Have you noticed that the former gas station/drive thru at 602 Lincoln Ave. has been gone for awhile, and that the “new gas station” on the site has been under construction for some time? Watching the seemingly slow process challenged me to look back into history to learn when Lancaster residents began to drive cars.
When did they begin to use “gas stations” on this site?
Would you be surprised to learn that the 7 July 1904 the Gazette reported that Lancaster had “a big automobile colony?” The article went on to define the auto population as 25 “machines” and actually listed the names of the men who owned them. An ordinance naming Lincoln Ave. was passed by City Council (28 Sept. 1915 Daily Eagle) and stated it extended from Front St. to the west corporation limit. Up until now it had been known as “West Main.”
It was not a paved street. “An automobile owner remarked today that the damage to automobiles traveling over this road in one year would be enough to pay the expenses of a brick pavement from Front St. to the corporation line. And he is probably right as it is the most traveled road in the county” (30 April 1919 Daily Eagle).
On Aug. 11, 1919, City Council passed a resolution declaring it necessary to pave Lincoln Ave. Only one bid was received on Feb. 28, 1920. What was to be “the best roadway ever built in Fairfield County” would be Hocking block on a cement foundation…(with) asphalt filling. The contract with Wilson & Carpenter specified it had to be completed by 1 Oct. 1920. Contractors began 31 March 1920 on a project bid to cost $44,840. The project finished over budget and several months late, but the Daily Eagle (30 April 1921) reported: “Things are humming out Lincoln Avenue way. they are putting in a new bridge over Hocking, the paving man is putting in a new brick road; side tracks are being laid, new buildings are going up, and a thousand new chicks are coming into life every day in Edward Towt’s big hatchery. No wonder the people out that way are cackling.” It was believed in 1921 only six blacksmiths remained in Lancaster compared to some 25 or 30 garages and service stations.
According to ads in the Eagle-Gazette, beginning in July 1949 the 602 Lincoln Ave. property was available for lease. It became a service station and thereafter was Jim’s Marathon, Harold’s Marathon, Joe Sheets’ Marathon, Ralph Phillip & Nello DeFillippo’s Marathon and several others until about 1973. Richard Hoshor acquired what became Dick’s Marathon, and in 1978 received a liquor permit for beer and wine for carry-out sale. About 1981 it became Tom Joyner’s Marathon and carry-out, and then in 1982 Joyner’s Marathon and Drive Thru.
Richard Kilbarger and Donald Husband acquired the business in 1985, and 602 became the 22 Drive-Thru. Luck was with them when five local people collectively purchased a winning lottery ticket in 1986 at the Drive-Thru.
A “bulk gas plant” was located behind the gas station at 602 Lincoln since at least 1949. That year it was owned by the Ohio Oil Co. and Don H. Ludwig was the sales representative. By 1968 Homer Boley was manager and part owner of the Marathon Bulk Station. The storage plant had the capacity to hold 80,000 gallons of gas (29 Nov 1968 E-G). By at least 1988, David Milliser was a distributor of Marathon Oil Co. products and located at 602 Lincoln. They offered wholesale/retail petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, heating oil, diesel fuel and oil lubricants.
David Milliser sold the property to PAP Oil Company, LLC in 2008. Minutes of a March 3, 2020 meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals stated the building is being torn down and rebuilt with a convenience store. There will be fuel pumps in the front and diesel pumps in the back with a store in between the two. It will not be a drive-thru, only a drive-up window on the side of the convenience store.
Let’s keep watching the progress and wait for the grand opening. As was said back in 1921 after Lincoln Ave. was paved, “No wonder the people out that way are cackling.”
Readers may contact Harvey atjoycelancastereg@gmail.com