‘Ultimate classic.’ California’s oldest operating service station for sale in Fresno

For that past 20-plus years, if you wanted to find Jim Medina, he was probably crawled up underneath a car or otherwise engaged in his work at Van Ness Auto Repair.

It’s been a 12-hours-a-day, six-and-a-half-days-a-week kind of job, with zero vacation. He jokes that he probably spends more time at the shop than at his home, which happens to be less than a mile away in the same Fresno High neighborhood.

He could walk to work or jog, but he says he’s too lazy for that.

“To me, this is home,” he says of the business, which was recently listed for sale, along with two properties, at a price of $1.98 million.

Medina will retire and spend more with his family and grandchildren. He’s hoping someone can take over the business, clients and all.

“It’s time,” he says.

Opened as a Standard Oil station in 1926

Van Ness Auto Repair isn’t just any old mechanic’s shop.

It’s thought to be the oldest operational service station in the state; the second oldest in the nation.

Tucked amid residential houses along a tree-canopied stretch of Van Ness Avenue near Fresno’s Christmas Tree Lane, it originally opened as a Standard Oil station in 1926 and sold gas until regulations changed and the tanks had to be removed, though the vintage pumps remain out front as a historical reminder and a nice bit of nostalgia for the neighborhood.

For longtime Fresnans, the spot is likely to be remembered as Russ Clements Service Station.

That’s how it’s named on the local registry of historic resources.

Memories at historic gas station

Clements bought the building in 1928 and ran it for nearly five decades before selling it in the 1990s.

So, the place holds its share of memories, Medina says.

There was a woman who visited Medina who said that back in the day she had crashed her dad’s Studebaker into the shop. She just wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to repair over the damage.

Medina has stories of his own. As a child, he used to visit the service station with his father. He remembers getting caught stealing a piece of candy and having to fess up to Clements.

“And he said, ‘Nah, kid. Just keep it.’”

It was partly out of that childhood nostalgia that Medina started visiting the shop with his own son. The owner at the time took a liking to the visits and the relationship led to Medina taking over in 1998.

“It was actually a true blessing for me,” Medina says.

Community connection to station

Not that it hasn’t been without some controversy. When the station was built, this part of Van Ness was considered the outskirts of Fresno. As the neighborhood filled in around it, not everyone was happy having an auto repair shop next door.

About a decade ago, city officials debated whether to allow the business to continue operations. There was a series of hours-long city council hearings in which the shop heard an outcry of community support.

Eventually, Medina won out and was even allowed to extend his hours of operations.

These days, Medina says he turns away more work than he takes in and that he has a solid client base, many of whom have been coming to the shop for years.

The hope is to find a buyer willing to continue that business, says Vasili Sotiropulos, the agent who is listing the property, which is being sold in bulk with a second piece of real estate on Palm Avenue south of McKinley. It also houses a repair shop.

“Given the history and location,” Sotiropulos says, “Van Ness Auto Repair could continue as a successful business for years to come.”