in 1953, locating a quonset type showroom and shop on Route 24 a short distance west of 51. The Dunmire Equipment Company, handling earth-moving equipment and tractors, also built offices and display rooms on the north side of Route 24 west of 51.

BULK PLANTS AND FILLING STATIONS. The Standard Oil Company installed the first bulk plant along the east Y in 1894, and in 1949 they moved the plant and enlarged it, to the opposite side of Route 24. Joe Crawford has been associated with this plant since 1926. The Shell Company installed the second bulk plant on Route 24 in 1924, and made Martin Feeney their agent. After his death in 1939 his son Charles Feeney succeeded him and is still the plant distributor. The Sweney Company built their plant also in 1924 on Front Street east of Route 51, and C. E. Barney has been agent since September of that year. John L. Michael erected a storage tank south of the T. P. & W. on Route 51 in 1929. Recently, this was purchased and enlarged into a new plant by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Lloyd Jones being their present distributor.

When Dr. C. O. Patton purchased his first car, June 15, 1904, gasoline was sold in grocery and hardware stores. By July 31, 1913 there were 104 cars in the city, thirty more in the township and ninety-four more in the area served by the El Paso Telephone Company. The first reference to any especial service for the new motorists stated that "a gasoline filling outfit was now located in front of the Pinkham and Boyd Garage in Block 43." Other garages added gasoline pumps, but as service stations increased, most of the garages discontinued this service. C. L. W. Snyder built the first drive-in service station at Front and Chestnut Streets in 1925, after going to Beloit, Wisconsin to see one. Many freely predicted a filling station for cars was a wildcat venture. About the same time, Clarence Massey erected a gasoline pump on his lawn at the southeast corner of Routes 24 and 51, then state routes 2 and 8. The house was moved to the east and a service station then erected on the corner. John L. Michael's station, diagonally across the corner, the Shell Oil station on the northeast corner and the Standard Oil station on the southwest corner were erected in that order, the last one in 1929. The Phillips station on Main Street at Elm was erected earlier in 1926. The Letsinger station on Sycamore Street was erected in 1950 and the Cities Service station at Fayette and Front and the Standard station at Main and Chestnut were both erected in 1951.

The first building actually erected for a garage was built by Clarence Massey at Routes 51 and 24, later replaced by the Sweney station when the Letcher Brothers who leased it purchased the Jimmy Davison building where they are now located. Marion Altum operated a restaurant in the present Letcher garage building before he went into World War II. Louis Knecht erected the second garage building in 1929 on Route 51 at First Street. It has been enlarged several times and now includes a showroom and parts department.

Page 169

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