Texaco Service Station
329 Front Street, Minocqua, Oneida County
Date of Construction: circa 1931; remodeled 1939
Contractor: J.E. O’Leary & Son
The Texaco Service Station in Minocqua is a highly intact example of a late-1930s-era gas station that reflects the transition from the “house with bays”-type service station of the 1920s to the more streamlined, modern oblong box of the 1930s. Although originally built from plans believed to have been supplied by The Texas Company (later known as Texaco), and built of hollow tile and faced with stucco, the station was remodeled circa 1939 with the brick exterior that is seen today. Although relatively modest in its architectural styling, the building continues to maintain its original overall plan, original door and window openings with their corresponding wooded doors and wood-frame windows, as well as its overall brick exterior, complete with two rows of decorative green brick that run the full perimeter of the building.
While a good number of historic gas stations do remain throughout the State of Wisconsin, they are considered a disappearing resource. Following a review of historic gas stations known to exist in Oneida County, the subject Texaco Service Station, which operated as a service station until 1960.
As a result of its 2022 rehabilitation that utilized the Wisconsin State rehabilitation tax credit program, the building again features wooden panel-and-glass overhead garage doors that are period appropriate and largely replicate those that were previously installed. |