About Us
The History of Public Service Garage
Public Service Garage was founded by the Veiht family and opened their doors to the public in 1927 as an Oldsmobile franchise.
Ted A. Veiht is the original founder of Marquette Auto Sales, which became Marquette Public Service Garage in 1929. When Ted retired he passed the responsibilities down to his son Jack Veiht. The tradition is still going on with the present owner John S. Veiht, Jack's son.
When the dealership was renamed in 1929 to Public Service Garage it was said that "Garage" added a bit of old fashion charm to the name. Even though so many things have changed over the years with the dealership, you can still count on a friendly smile and a helping hand.
Originally Public Service Garage sold Onan Power Plant equipment, farm equipment, and automobiles. Twenty-three years later, in 1952 the company moved from it's first location on Front street in Marquette, in the upper peninsula, to their second location located on the corner of Washington street and Fourth street. Then in 1958 Pontiac was added to the franchise followed by Buick and Opel vehicles in 1960. In 1965, a new store front was added to the building as well as an eight-stall body shop a short time later. This was an extraordinary accomplishment back in the day and Public Service Garage was still growing.
In 1977, the business moved to their third and current location on the corner of McClellan Ave. and Baraga Ave. The lot was empty and in need of a building that could hold all of the inventory at the time of the move. After searching state to state looking at other dealerships and getting ideas for what the new dealership was to look like, plans where drawn up for a building that would be 272 ft. long and 136 ft deep, making the building an astonishing 25,500 sq ft., a five lot site.
The building was made up of three departments. In the front of the building was the new showroom which had room for 12 cars and was designed to have a pleasing appearance, with large thermo pane windows along the front with stone accents. There was also large doors placed at either end of the showroom to move cars in and out. This section of the building also held a space for a new office complex and parts department.
The west side of the new building was designed for the service department. With state of the art hoists and tools, this new service department could hold and service up to 18 vehicles at once.
The east side of the new building was for the new body shop and detailing department.
Outside was a large black topped lot that could hold up to 278 vehicle.
May 5th 1994 was another milestone marker with the addition of GMC Trucks to the Franchise. Along with a larger building and an even larger inventory came even more employees. When the dealership first opened the doors to the public, there were just a handful of employees and today there are currently 53 employees that help keep the dealership running smothly.
Public Service Garage has received several awards including; The quarter-century award from May 1, 1958- May 1, 1983, Jack accepted the award from Peter Carroll of the Milwaukee Pontiac Division in 1983,the Chamber Award for business of the year in 1995 and countless Service awards.
Today the dealership is still growing with the expansion of the service department, new equipment in the body shop, a growing staff, and an endless amount of inventory. Public Service Garage still sells Onan generators, GMC Trucks, Pontiac's, Buick's and Cadillac which was added to the franchise when the dealership moved to it's current location.
Public Service Garage has been family owned and operated since 1929 and is looking forward to serving you for years to come. We have been serving the public for 75 years!
Stop in today for a hot cup of coffee and some friendly service from our staff. Why?...because "Nobody Serves the Public, Like Public Service Garage"
