Gastown Grand Opening – April 4, 1963

Here's another ad that's part of my apparent quest to document the Grand Opening of every new Lorain business from the 40s to the 60s.

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.

A later version of the logo

As noted in the above ad, Gastown made its appearance there in 1963. It remained a Gastown station until the early 1980s, when it disappeared from the city directory. However, the Clark gas station next door to the west continued on.

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.