Modesto mourns beloved family business destroyed by fire. How you can help with ‘tragic loss’
Susan McGrath Aguirre remembers playing hide-and-seek in the dark warehouse of her grandfather’s moving and storage company as a child, squeezing through the small spaces between large crates for the best hiding spot.
She remembers riding in a forklift with her siblings over the railroad tracks to a convenience store on the corner of Ninth Street and Sonora Avenue in Modesto to buy a soda and candy before heading back to McGrath Moving & Storage Inc.
During the summer days when they’d hang out with their dad, Terry McGrath, at the warehouse, the siblings also would place coins on the railroad tracks and wait for trains to come. It probably was more fun for the kids than it was for Terry, McGrath Aguirre recalled.
“We just did a lot of goofy things,” she said. “We had a lot of fun there.”
Those memories are held a little closer to the heart now, since McGrath Moving & Storage Inc. was destroyed in a commercial fire that ignited at a pallet yard on Janopaul Lane on Friday night.
The fire resulted in $1.2 million in damages and injured a firefighter, according to the Modesto Fire Department.
The damage to the moving company at 645 Janopaul Lane resulted in a total loss of the business now owned by McGrath Aguirre’s brother, Mike McGrath. As far as McGrath Aguirre knows, the company always has been at the site that was consumed by the fire.
Modestans took to social media to express their sorrow for the family-owned business, which was a staple in the community for 75 years.
“So sad. Sorry for this huge loss to your family and Modesto,” one member of a Stanislaus community Facebook group commented on a shared post made by McGrath Aguirre.
“This business has been there for all of us when we needed help,” another said.
Chris Murphy and his wife’s family are good friends of the McGrath family and have used the moving company’s services for decades — including for the Graffiti USA Museum, of which Murphy is a board member.
“It was just a tragic loss,” Murphy said. “When I found out that was McGrath’s place (destroyed by fire), that hurt.”
A 2004 article in The Modesto Bee archives says the company donated storage space to community groups including the McHenry Mansion Foundation and Modesto Symphony Orchestra.
Murphy said the McGraths also stored all of his family’s belongings at the warehouse during their move from Seattle to Morgan Hill until they found a house.
“They’ve always been a part of this community. They ran a good business, but at the same time, they’d always lend a hand.”
Three generations of ‘great guy(s)‘ spearheaded family business
What started in 1949 as a grocery delivery service manned by J.R. McGrath on a three-wheeled motorcycle quickly became the beginning of a successful moving company after he borrowed a pickup truck to deliver a piano to a customer who’d asked.
J.R.’s son John McGrath told The Bee in 1997 that his father was as cheap as they come and as generous as they come.
“He would fight like hell to save a dime, and if someone needed $500, he would have it for them,” John said during an interview for J.R.’s obituary. And J.R. wouldn’t let people pay him back, either.
He ran the company until around 1987 when he turned it over to his son Terry McGrath and grandson Mike McGrath. J.R. still would show up at the business every day, though, “and give everyone hell,” John said, until his death in 1997 at age 82.
“But everyone thought he was the best guy in the world,” he said.
Terry McGrath joined his father’s company full time after graduating high school. He worked there nearly 30 years before it became his.
Terry was “a role model for volunteerism” and had a “servant’s heart,” according to his 2021 obituary in The Bee.
Murphy called him a “pillar” in the community and “just a great guy.”
Recognized as one of Modesto’s Graffiti USA early Legends of the Cruise, Terry’s Road Rebels jacket will be displayed in the Classic Car Museum once completed.
He was with McGrath Moving & Storage for 64 years before he died — also at age 82.
Mike McGrath has been the sole owner of the company since 2021, but he started helping around the shop when he was old enough to carry boxes.
He eventually got his truck-driving license and started doing long-line drives, something he would “jump in the truck” and tag along with his dad and grandfather to do as a kid, McGrath Aguirre said.
“Mike is just a hustler and works hard,” Murphy said.
As far as what’s next for the business, that’s up in the air.
“(Mike’s) just trying to keep his head above water right now,” McGrath Aguirre said.
To help, the family has created a GoFundMe for legal fees and any expenses not covered by insurance. Visit https://gofund.me/96dc0f3f for more information.
This story was originally published August 15, 2024 at 6:41 PM.
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