Well-known Newport auto dealership celebrates 50th anniversary

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Perley Hartley did not know that when he opened Hartley’s Tydol Station in Corinna on Nov. 7, 1946, his business would become a central Maine institution.

Fifty years later, Hartley’s Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Jeep-Eagle-Oldsmobile-GMC, located at the Newport Triangle, serves customers drawn from across Maine. In 1946, though, Perley Hartley dealt primarily with people living in Corrina or traveling on Route 7, the north-south connector between Route 2 in Newport and Route 15 in Dover-Foxcroft.

Hartley’s parents, Howard and Bessie, grew up in New Brunswick, Canada. Howard was from Centreville, when he lived in the Hartley Settlement. Bessie, nee Haynes, “was born in Glassville, New Brunswick,” Perley said.

By the 1920s, Howard and Bessie had moved to Maine. They briefly owned a farm elsewhere in central Maine, then purchased a farm in Corinna because “it came with some equipment and cattle,” Perley recalled. The Hartleys had eight children: five sons and three daughters.

Needed on the farm, Perley was not called up for military service in World War II. He worked the farm with Howard, who was also a cattle dealer. He could have become a farmer, but another interest led him into the automotive field.

Since “she was very close to some of her sisters,” Bessie Hartley often took her children to New Brunswick, Perley said. An uncle, Vernet Tracy, ran a farm-machinery dealership in Centreville and also farmed. “All those tractors and other machinery he had around, I took an interest in that,” Perley said. “That’s what got me interested in this business.”

In early 1946, Howard Hartley decided to build a 30-foot-by-40-foot garage at his driveway entrance. The concept traced to New Brunswick, where many people built roadside garages to house their vehicles during the winter. “Snowplows were rare, and there wasn’t any such thing as a snowblower,” Perley said. “We had a long driveway, so every time it snowed, we had to shovel it by hand. If we parked the cars in the garage, at least we didn’t have to shovel far.”

The Hartleys milled lumber from trees cut nearby and started building their garage. Then one day, a Tidewater Oil Co. sales representative from Brewer came by and asked the Hartleys if they wanted to open a service garage at the site. A family conference okayed the idea, and the Hartleys opened their station on Nov. 7.

Since he was the oldest son, Perley was tapped to run the business. Howard gave him the garage, $500, and a 5-rod-by-5-rod piece of land around the garage to get the station started. The garage still stands today as part of the former Hartley’s complex on Route 7 in Corinna.

Perley soon hired a mechanic, then another one. “Things weren’t the best of times, and money was hard to come by, but we did all right,” he said.

In summer 1950, with the Korean War raging, Perley received a draft notice. He reported for Army service that November and spent two years in uniform, with 14 months spent in Germany. When the Army discharged him in October 1952, he came home to reopen his garage, which he had closed while he was gone.

Perley married his fiancee, Marie, on Dec. 16, 1953, and settled down in Corinna. They have two daughters: Linda and Peggy.

By the mid-1950s, Perley had realized that “selling a quart of oil and pumping $5 of gas wouldn’t pay the bills. I looked around and decided I had to get into the franchises to really make the garage prosperous.”

He acquired a Massey Ferguson farm-machinery franchise in 1958. Two years later, Dexter car dealer Albert Tempesta had to sell either a Plymouth or Dodge franchise under Chrysler Corp. mandate. He opted for the Dodge franchise, and Perley acquired the Plymouth franchise in late 1960.

Before awarding Perley the franchise, Chrysler “informed me we’d have to sell one or two new cars a month, or 36 or so a year, to keep it,” he said, recalling how nervous the information made him. He and his sales rep, Sam Whitney, returned to Corinna, though, and in December 1960, they sold two new Plymouths to Carl Chambers of Newport and Lawson Reeves of Corinna.

Hartley’s then sold 65 new Plymouths in its first year of operation. “We were somewhat amazed, and so was Chrysler,” Perley recalled. “It was a good sign; we knew that we were on our way.”

