Business

‘It’s Pretty Incredible’: New Canaan’s Steve Gaeta Marks 30 Years Owning C&H Auto

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Town resident Steve Gaeta was just a few years out of high school in 1987, when he started working as a mechanic at the auto repair shop at 186 Main St. 

At the time, Gaeta recalled, the downtown had nine gas stations with auto repair shops, and within a few years the co-owners of the New Canaan Chevron, located near the corner of Main and Maple Streets, in the shadow of then-recently demolished Center School—Charlie and Hank had renamed it ‘C&H Auto’ after themselves—decided to sell. “These guys were probably my age and they were looking for an opportunity to move on,” recalled Gaeta, a New Canaan firefighter who has lived here since the late-1980s and whose daughter graduated from New Canaan High School last year. “We took that opportunity, bought it.”

That was 30 years ago. “It’s pretty incredible,” Gaeta said of the milestone. “I couldn’t be happier.