It’s rare that a business hits the century mark, especially those that are family-owned. Competition, economic squabbles and government regulations take their toll over time.

Not in Gurnee, where McClure’s Garage celebrates not 100 years in business this month, but 115 years.

It’s an achievement few other companies can match. Through two world wars, the Great Depression and several recessions, the bright white cinder-block building built in 1910 by Gurnee pioneer Rowley McClure has stood the test of time.

Indeed, the building and business have outlasted other firms that once called Gurnee their home and flourished. You get that sense of history inside the building.

Like others who were early mechanics, Rowley McClure, born in Gurnee in 1889, was also a blacksmith. His legacy is that McClure’s surely is one of, if not the oldest family-owned enterprises in Lake County. Without a doubt, it’s Gurnee’s oldest family-run business.

Rowley McClure, whose father John originally came from Scotland in the mid-19th century, built the garage on a portion of the old McClure farm along Old Grand Avenue, across from Viking Park and just east of O’Plaine Road, according to Jack Fallos, Rowley’s great-grandson.

Jack represents the fourth generation to operate McClure’s, which he does with his wife, Trish, and sons, Matt and Mike. Everett “Mac” McClure, Rowley’s only child, took over the business from his father in 1949.

Mac’s daughter, Joyce, Rowley’s granddaughter, and her husband, Elmer Fallos Jr., acquired ownership of the garage in 1973 when her father retired. Elmer, Jack Fallos’ father, died, in 1997 at age 58.

That’s when Jack returned to McClure’s, where he began his career as a teen working on cars. He left the garage for a mechanic position at Six Flags Great America, where he serviced the Gurnee theme park’s vehicle fleet and the thrill rides for which it is known.

He met wife Trish at the park. One reminder of the past inside McClure’s is the vintage rolltop desk she uses for handling accounting for the garage, which offers vehicle and small-engine repairs, and towing.

Others include the hardbound ledger books still stored in stacks in one of the shop’s cubby holes, some of which date back to the 1920s; the heavy safe once used to store valuables; and the ancient cash register, which sits on the front counter.

While family members have changed over the decades, the building’s footprint outside and inside has remained mainly the same today as it did back in 1910.

“McClure’s Building — only one of its kind in the County,” a Dec. 1, 1939, article in the then-Waukegan News-Sun said. “In the front section of the building is an auto supply shop and an extensive garage department.”

McClure’s was one of the first car dealers in Lake County when Ford Model Ts were on display in a vehicle showroom on the building’s west side. The room is now used to stock parts and display sales space for lawn mowers and snow blowers.

The Model T, which kicked off America’s love with the automobile, cost $780 when it first rolled off Ford’s Detroit assembly line in 1908. Over the years, the building was used for a host of activities besides repairing flivvers and selling Tin Lizzies, Fallos said in an interview.

It was the community center for much of the village during Gurnee’s infancy, especially considering it was next to the Keel & Chittenden Grocery store on Old Grand, which is now a martial arts studio. Of course, this was before the huge surge in residential and retail growth the village saw in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

Above the garage was the headquarters of the Farmers Mutual Telephone Exchange, one of the first phone companies in the county. McClure’s also served as a bus stop in the 1930s for the Waukegan to Antioch route of the American Coach Line. It was also used as the village post office for a while.

The Gurnee Village Board first met in the garage, as did the Warren Credit Union, predecessor to the now Community Trust Credit Union, along with a location for members of the American Legion to meet. The volunteer Gurnee Fire Department, which was founded in 1931, used the rear part of the building as its headquarters for decades.

“The two bay doors in back was the fire department,” Fallos said of the building. “When the first Village Board meetings were held, they’d roll out the fire truck and set up chairs and have the meeting.”

The Fallos family continues that heritage of community service. McClure’s is a top sponsor for the Warren Football Association, has helped with police K-9 training and has been a recipient of a Best of Gurnee Award for its support for village programs.

In the last century, the garage, which once was a full-service gas station, provided fuel for the police and fire departments, and village schools. Justices of the peace held court in the garage, Fallos said.

The gas pumps were pulled in 2004 as one of the oil companies tried to persuade the family to turn McClure’s into a mini-mart. That was not going to happen.

The family likes the legacy left by Rowley McClure just the way it is.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. 

sellenews@gmail.com

X @sellenews

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/27/column-mcclures-garage-gurnee/