Hollister Auto Parts started by supplying Hollister residents
parts for 1926 cars and trucks
Editor’s note: The following was based on an article written by
Sheri Huston for the San Benito County Farm Bureau Newsletter.
It was the year President Calvin Coolidge oversaw a spectacular
economic boom. The jobless rate hovered under 2 percent, St. Louis
beat the Yankees in the World Series, and
”
Bubbling Over
”
was the pride of Churchill Downs. Detroit factory workers were
cranking out affordable automobiles that were the envy of other
industrialized economies.
Hollister Auto Parts started by supplying Hollister residents parts for 1926 cars and trucks
Editor’s note: The following was based on an article written by Sheri Huston for the San Benito County Farm Bureau Newsletter.
It was the year President Calvin Coolidge oversaw a spectacular economic boom. The jobless rate hovered under 2 percent, St. Louis beat the Yankees in the World Series, and “Bubbling Over” was the pride of Churchill Downs. Detroit factory workers were cranking out affordable automobiles that were the envy of other industrialized economies.
And 1926 was the year Robert B. Huston and his wife Mae moved to Hollister and with his partner Joe Mulch launched a small battery and starter repair business. Two years later, as the demand for auto parts took off, the partners changed the name to Hollister Auto Parts, began purchasing products from NAPA.
This weekend Robert Huston’s grandson Stephen and his wife Sheri will celebrate eight decades of the family owned business.
On the day Stephen’s father, George Huston, retired, “as he walked out the door, he gave his sons John and Stephen the keys and told them to either sink or swim,” Sheri Huston wrote in the Farm Bureau newsletter. “Stephen has been swimming ever since.”
The original business was located at 139 Fourth St., but in 1987, as the business grew, the Hustons moved the store to a larger location they built across the street at 140 Fourth St.
Stephen says it is the loyal customers and relationships forged over so many decades that makes him look forward to getting up and going to work every day. One employee, Gary Williams, has worked for all three generations of Hustons during the past 45 years.
The Hustons decided that after 80 years, the business could use a makeover with a new paint job and new signs, but as Sheri Huston wrote, “it’s not the freshly painted building or the signs that keep our customers coming back, it’s the relationships we developed over the years.”
Eighty, to be exact.
