Newport Taxi

A classy, owner-chauffeured enterprise that offered services unique to Oak Bay during the 1950s — 1970s

courtesy Martha (Attwell) Downing

Harold Attwell and Gordon Craig (late 1950s) Newport Taxi co-owners proudly pose before their elite vehicles

	Newport Taxi was started in 1930 by John Craig and Dick Snelgrove operating out of 1171 Newport Avenue.
	John Craig had just lost his life savings in the crash of 1929 and got involved in the taxi business to make a living. At some point he left the business and, in the late 1940s, his son Gordon joined Snelgrove as a partner.
	By 1947 the business was called Community Cab Company and operated out of the Oak Bay Garage property at 2675 Windsor Road. This Dick Snelgrove/Gordon Craig partnership lasted about three years before Snelgrove left.
	In 1950 Gordon Craig found a new partner in old friend Harold Attwell. Both Attwell and Craig were former Hudson's Bay Company employees. They agreed on the philosophy of providing a luxury service restricted to a local clientele.*
	Craig and Attwell renamed their company Newport Taxi, and their posh Buicks and Oldsmobiles continued to operate out of 2675 Windsor Road through the 1950s.
	In the early 1960s they purchased two Mecedes-Benz vehicles and relocated to the Autohaus site at 1220 Newport Avenue (former site of Totem Super Service and current site of O'Keeffe's) where their two luxury cars could be maintained.
	The unique, high-end service of Newport Taxi lasted into the 1970s.
* A local clientele was possibly the philosophy of the Community Cab Company, whence the name.

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RECOLLECTIONS

Recollections may be abridged for length and/or clarity

In 1950, my dad, Harold Attwell, joined his long-time friend and former co-worker at the Hudson’s Bay Company, Gordon Craig, to form a partnership in Newport Taxi, serving Oak Bay, Uplands and Ten Mile Point exclusively.

They used the central dispatch services of C&C Taxi Co. in downtown Victoria, which would transfer their calls to their office at 2675 Windsor Road, at the Oak Bay Garage. In later years, they moved their office to another service garage near the corner of Newport Avenue and Windsor Road, which still exists today.

Throughout the '50s, Harold and Gordon used either Buicks or Oldsmobiles and would purchase a new vehicle every two years. In the early '60s they purchased Mercedes Benz and had them for many years. They did not use a meter in their cars, did not wear uniforms nor were there any taxi signs. It was considered a chauffeur-type of service.

They did not use a meter in their cars, did not wear uniforms, nor were there any taxi signs. It was considered a chauffeur-type of service.

Newport Taxi served a unique clientele in Oak Bay, and it was a common sight to see Harold’s blue or Gordon’s grey Mercedes Benz travelling throughout the streets.

They provided a wide range of services which today would be considered above and beyond the realm of responsibility, but which then was just ‘part of the job.’

Of course there were those people who had their weekly routines, like their trips to Wille’s Bakery for their favourite bread or to the liquor store for their favourite spirits or down to Roger’s Chocolates for their pound of sweets.

But then there was the wealthy elderly widow who couldn’t sleep at night so she would routinely sit in the back seat of the taxi, complete with car blanket and Harold or Gordon would be commissioned to drive her all around the Oak Bay waterfront at 30 mph until she felt sleepy.

Or another customer would have them on the beach looking for stones appropriate for polishing and making jewellery.

There were the trips to the airport and trips up-Island, the Island Hall Hotel being a favourite destination by many as it at one time had ‘the best food on the Island’.

They also provided transportation for many weddings and the cars looked pretty snazzy all dressed up in white satin ribbons with bows on the door handles! New Year’s Eve was always a very busy, lucrative time and Mom and Gordon’s wife spent many midnights ringing in the New Year on their own.

Dad retired from the taxi business in 1975 and Newport Taxi closed soon after that. It marked the end of an era, one that will never be repeated but the memories live on.

— Martha (Attwell) Downing, OBHS class of 1960 and daughter of co-owner Harold Attwell

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