Arthur’s Electric: Over 100 Years Old

by Charles McGuigan 08.2025

In an era when some independently owned businesses closed up shop because the proprietors lacked the stamina or the know-how, or were crushed by a sluggish economy, or smothered by corporate thugs, it is rare to encounter one that has survived and thrived for more than a century, and is still owned and operated by the same family that started it all.

This January, Arthur’s Electric Service will celebrate its 103rd anniversary, spanning five generations of a name that is now synonymous with the finest in outdoor power equipment, and an unparalleled service and parts department. I’ve been knowing Arthur’s Electric and its owners and staff for more than three decades now, and have been schooled in what are the best outdoor power tools on the market, from lawn mowers to chainsaws. It’s always been one of my favorite drop-off points for the magazine, and at times I would jaw and jape with Linda non-stop for an hour or more with my son waiting patiently in a chair opposite me. 

Seated in front of me are Linda Arthur, and her daughter, Barrett, and grandson, Brighton. They represent three generations of Arthur’s Electric. Tonda Arthur, Linda’s other daughter, spent two years working in the family business, but decided it was not the right fit for her. Like her mom, Tonda has a degree in art, and she has worked in the banking industry almost her entire professional life. 

Brighton, just 13 years old, has already taken a deep interest in the business and is currently learning about engines; he’s even built one from a kit. And he tells me a little something about gaskets—that crucial wafer that seals the junction between two surfaces in an engine. “They can be made of paper, rubber, cork, even lead and asbestos, but they don’t make those anymore,” he tells me. 

I had often wondered why a shop that specializes in outdoor power equipment was called Arthur’s Electric Service. Barrett, who among other things is the shop’s historian, solved the mystery for me. 

“We first opened in 1923 in Richmond,” says Barrett. This was in the era of Ford Model Ts and Model As. “They needed people to repair them, and that’s what Arthur’s did,” Barrett says. “They did electrical armature re-winding within the motors, and the starters. We also repaired X-ray machines. We sold parts and repaired parts. Generators, magnetos, starters and a general line of ignition parts.” 

The man who founded the company was Barrett’s great grandfather, Davis Allen Arthur. They had a few locations in Richmond, including one at the corner of Broad and Monroe Streets (that building still stands today with its distinctive clay tile roof). 

By the late 1940s, the focus of the business eventually changed to the sale and repair of lawn mowers. After Davis retired, his sons, Virgil and Frank, took over the business. They would settle in a building at 2000 Dabney Road for about 20 years. And then in the bicentennial year they built the brick and mortar building on Route 1 in Glen Allen, which has been their home ever since. 

From the very beginning, Arthur’s Electric has always put the customer first. “The customer is the reason we exist,” Linda tells me. “They are able to talk to people when they come in no matter what the circumstances are. We treat them fairly. We don’t ignore them.” 

And their reputation has become intergenerational. “Our customer’s children come in once they get married,” says Linda. “And after they’ve had their first Lowe’s lawnmower, they come and buy a lawnmower from us. Now because we’ve been in business for almost hundred and three years we have grandchildren that come in that have their own homes.” 

The long enduring success of Arthur’s has a lot to do with those who work here. 

“Two of the men that are with us came from the same type of business we’ve always run,” Linda says. “One was working on boats, the other one worked at his parent’s business down in King William County.”

She’s talking about Chuck Riedel and Mike DeShazo, Jr. Mike serves as general manager and has been with the company for 23 years. Chuck, who has worked here for 25 years, has knowledge of parts and products that exceed even that of the man who was responsible for making Arthur’s Electric the household name it has become—Linda’s late husband, Robert Arthur, who passed away four years ago. Chuck’s wife, Christine, womans the office alongside Linda.

And they have two technicians—in some ways the backbone of the company—who can repair just about anything mechanical. Keith Clark and Joe Wilson have each been part of the Arthur’s Electric family for about 15 years. The two newest members of the clan are Kevin Ice and David Goodman who have been working there for about three years.

Rounding it out are Barrett, who’s been a presence at Arthur’s for 30 years, and her mom, Linda, who joined her husband in the business in 1981, ten years after the pair were married.

Before she began working at Arthur’s, Linda, who studied art at Longwood College, worked at a variety of jobs in finance. She worked at Thalhimers Westmoreland (now defunct), VCU, Southern Bank (also defunct), and University of Richmond, in payroll offices and accounting departments, where she developed a host of skills that would help her with the financial management of Arthur’s Electric.

Arthur’s Electric has survived the Great Depression, a World War, and more recently hurricanes, a global pandemic, and on the second day of the first year of the new millennium a mega corporation that opened up shop less than two miles south of Arthur’s. In short order, scores of businesses went under with the arrival the big boxes at Parham and Brook Roads.

“We thought we were going to shrink when Lowe’s opened up,” Linda remembers.

She and Robert and other employees would wander through Lowe’s and scope out the lawn equipment there. “We were always aware of what they were selling things for,” says Linda. In those early days, according to Linda, they were selling inferior lawn mowers. “They weren’t selling Toro or Lawn Boy,” she says.

