Pure Oil Gas Station

This Pure Oil Service Station was built in 1938. Typical Tudor Revival Style gas station building. It was first opened and operated by Bramwell resident, Leo Powell Haynes in 1939. It is located on Rt. 52 near the bottom of Pinacle Mountain within the present Town of Bramwell city limits. A Esso gas station, operated by the Gibson family was located on a lot next to this service station. Many a Bramwell High School students worked at these two service stations over the 40-50 years that they were open. The Pure Oil Station building is a brick structure with a ceramic tile roof and and remains in good condition. It has stood empty for many years while the Esso Service Station building has been gone for over 30 years.

In the early 1950s a days work at these service stations earned a part time worker $3.00. One of the first television sets in the area was to be found in the this Pure Oil gas station in 1952. The television signal came from a huge antenna located on top of the mountain behind the station. The line feeding the signal was the expensive 300 ohm twin lead. The poor "snowy" picture was enhanced by placing multi-color celephene sheets over the TV screen."Did not help much".

This Pure Oil station is somewhat larger than most stations, with its trademark high-pitched roof is located in Bramwell, West Virginia, a well-preserved town best known for having the largest number of millionaires per capita of any U.S. town in the late 1800s. This station which, atypically, featured three repair bays, was built in 1938

Pure Oil Service Station is in fairly original condition with steep sloped roof and projecting gable entrance. The main mass, the office, contains a bay window and a hood over the door. This section is taller than the remainder of the building. The remainder is a five bay, side gable building that contains the garage bays. The second one has a projecting gable pavilion with a curved roof. The entire building is a good example of the Tudor Revival Style of service station architecture employed by the Pure Oil Company in this time period. All of their stations are identical. This is a rare intact example in Mercer County.