,” said Stark, whose days begin at 7 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. “But I’m tired when I get home.”
Over the years, the garage didn’t see a lot of changes. The gas pumps where pulled out after the Route 50 arterial was built. And Stark marked the years by plastering his garage walls with tire stickers. With every tire sold, the new tire labels were ripped off and placed on an interior wall. The trademark stickers now reach the ceiling.
Another distinctive character of the garage are Stark’s handwritten signs, torn, faded and dirty with age, that remind customers such things as “No checks” or “All work must be paid for before vehicle can leave.”
“I have those up there because if people ask me about taking their car and coming back later, I can point to the sign,” Stark said. “People won’t argue if you show them a sign.”
But most of the people that go into Stark’s aren’t looking for a fight with the owner. They respect him as much as he respects them. He explains what could be wrong with their vehicles. If he does no repairs, there is no charge. He also does no work without the consent of the vehicle’s owner. And if something must be replaced, he keeps the old part to show the customer.
“That’s important,” Stark said.
The shop talk often turns to literature because Stark, on slow days, devours books. Last week, he was reading “Tom Clancy’s Point of Contact” by Mike Maden.
“I read on slow days,” Stark said. “I don’t like slow days.”
Stark dislikes shoveling the driveway and working underneath cars in the winter. Melting ice drips down his back in the unheated garage. Still, Stark seems to be trying to convince himself that retirement is a good thing. He pulls out the piece of paper from the top drawer, to glance at it one more time.
“I’ll spend time with the grands,” Stark said. “I’m getting out just in time. Everything is diagnostics now. Cars last longer. Things don’t need as much repair. But I’ll miss the people. I have nice customers.”
Stark is expecting to sell the property, closing on a deal soon. He would not disclose who is buying nor the price.
“It’s going to be weird putting the key in the door one last time,” Stark said. “I’ll shut off the utilities so I won’t be tempted to come back.”