An entrepreneurial spirit

G.G. Marcel & Sons (757 Grand Caillou Road in Houma) is not your average Bridgestone Firestone dealer.

The store opened in 1925 and is the second-oldest, continuously-operating Firestone dealer in the U.S., according to current co-owner Patrick Marcel, although the store has had two other locations in downtown Houma. (Bridgestone purchased Firestone in 1988).

Marcel & Sons also sells appliances, furniture, mattresses and televisions. The store is split in two, with one side occupied by the automotive repair shop-the store’s main business-and the other side offering the appliances.

If that isn’t enough to set Marcel apart, the store has contained a U.S. Postal Service station since 1956.

Gibb G. Marcel, Allen’s father, was a blacksmith in Gray who decided to buy the Ever Ready service station on Goode and Belanger streets for $125 in 1925.

“My dad was an entrepreneur,” Allen Marcel said. “Before electricity, he sold radio batteries to people down the bayou. He bought ringer washers and sold them from the service station. He also made brooms in the back of the station.”

“He did everything you could think of. He was really something.”

As part of the rationing programs during World War II, Gibb Marcel gave out certificates to people in the Houma area needing tires.

He sold the service station to his bookkeeper during the war, but the bookkeeper went broke. Firestone asked him to take the store back.

Marcel then moved his dealership to the former Louis Mohana building at 7821 Main St. in Houma, where Fabregas Music is currently located, renting half the building.

True to his entrepreneurial spirit, he began stocking the store with appliances and other items, a step that, unfortunately, Mohana did not like.

So Marcel moved the Firestone shop down Main Street where the Terrebonne Parish government tower building is currently located.

In 1945, his other son, Cleveland, took over the store. Cleveland Marcel would later become a state judge and author the book “Louisiana Criminal Practice and Procedure, Louisiana Juvenile Practice and Procedure.”

Cleveland Marcel ran the Main Street store until the mid-1950s.

Gibb Marcel built the Grand Caillou location in 1950 when little development existed in the area.

“My dad was told, ‘You’re crazy going there,’ but my dad had foresight,” Allen Marcel said. Land prices in the area rose soon after the store was built.

After Cleveland Marcel left the Main Street store, Allen Marcel began operating that location as well as the Grand Caillou store.

He opened a Firestone dealership on West Park Avenue across from the Southland Mall in 1980 after closing the Main Street store. Allen Marcel operated that store and the Grand Caillou location until he retired in 2004. The Park Avenue location was sold to Walgreens Drug Stores.

“We always did the right thing,” Marcel said. “I was fair with everyone I dealt with. It kept me in business for 54 years. My dad was the same way.”

G.G. Marcel & Sons, located on 757 Grand Caillou Road in Houma, has been in business since 1925 and is the second-oldest, continuously-operating Firestone dealer in the United States. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE