ADRIAN — Mike Hall was 16 years old when he got his first job with a small glass shop, and he quickly discovered he had a passion for the work and for the satisfaction of a job well done. Forty-four years later, he’s still in the glass business, the last 30 of those years in the company he and his wife, Lisa, started: Maple City Glass in Adrian.
Maple City Glass, located at 877 W. Beecher St., is a full-service shop, handling custom glass shower enclosures, mirrors, flat glass cutting, anything related to automotive glass including calibration of the systems involved in many windshield replacements, residential window repair and replacement, and commercial work.
Starting with that long-ago first job, Hall swiftly honed his skills as an installer and soon enough, at a different company, was managing one of the locations on his own. He and Lisa founded Maple City Glass, originally in a building on Sand Creek Highway, in September 1994 because “I always felt there was a need here,” he said.
Their first day of operation was their daughter’s first birthday. And, as it happened, Mike got an emergency call and missed the party. “Welcome to the business world,” Lisa said, laughing.
At first, Mike was a one-man show, “but I quickly got to the point where I needed help,” he said, and office staff and installers began coming on board. And the company soon beat the Halls’ expectations for growth. “Within two and a half years, we managed to hit our five-year plan,” he said.
As Maple City Glass reaches its 30th birthday this month, the Halls said that the business is where it is thanks to its core values: “Hard work, honesty, integrity, being there when the customer wants us there,” Mike said.
And besides being a local, family-owned company, Maple City Glass has installers with many years’ combined experience and is able to be highly competitive with the bigger companies on price, Mike said.
The family connection is now extending to another generation: Mike and Lisa’s son Austin joined the company in February.
Austin graduated from Blissfield High School and started a career as a Lenawee County sheriff’s deputy. Although he enjoyed the work, he eventually decided he wanted to be part of the family business he’d been around so much as a boy.
As his parents began to think about their eventual retirement, “I couldn’t handle the idea of this [business] not being our family’s,” he said, “so it was the right time” to come on board and start learning the trade for himself.
His parents said that he’s been a quick study. “It’s been such a blessing for us. … We’re really glad to have him here,” Lisa said.
“Austin has always had an entrepreneurial spirit … and it’s been great to see that come full circle,” Mike added. “I have no doubt that he will bring this company to a whole new height.”
Noting that he and his parents share a love for the outdoors, Austin connects that interest with his new vocation.
“A piece of glass is more than itself,” he said. “It’s your portal to the outdoors, and that’s my passion.”
Maple City Glass serves customers throughout Lenawee County as well as elsewhere in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio.
Maple City Glass can be reached at 517-263-7515 or www.maplecityglass.net.
