Property Record
SE CORNER OF ERIE AND 14TH
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Erie Oil Co. |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 82284 |
| Location (Address): | SE CORNER OF ERIE AND 14TH |
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| County: | Sheboygan |
| City: | Sheboygan |
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| Year Built: | 1937 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | gas station/service station |
| Architectural Style: | Art/Streamline Moderne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cream Brick |
| Architect: | Edgar Stubenrauch |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | Yes |
| Demolished Date: | 0 |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. Cream brick gas station is Art Moderne in style and features a wide central tower and dark brick banding for trim. Similar designs featured in the October 1935, Architectural Record. By the late 1930s, gas station owners and oil-company marketing executives abandoned earlier cottage and pagoda-like stations and instead came to favor the functional approach and machine-inspired imagery of Moderne architecture. The newer stations had smooth, spare industrial lines, mimicking the aesthetics of the automobiles they serviced, and they combined the functions of gasoline sales and auto maintenance into a single service station. In 1935, Architectural Record sponsored a competition to design a modern station; the resulting plans may well have inspired this building’s architecture. Designed in a geometric Moderne style, the cream-brick building juxtaposes cubes of differing heights, tying them together with a diagonally oriented storefront. Dark brick bands and casement windows wrap around corners, lending the sleek look that symbolized speed and alluded to the curved lines associated with streamlined vehicles. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (B) Architectural Record, October 1935. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |