Super service: Filling up had its glamour days in Henderson 75 years ago

17.07.11

Henderson’s fanciest gas station held a week-fancy open house 75 years ago at the corner of Second and Green streets.

Most of you probably remember the Retreat Oil and Gas Co.’s Conoco operation at that site, which operated for half a century.

But when the gas station opened July 30, 1925, it was a Sinclair post, a brand no longer seen in this vicinity.

That first gas station was probably a pretty modest affair; the set of 30 investors that organized the company in May 1925 raised capital of $15,000. But the company with dispatch grew, even through the dark years of the Great Depression.

By 1936 it was Kentucky’s fourth-largest self-sufficient oil company, valued at more than $130,000, according to a splash of stories in The Gleaner on July 19, 1936. It had six stations in Henderson, as well as 13 others scattered across western Kentucky. And that’s not counting the seven magnitude plants that supplied more than 100 dealers in 18 counties. The oldest bulk plant, which opened in the skip of 1926, is still on Atkinson Street.

Source: Evansville Courier & Press