American Gas Station on Middle Ridge – 1974

I recently received an email from the gentleman behind the KoHoSo.us website.

KoHoSo.us is a fascinating collection images of classic Americana "celebrating the 20th Century." These include vintage magazine ads and photographs, all presented in a fun and thought-provoking manner on the well-designed website.

Anyway, the KoHoSo.us webmaster sent me the link to a photo from 1974 that he thought I might enjoy.

"Just in case you have never seen or used this, I had an old photo from Lorain show up among the many people I follow on Flickr," he noted.  "I'm passing it along just in case it is new to you and might be of interest."

Indeed it was. Here is the photo he was talking about. It dates from 1974 and was posted on Flickr by Jeff Lonto. 

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew exactly where it was taken. In case it doesn't immediately ring a bell, Jeff's well-written description tells the story.

His caption reads, "Black and white snapshot of an American (Amoco/Standard) gas station dated 1974, in Lorain, Ohio. According to Alan Nagy, "Located at 6210 Middle Ridge Road, (north of Ohio Rt 2 exit at Middle Ridge). The building is still there, it's now a used car lot).

"The station reopened as an Amoco in the fall of 1975. It was vacant and boarded up for about eleven months. The gas pumps and signs were reinstalled in the fall of 1975. The station was vacant again around 1991 or 1992.”

I thought the photo of the American gas station was interesting because it was a nice reminder of the days when gas stations associated with major oil companies dominated the urban landscape. These days, it is difficult to find a real service station connected to a national brand (especially in Cleveland where I work).

The American Oil Company was a unit of Indiana Standard Oil Company, one of the many companies created when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up in 1911. As explained in this Wiki entry, the Standard name was used in a specific region (including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and others) and the American name was used outside that region. Both brands utilized the same oval layout with a torch in the middle for their logos.

Eventually, the American and Standard brands went away and were replaced by the Amoco name. Amoco later merged with BP, and the Amoco name for the most part disappeared.

Surprisingly, BP relaunched the Amoco brand for some service stations in 2017.

The new Amoco logo

And what about the former American gas station on Middle Ridge? Here’s how it looks today, courtesy of Google Maps.