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When Auto Shop Goes, A Way Of Life Will Vanish

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By CHERYL BENTLEY

The Suncoast News

Published: July 30, 2008

Even if New Port Richey's Main Street is no longer the commercial center it once was, even if mom-and-pop stores have given way to chains, even if that down-home atmosphere has quickened to the fast pace of the exurbs, John Herig and his Cathedral Automotive is still here.

But now, as if to make it official that the New Port Richey of old no longer exists except in memories, 65-year-old Herig, who owns what was once the busiest gas station in town, is waiting for someone to purchase his property.

Herig is ready to retire.

His shop at Main Street and Grand Boulevard has been for sale for about a year.

"There have been a few nibbles, but no big offers," Herig said.

He expects the future owner to tear down the garage and build something else.

Although the Mystik gas sign still hangs out front, Herig stopped selling gas a year ago. He has kept the auto-repair business open and said it does well. However, as an independent gas distributor, he could not make a profit unless he sold gas about 15 cents a gallon more than the chains.

"It was costing me money to keep it up," he said.

It didn't used to be like that, Herig recalled, sitting in his fan-cooled office with a cabinet of chipped paint and a shelf of ancient oil cans.

Business was booming in 1977 when he and Hank Sieger bought the gas station, then called Circle Service, from Helen and Lee Coast and gave it the Cathedral name in honor of Sieger's business on New York's Long Island. The Coasts had owned the station since 1949, when there was no U.S. 19. Grand Boulevard was then called Dixie Highway and was the main drag.

By the time Herig and Sieger bought it, U.S. 19 had been built and Main Street was the center of New Port Richey life, with a supermarket, drugstore and hardware store.

"Business was booming," he said. "It was 70 percent better than now."

They had about 50 business accounts from small businesses in the area.

"That stuff is all gone now," he said.

Herig bought out Sieger in 1984.

By that time, Gulf View Square had been built north of Port Richey and had begun luring business from Main Street. The streetscaping project on Main Street in the 1990s that was supposed to bring people back downtown created more hardships, Herig said.

Many of his customers went elsewhere to avoid the chaos during construction and never came back.

When self-service gas started, it sounded the death knell for the neighborhood station.

"You lost the loyalty of customers coming to you for everything," Herig said. "A lot of them would look for the lowest price of gas."

Though they were a boon to the pocketbook, the new stations also signified a more impersonal world. In the old days, everyone was on a first-name basis.

"If somebody didn't have money, you could trust them till the next week," Herig said.

Much of the personal feeling still remains. On a recent morning, Herig called all of his customers by name. Many stayed to chat.

Herig wants to travel when his business is sold. He has never been to Hawaii or Alaska, he said.

However, he is going to miss the part of his life that has taken up three decades.

"I get up every day, and even to this day, I like it."

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