Pride Inspires Family-run Auto-Repair Shop

Dick Schrader marks 50 years at Schraders’ Garage; his son is fourth-generation general manager

Upon stepping into the Schraders’ Garage customer-waiting area, it’s evident that family is central to the South Wedge business.

A large bulletin board is half-filled with photos of immediate and extended family members (leaving just enough space for other messages). In fact, there’s a decent chance that at least one of the faces in the massive collage could be that of a future proprietor of the 92-year-old family-owned car-repair shop (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

At the moment, Dan Schrader, 38, is a fourth-generation general manager. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Dick (who, at 69, still comes into work three days a week). Dick Schrader took over the business, as part owner, from his father (Dan’s granddad), Charles Jr. (who died in 2000). The neighborhood garage was founded, in 1932, by Charles Sr. (the current GM’s great-grandfather).

For Dick Schrader, this spring marks a milestone: 50 years in the family business.

But the familial connections run even deeper. Along with Dick and Dan Schrader, a couple brothers/uncles remain involved in daily operations: Alan Schrader, who started working at Schraders’ in 1977, is head technician/part owner; and Bob Schrader, who began in 1976, is foreman/part owner (and carpenter). Their mother, Doris Schrader, used to stop into the shop daily until about the year before she died, at age 93, in 2023.

So, it’s safe to say the family business, at 686 S. Clinton Ave. — only its second location during more than nine decades in operation — is here for the long haul.

Long history and loyal customers

Charles Sr. and a partner opened Mutual Garage & Service Station at 535 Broadway in 1932. (The original site, at the corner of Broadway and Alexander Street, just outside the South Wedge, appears now to be a parking lot.)

After the business partnership ended, Charles Sr. opted to go it alone, establishing Charles W. Schrader & Son — later known as Schraders’ Garage — a general-repair shop. In 1947, despite facing post-war materials shortages, he built a new structure (the one still standing today) on the current site. (Pictures in the customer waiting area show the building under construction.)

In the 77 years since, various renovations and upgrades have been completed, including installations, a couple years ago, of a new concrete floor and car lift. But the shop’s heart and soul — the family running it — has been a constant. It’s something fourth-generation patrons, too, can appreciate about the neighborhood garage.

“We have a lot of customers that have been coming here for generations,” Dick Schrader said. “I love my customers, I love my new customers. We try and look out for their best interests and that’s helped us take care of ourselves.”

Long-time client Jack Kronenberg is a second-generation patron of Schraders’.

Kronenberg, 74, who lives just outside the South Wedge, has been taking his cars to Schraders’ for 30 years (as his father did before him). He credits Dick and Dan Schrader for keeping his cars running through the years.

“Thanks to my wonderful team of doctors — and to Dick and Dan Schrader — I am able to maintain my independence and drive my old car wherever I need to go,” Kronenberg said.

“I am profoundly grateful to Dick and Dan Schrader for their great service for many years. They are a great resource for our community.”

At the recommendation of a friend, Erin Turpin, of Gold Street, has been going to Schraders’ for a couple years.

“She told me they were friendly and not condescending — which is something I’ve experienced before with other shops,” Turpin said about her friend’s referral. “Both times I’ve been to Schraders’ I’ve been treated with kindness.”

Mary Myers posted to a Facebook neighborhood group (in response to a reporter’s query): “Schraders’ Garage is a friendly, efficient and very professional place. They know their stuff.”

In the same thread, 30-year South Wedge resident Jason Dornford wrote, “Schraders’ is awesome.”

Dornford, who lives off Mount Vernon Avenue, has been taking his vehicles to Schraders’ since 2006.

“They are the best, and I never feel I’m paying for things I don’t need as they always prioritize repairs that are needed and how crucial or immediate the issue is,” Dornford said in a follow-up message. “Never had an issue with their work either.”

More than 30-year patron Fran Davis, of Diem Street, described Schraders’ owners and employees as considerate, honest, friendly and efficient — and the service as high-quality.

“I always refer people to them knowing they will be satisfied,” Davis said in a handwritten letter to The WEDGE.

“You try not to take that for granted, and you try to earn that,” Dan Schrader said. Repeat customers, he added, benefit from Schraders’ mechanics having familiarity with patrons’ vehicles.

“One of the advantages we have over your ‘quick lubes’ and your brake-and-exhaust places is, generally, you have the same people working on your car every time. They may not remember your name, but they’ll remember your car. I think there’s a lot of value to that.”

