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Old service station gets facelift

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By Lynsi Musselman

Driving down Albany’s Main Street, many residents have been watching the transformation taking place to a building that has been a local fixture since 1920.

Father and son team Raymond Taylor Jr. and Raymond Taylor III, both of whom go by Raymond, are undertaking the restoration of the Magnolia Gas Station that serviced the town until the late 1950s.

Both father and son live outside of Albany now, one in Woodway, Texas and one in Aledo, but neither wanted to see the building demolished.

Raymond Taylor Jr. was a 1961 graduate of Albany High School and his family previously owned Taylor, West and Taylor, a dozer company where Shack Acid and Cement is now located.

“We sort of fell into buying the building in 2013 and have slowly been renovating it back to its original state ever since,” the father said. 

The widening of Highway 180 decades ago killed the location as a gas station when the front drive was cut off for highway access.

 “The building has been vacant since that time,” Raymond Taylor Jr. said. “We do not plan to operate out of the building but hope to preserve the history of the station.”

Taylor said they have primed and painted the outside, replaced the original roof, worked to match original ceiling tiles, and sealed the inside of the walls that have naturally exposed brick walls.

“There were over 40 tires to haul off from the shed that was on the side of the building, and old spark-plugs to dispose of where station employees tuned up vehicles when it was in operation,” he said.

The sign is in the process of being hand-painted by Dean Erickson of Aledo, and the father-son team is working on some finishing touches to complete the project.

“We found an oil luber to install and are now looking for oil pumps, hoping to find matching replicas but that is nearly impossible,” Taylor said. 

The remodeled station will look similar to a restored Magnolia station in Shamrock, Texas, showing the pegasus symbol on the building and on the gas pumps.

Magnolia’s original emblem was a magnolia blossom but after a few mergers, the “Red Flying Horse” became the new and lasting symbol.

Magnolia Gas Station was the Magnolia Petroleum Company, an early 20th century oil company.

Magnolia was affiliated with the merged companies of Standard Oil and Vacuum Oil to form Socony-Vacuum Oil Company.

The word vacuum is reflected in the new sign in Albany as well, which is an oilfield term.

In 1959, Magnolia was incorporated into Socony-Vacuum which eventually changed its name to Mobil Oil Corporation and then ExxonMobil.

Residents who remember Albany from 1960 and before will soon be able to drive down Main Street and see not just a transformation of a building but a reminder of their youth brought back to life.