The Arthurs also got to know the equipment manager there. “And so he would send people to us. So they actually increased our business in the long run. But at first we were very worried because so many local businesses went under.”

Linda, who’s extremely intelligent and widely read, then tells me something she learned about some big box stores and how they undermine the quality of products. “I looked up a history of one of them,” she says. “They would say to Poulan, ‘We’ll buy a hundred thousand chainsaws nationwide.’ Well, a little dealer in Glen Allen, Virginia can’t do that. Then after the first year of offering the original Poulan chainsaws they cheapened it. They went to Poulan and told them to cheapen it. Their theme is they go to the manufacturer and say, ‘I need you to make this so I can sell it for ninety dollars.’ And so then they put in plastic gears instead of brass gears and they cheapen the other metals.”

Back in the early years of the current century, Richmond received a one-two punch in two successive years with two of the five worst hurricanes in central Virginia’s history. Through it all, Arthur’s Electric was there to help the region pick up the pieces. Barrett remembers back in 2003 when Isabel struck, how her father responded to an alarm that went off at Arthur’s. He arrived at the business very, very early that morning to check the damage. One of the massive storefront windows had been blown out. “And people started lining up at four in the morning,” she recalls. “We were running our power off a generator so we could help the customers get what they needed.

A year later, Gaston struck. Robert Arthur would drive down to Raleigh, North Carolina early in the morning, day after day, and load his pickup truck to the brim with ECHO and STIHL chain saws, both of which are manufactured there.

“We did $260,000 in sales in one month with chainsaws and lube,” Linda says.

“We put in the blood, sweat and tears for it, too,” says Barrett.

Barrett recalls how National Guardsmen from the City of Hampton came by in the aftermath of the storm and purchased every single chainsaw they had in stock. 

“We were all relieved when the first snow came that year,” says Linda. “Things just stopped like nobody’s business, and we were so happy because we’d been working twelve hours a day for a long time.”

When the pandemic struck, Arthur’s Electric remained open. “During Covid we weren’t shut down,” Linda says. “We were deemed essential.”

And many of the clients were homeowners who decided to do their own lawn maintenance. “One of our best years was the last year of the pandemic,” says Linda. “Everybody decided, ‘We’re going to cut our own grass.’And that lasted about three years and then they said, ‘I want a landscaper back.’”

Barrett remembers how her parents stuck it out through the pandemic, even in those early dystopian days when everything seemed to shut down all at once. “My parents were sitting here dealing with people, hundreds of people a day, risking themselves even before any vaccines came out,” she says. ‘Even in March 2020, when things started shutting down. That’s the season for landscaping. And how were all the people who depend on us going make it for their families? This is food on their table. And my dad was the one who would walk the line.”

Linda has always believed that businesses have to adapt to their moment in time.

“I always told Robert this,” she says. “You can’t stay the same no matter what you’re doing. I don’t care what you choose to do in life, you can’t stay the same. You either fall back or you go forward.”

She considers what has happened to outdoor power tools in recent years. “Three years ago we couldn’t give away an electric lawn mower,” Linda says. “Now about an eighth of our business is made up of battery powered equipment. They’ve even got zero-turn rider mowers now that are electric, along with trimmers and chainsaws, and the lithium batteries last much longer.”

The trend toward electric outdoor power tools seems to be the new wave. “People are worried about emissions in cities,” says Barrett. “People in Carytown like battery powered tools. They want equipment that is quieter.” God knows it would be relief never to hear a whining weed wacker or screaming leaf blower again.

Linda mentions something she frequently hears from customers. “People constantly say, ‘Why are you called Arthur’s Electric?’ I don’t have to answer that question anymore because everything’s gone battery and electric.” 

Arthur’s Electric has always been an integral part of the community. They’ve worked with county schools, and have been active with the Glen Allen Ruritan Club, and been big supporters of St. Joseph’s Villa. Barrett, who was helping out with a CROP Hunger Walk in Richmond, asked her father for a donation for this cause, and without batting an eye he gave them a tiller. “That’s the kind of man he was,” says Barrett.

Just four months after Robert passed away, a developer offered a sizable chunk of change for Arthur’s Electric Service, which is now surrounded by four-story apartment rectangles that look as if they were inspired by LEGO.

Linda, of course, declined. “People come in and thank us each day for being here,” she says.

So there was that.

But the main reason she decided not to sell was because of the people who made Arthur’s Electric Service possible in the first place, people who are like extended family. “My employees were the main reason,” says Linda Arthur. “Where would they go if we were gone? We made it through hurricanes and the pandemic and we were not going to go because someone wanted to buy our building.”

“It’s what my father would have wanted,” Barrett Maddox says.

Arthur’s Electric Service

8-5:30 Monday through Friday

8-12 on Saturday during the season March through November

8910 Brook Road

Glen Allen, VA 23060

(804) 264-2513

arthurselectric.com