Family built, owned and operated…since 1949. The business was founded by Carroll Eugene (Gene) Ridgeway. The property was purchased in 1949 from the Keister farm on route 287 (Berlin Pike) in Lovettsville, Virginia. Gene built the building himself with help from family – his dad (Roy) and brothers (Petie and Lee).

The foundation was built by hand with a pick and shovel. They laid block and poured the concrete floor by hand. They gathered sand out of local creek beds to mix with the concrete, which was purchased from the railroad. Broken bags of concrete were purchased for $1 bag. As the sand was gathered out the creek beds, occasionally there would be black walnuts in the sand, which was mixed in with the concrete. Those walnuts are in the garage floor still today.

As the business grew, Gene hired two salesmen. Tom Pearson sold cars for about 15 years at Ridgeway’s Used Cars, and Larry Potts sold cars for about 2 years. Gene had one secretary, Patsy Danner, for about 25 years. In 1983, Gene’s daughter, Peggy, started working as the secretary following Patsy’s death. Peggy continues to serve as secretary.,Gene’s sons, Terry and Mark, began cleaning up cars (detailing) when they were around 10 years old.,Mark later became a mechanic and started working at the garage. Terry pursued a career in information,technology. In 1992, Mark started selling cars along with Gene and continues to run the car sale part of the business (Ridgeway’s Used Cars) today with his son, Brandon.