The shop’s narrow, but deep, nearly full parking lot suggests many customers must feel the same. On the weekday a reporter visited, a long row of cars was stacked, two deep, leading from the Clinton Avenue entrance all the way back to the garage, near the rear edge of the parcel (overlooking I-490). Only one customer (a white-haired woman) waited in the light-blue-painted lobby, but the periodic toot of a car horn, signaling a mechanic’s request for someone to open an overhead garage door so a vehicle could be pulled in, hinted that other patrons must’ve left their cars behind for the day.

Keeping up with auto advances

Inside the shop (heated with used motor oil), a stream of sounds typical of a bustling car-repair shop occasionally makes conversation difficult. But although noise from pneumatic wrenches and other tools is the norm (there’s no quiet way to put tires and hubcaps back on a car, after all), Dan Schrader said many car repairs nowadays have gone high-tech.

Auto-repair shops, like Schraders’, he said, will need to adapt (as they always have).

Decades ago, Dan Schrader said, car mechanics working on early internal combustion engines might’ve wondered, “I don’t know how we’re going to survive if we’re not changing the oil every 600 miles.” But future technicians (possibly including a nephew who might be interested in the business, along with one or both of his kids) probably will be more concerned with electric cars and “telematics” — including a vehicle’s various computers and how they communicate internally (with each other), externally (with other cars sharing the road) and with manufacturers (via shared information). Other high-tech components include automatic-braking systems and various safety features, rear-view cameras and in-car “infotainment” systems.

The future might also bring self-driving vehicles and subscription or road-sharing (instead of ownership) models. “You have a whole generation of kids who are growing up in the information age who are used to ride-sharing,” Dan Schrader said.

“Obviously, there’s a big shift to electric, which we are monitoring and slowly preparing for,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be as swift as politicians and pundits would like people to believe, but it is going to be a consistently growing trend — more of an evolution than a revolution.”

The next generation?

Dan Schrader is the youngest of five siblings (he has four older sisters). Raised in Fairport, he also briefly lived in Swillburg (on Wilmington Street and on Laburnam Crescent). He’s the only one to follow his dad (and grandparents) into the business (though sister Lisa worked part of a summer in the shop). A cousin also has worked at Schraders’.

Who could be next to run the shop — taking over the GM’s loft office overlooking the shop floor — after Dan Schrader?

A nephew, Aaron (son of Dan’s sister Sara), 17, has expressed interest in possibly pursuing a career in the auto-repair business. As for the two sons, ages 5 and 3, of Dan and his wife, Jenn (who works as a manager and executive assistant for Hover), it’s too soon to tell whether or not they’ll be drawn to the family business (Dan said he won’t push them into it).

“There’s definitely a pride that comes with it — having your name on the building, seeing your name used around town,” Dan Schrader said.

Though he plans on sticking around a while, like his dad he’s mindful of the family legacy.

“One day I’ll be gone,” he said. “What [are] the stories they’ll tell of me when I’m gone, and are those stories I’m going to be proud of?”

When he started working at Schraders’ 17 years ago, in 2007, his new boss (his dad) allowed him a special privilege. “He told me, on one of my first days, ‘You don’t have to call me dad.’ It still freaks my sisters out.”

“Working with my dad is awesome,” he said. “Just being able to work with him every single day, see a different side of him.”

He’s also on a first-name basis with his two uncles who work at the shop. Alan Schrader has served as a mentor in automotive mechanics.

The shop has 10 full-time employees (including six technicians) and one part-time worker: Dick Schrader (Dan’s mentor on the business and service-advising side).

Regarding his new part-time (around 30 hours a week) role, Dick Schrader said: “I have to keep working a few days a week to support my habit of spending money on the things I like to do. So, it’s a good balance. I don’t know how I ever got by with a two-day weekend!”

What’s in a name?

Incidentally, is it “Schrader’s Garage” (possessive) or “Schraders’ Garage” (plural possessive)? By now, you probably know the answer (possibly from seeing it multiple times throughout this story; or, from now knowing the story behind the family business, officially Charles W. Schrader Inc.). Dan Schrader sums it up best:

“I always put the apostrophe after the ‘s,’ as there are multiple Schraders and that is how it is on our logo,” he said. “But I never correct anyone who does it wrong.”

Dick Schrader started working in the shop, at age 19, five decades ago. Now that he’s stepping back, he said of the family business under his son’s management:

“Couldn’t be more happy with the way things are going. It makes me feel proud.”

[Originally appeared in The WEDGE, April/May 2024.]