Contributed
by Florence T. Crowell
Raymond
E. West grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Waterbury and after
attending schools there he entered the United States Army. He
was stationed in Hawaii. When he returned to the area he took
over the Cities Service Gas Station at the corner of Main and
French Streets in Watertown, probably in the mid 1930's. The business
was owned by Buckley Brothers and Ray had to purchase all of his
supplies, including gasoline from them. The Lavine family had
an oil business in town and Ray took that over. At first he had
a pick-up truck and filled five gallon cans of kerosene, delivering
it to flats around town, when many people had three-burner kerosene
stoves. Later he purchased a truck that had a section in the back
where the hose could be pulled out and then rewound. Ray's son,
Paul, remembers that there was a small area there and once
in a while his father would let him ride in that space.
Ray continued
at that station, selling gas, changing oil and greasing cars until
sometime toward the end of 1942. At that time he, Oris Salvatore,
Stuart Atwood and Bobby Allen purchased Johnson's Garage, at 620
Main Street across from Depot Street, from Arthur Johnson and
Ray went up there to run the gas station, change oil, grease cars,
as well as do other auto repairs. Buckley Brother's probably had
someone from their firm run the Cities Service Station for a while
and sometime in 1945 Carlton Lockhart took over the business.
When his brother-in-law, Bob Hayward, was discharged from the
Navy he worked at the station for a short time.
Mrs. McCleary's
Hotel had been at 620 Main Street for many years and had burned
in 1930. Arthur Johnson purchased the land and built a one story
building-gas station and garage. His son, Arthur, worked with
him. By the time West moved there, Johnson had put on a second
floor and installed the Blue Ribbon Bowling Alleys. It was sometime
after that when one of Art's sons was suffering from asthma that
the family moved to Arizona. They soon returned to Watertown and
Art went back to running the bowling alleys.
Looking at
the building from the road there were two garage doors on the
right where cars were brought in for oil change and grease jobs.
Next, there was a large door where vehicles in need of repairs
entered. In the center was the main entrance and the gas pumps
were out in front. To the left was another garage door. That area
was rented to Gowans and Knight and they carried on a welding
business. Working there was Mr. Gowans, Mr. Knight and Clark Palmer.
They later moved to Knight Street off lower Main Street. Gowans
and Knight are gone and Palmer's son runs the business. They make
and sell fire engines.
After moving
to the new station Ray West bought a fleet of school buses and
transported the Watertown children to and from school. The buses
were parked up behind what was then George's Market. By this time
Ray had quite a few men working for him at the station and some
drove buses.
A fire in
the station in 1965 or 1966 caused much damage and Paul Lemay,
an employee, was overcome by smoke. The bowling alleys closed
in late 1982 or early 1983 when West moved the Chevrolet Franchise
to Woodbury where Ray's son, Paul, is still selling Chervolets.
The old station was renovated and Brooks Drug Store has occupied
it since that time.
