Williamstown's Lafave Remembers the Good Times
 Arthur 'Art' Lafave operated the B&L Service Station on Spring Street for 33 years. |
"Williamstown is a special place," said Lafave, now 69. "It has a small-town atmosphere, the people are friendly. I'm comfortable here. I know the people and the people know me."
As a child living in a mill house on Arnold Street, Lafave was able to see the Williamstown Youth Center from his bedroom window. "I couldn't wait until I was old enough to go," Lafave said. "Even as a kid I was a people person."
He started going to the center when he was 7, and all went well. But when he was 11 he turned into a "smart aleck" and was "wild," he said. One day a Williams College student who worked at the center took him aside not to scold him, but to try to make him understand that one's behavior has consequences, good or bad.
"He told me that you can do anything in life," said Lafave, "but you won't get there by being mean to people. You get there by being their friend."
Lafave credits that student with giving him a new perspective on his behavior. "It changed me," he said, and has advocated for a new Youth Center Building. "I realize what the Youth Center means to kids."
At the age of 14, LaFave started working full time, despite still being in school. A student at the former Williamstown High School, where double sessions had been introduced to ease overcrowding before Mount Greylock Regional High School was built, Lafave attended morning classes and worked in a local restaurant afternoons and evenings.
After graduation, he took a job at Eddie's Market on Cole Avenue that garnered him much more than a paycheck. He met Jean Brassard at the store in 1961 and their relationship progressed from co-workers to sweethearts. They exchanged wedding vows at the former St. Raphael's Church on July 4, 1964.
The owner of Eddie's Market, Ed Gagnier, a third-generation Williamstownian, gave Lafave advice that has served him well over the years.
"On my first day of work, my boss told me that people from all walks of live shopped in the store, and I should not snub anyone, but should treat everyone with respect and get to know them by first and last name," Lafave said.
In 1967, Lafave went into business with his father-in-law, Alvin Brassard, leasing the gas station at the end of Spring Street and then buying the property in 1983. "We renamed it B&L Service Station," said Lafave. He had wanted people to know it was more than the run-of-the-mill gas station right from the first.
There were eight stations in the area, and Lafave felt he had to offer something different to encourage people to patronize B&L. Ultimately, Lafave's honesty, friendly conversation, good cheer and concern for his clients did indeed make it unlike other stations.
 Lafave talked about his life over tea and cake recently. |
"Art always wanted everyone to be safe," said John Chandler, president emeritus of Williams College, who was a steady customer at the station.
Lafave put in 80 hours a week at the station, yet when customers called him after the work day had ended, because they had a flat tire or dead battery, he would go to their aid.
He was also a reliable source of information, whether you were a townie, a tourist or a frequent visitor.
"While I was president of Williams," said Chandler, "trustees who came to town would remark frequently — partly in jest but also in seriousness — that they had learned what was going on at Williams and in Williamstown because they had been to talk with Art. I knew exactly what they meant because I, too, talked frequently with him. He was a keen observer and listener. People talked with him because they knew he was not a gossip and would not embarrass or exploit them."
"I would find out who was coming to Williamstown for a regular visit. Then I would look up the person's friends to see if they would be around [when the visitor was in town]," Lafave said, adding "a lot of the people from the theater and from Williams come back."
His depth of knowledge earned him the sobriquet of "The Real Mayor of Spring Street," at least from enough people that a group of Williams students used it as a title for their history project on him.
Lafave noticed that Williamstown had a positive effect on the demeanor of "people from the city," he said. "Each time they came back, they were more mellow.
"When [the late] George Steinbrenner was here he was a nice guy," Lafave said, referring to the owner of the New York Yankees baseball team, who had a reputation for being difficult and a tyrannical boss.
People trusted Lefave to do more than take care of their cars, and would call him with all kinds of requests.
One day, a Williamstown woman called Lafave from the state of Florida and told him she had left the stove on at home. Then she revealed to Lafave where she kept a key hidden and asked that he go into her house and turn off the stove.
 Some called him the 'real mayor of Spring Street' back in the day. |
Other favors Lafave did for his customers included taking delivery of packages for them. "They knew we would be at the station to accept them," Lafave said.
Speaking of the changes he has seen in Spring Street since he and his father-in-law established B&L, Lafave said, "The businesses that were there then are gone.
"There used to be two grocery stores — Ken’s Market and Square Deal — four doctors' offices, two dentists' offices, the Pizza House, Betty's Luncheonette and McMahon's Chevrolet had a car in the window."
McMahon's was in the building Library Antiques now occupies.
"You could get everything you needed on Spring Street, but not anymore," said Jean Lafave. She feels that businesses now on Spring Street focus on the tourist trade.
In 2000, Lafave, then sole owner of B&L, sold the service station to Herbert Allen, a 1962 Williams graduate, who donated the property to the college.
A couple of days after Lafave closed down the station, he received a call from Roger St. Pierre, proprietor of St. Pierre's Barbershop on Spring. "Roger told me that someone had called him with a question and he didn't know the answer," said Lafave. "And the person said, 'You're no Art Lafave.'"
Though no longer wearing his blue, pinstriped work shirt, Lafave continues to serve the Williamstown community. He is is a member of the Zoning Board, the Building Committee for Church Corners LLC, which is turning the church he was married in into affordable housing, and the Building Committee for the Youth Center, which is nearing its fundraising goal of $3.5 million.
Lafave also volunteers at the Williamstown House of Local History. "I've always been interested in the history of Williamstown, and I thought that since I've lived here 69 years, I had something to contribute," he said. "At one point, I knew who lived in every house in Williamstown."
In March 2009, Lefave and his wife gave a presentation at the House of Local History on the history of St. Raphael's, which was shuttered in 2007. The Lafaves had been parishioners of St. Raphael's, which is near their Haley Street home, where they have lived for 37 years and raised their son and daughter.
As a volunteer at the House of Local History, Lafave explores the past and solves mysteries. Recently, a woman wanted to find out what year her great-great-grandfather Samuel Hawkins had come to Williamstown. Lafave's search led him to the Registry of Deeds in Adams, where he found Hawkins had bought a house here in 1784.
Lafave likes helping people, especially those who live in the town he loves. "When you have been given a lot, you have to give back," he said. "And I've been given a lot by the people of Williamstown."
