Square Deal Garage Evolved From Butcher Shop to Auto Shop

It's the former home of an early 20th Century butcher shop. It dates to the days when blacksmiths and horse carriages were part of modern life. It has defiantly chuckled rather than simply buckled during powerful earthquakes.

It's outlived dramatic changes in technology and society, and it's not going away any time soon.

For most of its long and stubborn life, a strong brick building in nearby Pinole's Old Town has been an auto repair shop.

Today, the is the livelihood of a second generation of mechanics who grew up there and thrive in its tradition.

Brandon Osman, 27, was four years old when he started hanging out in the shop run by his dad, Kevin, who is now in semi-retirement, spending summers in Montana. Brandon and his brother, Brian, now run the place at San Pablo and Valley avenues.

Their father started working there as a youngster, eventually buying the business in the early 1970s. But the shop's origin traces to 1928, when Bert Hall erected the building to replace the old butcher shop. His son, Chet Hall, ran the garage into the 1970s.

"We used to have a floor drain where the whole building would drain to the floor and that would make sense if they were butchering animals here," Brandon Osman said. "But shortly after it became an auto shop that had to get cemented up."

Formerly named Hall's Garage, the business began when cars and horses shared unpaved roads.

"I'm told they actually used to do work for horse carriages," Brandon Osman said about the site at San Pablo and Valley avenues.

The building still has some of the original paneling from the butcher shop and there are old nails, bolts and other artifacts that remain part of the structure.

"We try and keep as much as the original old-time stuff as we can as not to change the history of the building too much," Brandon Osman said. "So there's a lot of the original stuff here still. It's quite a bit of history."

Thousands of commuters pass the building daily, likely wondering about its past. Local residents, some whose grandparents used to go there, stop in for an oil change, a brake job. Even a passing glance at the site hints at its history and resilience.

The Osman brothers were little kids when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, forcing the demolition of a similar-aged building across the street from the shop. State law required inspections of all unreinforced masonry buildings to make sure they met modern seismic codes. The garage stood firm. In the mid-1990s, a building inspector marvelled at the structure's integrity when he conducted stress tests, Brandon said.

"The building was actually built three times as strong as today's standards," he said. "The foundation out back is almost 20 feet deep. So yeah, in Loma Prieta this building didn't budge. That's a true sign of the craftsmanship they had back then and the care and dedication that went into things as opposed to now."

Kevin Osman still owns the business. At one time he owned about 13 gas stations, along with the Square Deal, but he started on the bottom rung at Hall's Garage as a teenager before buying it in the early 1970s, Brandon said

Brandon took over management of it in 2002.

"Let's see, that puts me at 17, running the shop, managing five employees," he said.

Brian left the lagging landscape design business in Southern California about four years ago to work at the shop.

"It's been great to grow up here, that's for sure," Brandon said. "It's almost like having two families. All the people who work here, we're a pretty tight-knit group."

Over the years, Kevin Osman has turned down prospective buyers of the property.

"He had thought about selling the building and property a long time ago," Brandon said of his dad. "But with the interest that I expressed in it he decided to hand it down to me and my brother when he finally retires."

The brick walls inside the shop still bear chalk marks that tally the winners of games of darts from decades ago. The name "Chet" is clearly visible as a lasting testament to the former owner.

The marks, the bricks and grand structure, won't be changing in appearance or function for the foreseeable future.

"I've spent my whole life in Pinole, my brother mostly, too," Brandon said. "I plan on hopefully retiring and passing it down on my kids when I have kids. I'd really like to keep it a family business and keep it a Pinole landmark and not let it get torn down and have on office building or apartments going up in its place."