When Bill Stewart bought Royal Auto Supply in 1972, he had a 1957 Chevy he planned to work on.
“I saved the car for 50 years,” he said. “I just didn’t have time because, fortunately, I was busy.”
In retirement, though, he hopes to finally work on the classic car as well as another ‘57 Chevy he owns.
He bought the store at 1827 Fourth St., Peru, from his aunt and uncle, Royal and Evelyn Claussen, who opened the store in 1950.
It started as an auto parts store and Schwinn bicycle dealer in the middle of the building. Then they expanded into the next building in 1963 and expanded again in 1979.
Stewart graduated from Bradley University with a degree in automotive technology, so he initially was most interested in the auto parts side of the business. He was 30 when he bought the business, but had not worked there before the purchase. The Claussens stayed on for awhile, but it was their manager, Jerry Culver, who helped Stewart learn the business and stayed with him long term. Culver had worked there eight years before Stewart purchased it, and remained with the store until 2004.
The shop was a Schwinn dealer, which was a popular brand in the 1970s and ‘80s. He recalled a year when he sold as many as 1,400 bikes in a year and did 1,800 bike repairs. In 1975, he bought the Schwinn dealer in Ottawa.
In 1990, the 1877 building in Peru sustained a fire in an upstairs dwelling, but remained open for customers since there weren’t many other options for bicycle purchases.
“We were never closed. We hung up lights here and people were very good,” he said. “The fire department did such a good job they put the fire out with 500 gallons of water and there was no water damage.”
In 1999, he sold both Peru and Ottawa Schwinn dealers and moving forward sold used bicycles and continued repairs in his Peru store.
In the more recent years, Stewart began carrying remote control cars and truck parts. As he prepares to close, he looks to sell his remaining inventory of the remote control items and a small inventory of used bikes.
He also wishes to sell his car part inventory, which includes parts from the mid-1960s to mid-1990s, to a buyer as a lot.
As he reflected on his 50 years, he said he’d most miss the customers and the day-to-day work.
“I enjoyed it. There’s the famous saying, ‘If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,’” Stewart said. “It was not a boring job. You didn’t do the same thing every day. Somebody always had a different problem, a different car, a different bicycle. There was always variety and variety of people.”
Royal Auto Supply is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. If interested in a bulk sale of the auto parts, contact Stewart at 815-223-3262.
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