The Gas Station by Old Lake Road

November 1962 Lorain Phone Book ad

I did a little digging at the library on Tuesday night, and confirmed that the gas station that was located on Route 6 at its intersection with Old Lake Road was indeed a Shell station as Bill Rees remembered.

Allen's Shell Service was the name of the service station seen in the vintage aerial photographs. That's its November 1962 Lorain Phone Book ad at the top of this post.

I don't know exactly when it opened, because that stretch of Route 6 was not included in the Lorain city directories until the 1960 edition (which did list Allen's Shell Service). I did notice that the 1954 Lorain County Farm & Rural Directory – which lists everything on the highway from the Erie County Line east to Lorain City Limits – did not indicate that the gas station was there then.

Allen's Shell Service continued to be listed in the directory until the 1967 book, when its listing changed to West Erie Avenue Shell.

The 7251 W. Erie Avenue address went vacant in the 1968 edition, apparently bringing an end to 24 hour wrecker and road service along that stretch of the highway. There's still not a lot of commercial development out that way now, so Allen's Shell Service must have seemed like a real oasis during its heyday.