Nipp’s Service to close after 80 years

By Mark Gallagher | Contributor | June 2026

When Louie Nipp decided to open Nipp’s DX service station in the spring of 1946 on the corner of Southview Boulevard and Seventh Avenue in South St. Paul, he had one small problem: he needed a mechanic. His first call was to his son Robert, who was away at college studying to be an electrician. Louie called and said, “Hey, I just bought a filling station. I’ll work the gas pumps but I need a mechanic to repair cars.”

Robert was intrigued. He dropped out of college, joined his father at the station and never looked back.

Now, it’s the end of an era, as the shop will close at the end of May.

Robert’s sons Al and Jeff worked together at Nipp’s for 50 years, and Al eventually assumed ownership. He signed on in 1973, helping fix lawn mowers and outboard motors. While the shop specialized in repairing vehicles, they always had quite a bit of work repairing small engines, he said. In the summer, Al and his father would work on 100-150 lawn mowers, and when the weather turned cold and snowy, they would repair 80-100 snow blowers during that season.

As an adult, he passed on his knowledge to his own sons as well.

“I taught my three sons, Adam, Matt and Andrew, how to repair lawn mowers and snow blowers,” Al said, “and they also help me do repair work on cars. My brother retired about three-and-a-half years ago because of an injury, so their help is much appreciated because I could not take care of all the work by myself.”

He said Nipp’s never had a problem attracting and keeping customers and that work has always been steady. In fact, they even have third-generation customers coming there for service.

“If you treat your customers right and are fair and honest, the customers will keep coming back to get the dependable work done on their car,” Al said. “I’d be afraid to bring my car into a car repair shop because unfortunately there are shops out there that aren’t very honest. It’s a shame to say, but honesty and integrity are things a person just doesn’t see much anymore in the automotive repair industry. People can’t come in for a tune-up and walk out with a $4,000 bill – that’s just unacceptable.”

Honesty, integrity and a willingness to help others are traits passed down in his family, he said.

“When my dad took over the shop from my grandfather, Steve Mankowski, the owner of the Phillips 66 station (now called Southview “66” Servicenter) across the street, said to me, ‘When I started business over there, I remember your dad walked over to my station and said, ‘we can help you in any way, give you any advice, lend you any tool, and if you need help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask.’ I will never forget that. We have been friends ever since, and they are good people over there.”

The original Nipp’s Service Center was demolished in 1965 and replaced by the existing building. They stopped selling gas in the mid-1980s.

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