Last Day For Hartman's Garage - 51 Years Later

    “It’s hard, but I’m tired.”
    This Thursday afternoon, October 14, the doors will roll down for the final time at Altoona's Hartman's Garage. Owner Rick Hartman will close his shop after 51 years of operation, closing the book on Altoona's only full-service car care center.
    “I’ll miss my customers,” Hartman said this week in between finishing repairs. “They are like family.”
    The garage, which Hartman ran with his father, spent decades located across CR 42 from its current location, in a shop behind an old convenience store/gas station. When that building was razed and replaced by the current Mobil station, Hartman moved to his current shop, located on SR 19 just south of Laura's Sweet and Spicy Emporium and across the highway from Allen's Well Drilling.
    The garage’s family-friendly atmosphere has started with Hartman and daughter, Shawna, who has managed much of the paperwork over the years. The duo is known for all sorts of personal attention not always found in repair shops, including delivering customers to and from home, letting customer vehicles sit at the shop until they are sold or otherwise settled on what do with them, and generally offering whatever help is needed.
    Among the reminiscing of the past week, Shawna spoke of providing personal assistance to customers who might need some help with health items. Or providing a friendly ear to an elderly customer who just needs to talk. Or taking less money for a repair because the customer can only pay so much but really needs the vehicle.
    Being so close to customers, most of whom have been willing to wait several weeks for an appointment at the shop, has left closing the shop a bittersweet moment for Hartman.
    “They ask me, ‘where should we go? What will we do?’ It makes it hard, because you don’t want them to get taken advantage of somewhere.”
    But the time has come. Hartman’s health is good enough to allow for some travel, which he intends to undertake as soon as next week, when he and wife Janice will head to North Carolina for a racing event.
    "I've always had to rush back to get the shop open. But this time we're going to stay a few days and sightsee. It will be nice."