This ad is for Gastown, which was located at the corner of East Erie and Arizona Avenues. It ran in the Lorain Journal on April 4, 1963 – 55 years ago today.
That location had a long heritage of service stations dating all the way back to the late 1920s when the first service station replaced a house. Early businesses there included McConnell Auto Service (1933), as well as service stations run by John Schmauch (1937) and Roy Fairchild (1942).
By 1945, Marathon was the brand of gasoline being sold there, with Al Walsh as the proprietor.
The location remained a Marathon station throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s with various operators, including Jack Adams (1959) and Virgil Watson (1961). However, by the time of the 1962 city directory, the station’s address was listed as vacant.
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| A later version of the logo |
So what petroleum company was the parent of Gastown?
According to a history page on the MarathonPetroleum.com website, Gastown was "a Cleveland marketer in which Marathon purchased 50% interest in 1963, acquiring the remaining 50% in 1971.” So that makes sense, seeing as Marathon was the longtime brand of gas sold at that location.
Since the mid-1980s, the location of the former Gastown gas station has been home to Riveredge Beverage, a drive-thru that also sells pizza and ribs.
4 comments:
Wasn’t this place a Rite Nau drive through beverage in the 70’s and early 80’s?
I checked the city directories and right after the Gastown closed in the early 80s, I think the listing was "Cassell Construction" for a year or two. Then around 84/85 the directory listing for that address was Riveredge Beverage. I'm not sure if any other business (such as Rite Nau) was there and missed being in the directory listings – it could be.
Gastowns in Elyria turned into Speedway which is also owned by the Marathon Gas Company. The last Gastown in Elyria was converted to Speedway in 2000 on Broad Street across from Pizza Hut.
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