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58  GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS  |  2020 – 2021 By CAROL SIMMONS A complete timeline detailing AC Service Compa- ny’s existence in the village appears lost to memory. But no one can deny that the home-service business specializing in plumbing and HVAC — heating, ventilation and air conditioning — has been operating out of the same downtown Dayton Street location for quite a while. Longtime owner Mark Partee, who started work- ing for the business in 1970 and bought it in 1990, dates the company’s history back at least 90 years. But he notes that a copy of a 1968 advertisement in AC Service— Decades on Dayton Street the Yellow Springs News, which he has taped to a cupboard in the company’s front office, says AC Service was working out of its Dayton Street address “as early as 1912.” Partee also has a copy of an old photograph show- ing several horse and buggy carriages on the street in front of the business, appar- ently preceding widespread use of the automobile in the 1920s, also suggesting the company’s beginnings early in the last century. One thing known is that the AC in the name stands for Addie & Corzetto, busi - ness partners who defined the local home-service enterprise after purchasing the former Hackett Sheet Metal company, according played a variety of antique tools and machinery parts lining the walls, as well as a collection of “thank you” notes and letters taped to the front of a counter. A longtime practice of the company has been to give priority service to local residents for whom the loss of heat in winter could be life-threatening, including families with babies. Pat Partee was known to give out his home phone number for emergency calls when the office was closed, even providing service on Christ- mas Day. Andy handles emergencies today, his uncle said. But while the company’s approach to serving the community has remained the same, the work itself has changed dramatically over time, especially in recent decades, Partee said. “It’s amazing how it’s changed in the last 20 years,” he said, especially for HVAC systems. The range of building types also keeps expanding, from historical 19th century structures to contempo- rary ultra-modern designs, and all sorts of settings in between. “You can’t be claustro- phobic,” Partee said, noting how service calls can take his employees into crawl spaces, dark cellars and dusty attics. The absence of claus- trophobia aside, the main attributes Partee looks for in his service employees are “honesty, reliability and mechanical aptitude — and the desire to learn,” he said. “I can teach them every- thing else.” They also have to be will- ing to do whatever it takes to complete a job, he added. “Some people don’t like to get their hands dirty.” PHOTO: CAROL SIMMONS The longtime owner of AC Service, Mark Partee, will be passing the 90+ year-old home-service business to his nephew when he retires. to Partee’s records, which don’t include years or first names. He said Wally Eckroad, who appears to have owned the company as early as the mid-1950s, came next, selling it in 1970 to Partee’s maternal uncle, Jack Shook, who had been one of Eck- road’s employees. That same year, Mark Partee, a third- generation Yellow Springer fresh out of college, went to work under Shook’s mentor- ship, eventually purchasing the business from him 20 years later. It’s been a family-focused business for the past 50 years, with three of Partee’s brothers working there for different periods of time: Pat for at least 30 years; James “Jimmy,” who died in 2017, at least 20; and the youngest, Terry, about three years, according to Mark. Mark’s nephew, Andy, will be taking over when Mark retires, which the elder Partee anticipates to be soon, though he hasn’t set a firm date. The business typically has nine employees at a time — five service people and four office staff — Partee said. It also maintains a fleet of 10 vehicles, though not all in service at the same time, he added. Employees work out of all three floors of the long-standing brick building, as well as in the basement, where they fabricate sheet metal for HVAC work. A large storeroom behind the main office on the first floor is tightly packed with rows of wooden shelves containing bin after bin of different sized work materi - als and parts. Partee said he keeps as much inventory on hand as he can, so as not to slow a job down waiting for a part to come in. Amidst the busy clutter of the front office are dis -