Perley acquired his next franchise, GMC, in 1968 and renamed his business Hartley’s Chrysler-Plymouth-GMC. That same year, he opened an annex on Church Street in Dexter, and his brother, Earl, joined him in business as the annex manager. Two years later, Perley and Earl traded buildings in Dexter with Tempesta and acquired the Dodge franchise from him.

Perley had also been busy elsewhere in central Maine. In 1970, he purchased 19 acres and a building at the intersection of Routes 2 and 7 in Newport, then opened Hartley’s Mobile Homes and Sports Center on the site. He hired a nephew, Steve Hartley, and Ronald Melton to run this new business.

In 1973, Perley acquired the Ford franchise in Newport and placed it at his Newport Triangle location. He closed his sports center and sold his mobile-home franchise to an area company.

Then in February 1974, a fire leveled Hartley’s Dodge dealership in Dexter. Perley and Earl had acquired the Chevrolet and Buick franchises in Dover-Foxcroft in 1973, placing them in a new building on Route 15 north of Mayo Regional Hospital. They moved their displaced Dodge franchise to Corinna and operated three dealerships for a while.

The Hartleys closed their Ford dealership in Newport in 1976. Earl Hartley later purchased Perley’s share of their Dover-Foxcroft dealership and then sold it in 1980.

When an Oldsmobile franchise became available in 1983, Perley added it to his Corinna dealership. His brother, Darrell, who had recently retired from a long career as a Maine state trooper, joined the dealership as its assistant manager and later as its general manager.

Ironically, GM would not let the Hartleys display Oldsmobiles in the same showroom as Chrysler vehicles, so Perley built a new showroom adjacent to the existing building in Corinna. Then, to avoid any other potential problems, the Hartleys relocated their Chrysler franchise to their car lot in Newport. Steve Hartley was named general manager of that site.

Perley decided to retire from Hartley’s in 1988, after he sold his Olds and GMC franchises in Corinna to another central Maine auto dealer. When the owner closed the Corinna dealership four years later, Perley and Steve Hartley acquired the two franchises and moved them to Newport. They subsequently acquired a Jeep-Eagle franchise and brought it to Newport, too.

Steve Hartley is now the president and general manager of Hartley’s and is a partner with his uncle. Perley maintains an office and stops by to check on business and visit with friends and customers.

“I do not work in the dealership; I’m retired for good,” Perley said. “I have an office with the latest in computers. I love computers; my wife tells me it has become an obsession, but I tell her I’m using it for work, not for games.”

He realizes how well-known his family has become in central Maine. “The name recognition is good,” Perley said. “If I go into a store in Bangor and meet someone who’s been around a while and bought cars, they’ve probably heard of Hartley’s.

“I like to think I’ve made a lot of friends and customers over the years. I hope our service department has been above and beyond the norm. That is the impression I receive from people,” Perley stated.”

Over the years, he has volunteered his services for different purposes. A Mason, he joined the Anah Temple Shrine in 1976 and served some years as a selectman in Corinna. Perley once held a director’s slot with the Depositors Trust Co.

He is proud that his family still runs the dealership. Earl Hartley retired last spring, but Linda Dyer, Perley’s oldest daughter, is the office manager, and her husband, Frank, is a service technician. There are other Hartleys in the business, too; “there have always been a lot of family working in the organization,” Perley said.

He knows, too, how many people depended on Hartley’s for employment over the last half century. “We have treated them as friends, partners, and employees,” Perley said. “They have always worked very hard for us.”

Looking back, he has a few regrets involving potential expansions. He has had the opportunity to buy businesses in Skowhegan, Bangor, and Ellsworth. He does not regret foregoing the Bangor franchise, since “my roots were out here. I do wish I’d bought (a particular dealership) in Ellsworth. That is probably my greatest regret.

“The business has been my life,” Perley stated. “If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t change the profession I was in at all.”