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St. John Car Rental, Inc. History
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St. John Car Rental, Inc. History
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In 1974, Albert & I were walking around Cruz Bay looking for a business to buy, when we found Forrest Fisher, a local realtor, who owned the 14 vehicle St. John Car Rental, right on Cruz Bay Dock. He told us that only two businesses in St. John were for sale, At Your Service Travel Agency and his car rental. He pulled out an ad from his pocket he had been writing which said something like "live in paradise, sleep in a hammock; the cars rent themselves!" The car rental sounded like a good possibility for us. Forrest quoted us a price. We said that we’d consider it, and went back to Cinnamon Bay where we were camping. Later that week we got stranded in Cruz Bay when a friend’s rental car broke down (not one of Forests’) and we were forced to get out on the road and hitch. Before we had gotten a ride, we saw Forest again, and he told us we probably would not be able to get a ride because after 8 o’clock at night, there just wasn’t any traffic toward the North Shore Road. No taxis either. However, he said he would be glad to lend us his car. What generosity! What an island! What was he thinking! The next morning we returned his car and told him we were going to think seriously about buying the car rental. Months later we wrote him, and made arrangements to move to the island, and become the new owners of his car rental. Early on a cold morning, January 4, 1975, we packed up our two children Aaron, 10, and Robert, 7, our dog, Pooh-bear, and our cat, Ikie, and flew out of JFK airport in New York for the Harry S. Truman Airport (an old World War II hanger) in St. Thomas. Forest picked us up at the Cruz Bay dock and drove us to our house rental in Chocolate Hole. The children were enrolled in Julius E. Sprauve Elementary School that week, and Albert & I went to work as car rental owners. Forest was kind enough to give us an extensive period of training, which proved invaluable. The car rental was originally located at the foot of the Cruz Bay dock, and our 14 cars, mostly VW "Things" and Mini-mokes were parked in the space in front of where the Dockside Pub and stores are today. The office was the old water barrel from Trunk Bay with an opening on the side, and coconut thatch on top. We had a telephone, no credit card machines (we didn’t take credit cards!), no fax (they hadn’t been invented yet), and no copy machine. All paper work was done by hand. In addition, all customers had to buy a Virgin Island temporary driver's license, and leave a cash deposit. The one gas station on the island, Texaco, was often closed on Holidays, open only a half a day on Sunday, and was often just out-of-gas! Hours of operation in those days were flexible. If someone needed help in the community, everyone would close his or her business, and go to the person’s rescue. Spotting whales in Sir Francis Drake passage, the downing of a seaplane in the harbor, or just a very rainy day could be the excuse for a total closing of the car rental and half the other businesses in town. Gradually, we got into the rhythm of the Island. (We got used to taking two hour lunches on the beach next to the car rental!) When we bought the car rental from Forrest, we thought that he had a seven-year lease with an option to renew. No problem. We thought. But things didn’t always go smoothly. As it turned out, Forrest had a 3-year master lease, with a 5-year option. After we had been on the property for 3 years, the owner of the property refused to renew the lease, and we were out. What a shock! After briefly moving next to the ticket booth in Cruz Bay, we were again moved by Port Authority to around the corner, across from the Post Office, and wondered if anyone would ever find us there! Not to worry. The customers came. At times, Port Authority told us we only had 1/2 the space for our cars, and another rental company would be joining us in the space. No one ever rented the space during those years, and finally, Port Authority allowed us to rent it also. By the time we left, we had been in that spot 24 years! During that time, the original hut burned down; we built an octagon building to resemble the hut, and finally built a larger building. Also, we were asked to leave for 8 months during the time that the Port Authority paved the bulkhead. The office moved into the Frangipani Building where we owned a retail store called "Sailor’s Delight" (the home of Tropical Properties today) and the vehicles were moved to Angela Thomas’s lot next to the Raintree Court. Happily, we returned to a newly paved area and the next years were relatively uneventful. The increasing congestion in the Creek area led us to believe that Port Authority would want to remove us at some point in the future, so we started to plan where we would go. We bought the property across from the Catholic Church. In 2001, we removed the old building, and started building a 2-story concrete building. No more sheds for us! (just recently a customer wrote a review of our car rental and mentioned how much he enjoyed the rustic quality and old timey feel of the car rental at the Creek - C’est la vie!) And here we are in our new, clean, air-conditioned car rental building! We often think fondly of the many locals who have worked for the St. John Car Rental family, either as car rental clerks, mechanics or bodymen. One of our earliest mechanics, whom we inherited from Forest Fisher, was Max Melius. Teresa "Red" Fisher, the naturalist painter who now lives in the Washington state area, was one of our first car rental clerks. "Mean" Jean Vance of Skinnylegs fame, Dawn Turner, a childhood friend of our sons, Paula Lambert, who does bookkeeping services today, Michael Beason, of Ben & Jerry fame, and Deanna Somerville, presently a National Park Ranger, rented vehicles for us. Paul Hopper, who now lives in Florida, did our mechanic work for years. Halstead "Hally" Francis, who originally worked as an apprentice with Paul, does much of our mechanic work today. Bobby Morton started off working as one of our body man, and today is an integral part of our daily work force. Magabe Calixte, trained with manager Thom MacDonald (who worked for us for over ten years and now resides in Michigan), and worked alongside of Bobby and Albert with the day to day rental routines. When our car rental building burned down, Moe Chabuz, present owner of Skinny Legs, and our friend Tony Romanoski helped build us a new one. John Johannson, brother of Victor, was the carpenter on that project. We’ve had many mascots join the car rental during these 27 years. Our first, a black cat called "Whiskers" often slept on top of the podium where the contracts were signed. He often gave people a bit of a shock when they went to sign their names, assuming this furry black thing was a piece of cloth. He also played around on the roof, got under the palm thatch, and thus put holes in our roof. We had him drawn on our car rental stationary. The next important car rental mascot we had was "Brown Dog." "Brown" lived up by our house at Enighed and followed us to work each morning, and returned home after us each evening. We often went to lunch at the Upper Deck restaurant in Bethany (up on that steep hill), and he would run after the car and arrive exhausted but happy. Then came a dog called "757" or "Spot" who was a stray who lived under one of our vehicles with the tag number of 757. When Tom MacDonald joined us, he brought "Lazlo" the macaw, a not so friendly parrot who once lunged across the counter to bite me on the arm! He was replaced by "Pirate", a more amenable macaw. And then came Thom’s English bulldog, "Tasha". We are presently trying very hard to keep the iguana family that lives in the area as our new mascots, but the vehicles coming down from Gallows Point often go too fast and have run some of them over. It’s been a long and mostly happy adventure. We invite you all to stop by and visit our car rental family in our lovely building. Lonnie Willis HOME | MAP & INFO | RATES TOUR THE ISLAND | CREDIT CARD-INSURANCE FORMS EMPLOYEES | HISTORY | CUSTOMER REVIEWS REQUEST RATES or RESERVE A CAR Also recommended on St. John The Fish Trap Restaurant Stone Terrace Restaurant FRIENDLY LINKS St. John Links and St. John Island St. John Beach Guide and Virgin Islands Travel Guide VILLA MANAGERS Catered To - Vacation Villa Rentals
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