Pagoda Service Stations
Early gas stations were small, ugly or utilitarian buildings that attracted little notice, or even complaints from neighbors. Dodge hired Milwaukee architect Alexander C. Eschweiler to design eye-catching stations. Inspired by Japanese culture, which was popular at the turn of the century, he created Wadham's signature pagoda. As well as a prime example of Japonism the design was one of the earlier examples of architecture forging a brand identity.
Each building was unique, having a different roofline and floor plan. The pagoda-style roofs were made of stamped-metal tiles. Atop the gabled red roofs many stations had cupolas - often multi-tiered - with lanterns hanging from the corners. The walls were black with yellow trim around the copious glass. They most often featured large plate glass windows on the front, and multi-pane windows covering the sides. Wadham's built over 100 of these distinctive pagodas between 1917 and 1930.
Few of these stations remain. One, built in 1927, was in use as a gas station until 1978. It was restored in 2000, and is now a Registered Historic Place and maintained as a museum display by the city of West Allis. Another, built in 1926, is part of the Washington Avenue Historic District in Cedarburg, and is in use as a jewelry store.
Read more about this topic: Wadham's Oil And Grease Company Of Milwaukee
Famous quotes containing the words pagoda, service and/or stations:
“One is sick at heart of this pagoda worship. It is like the beating of gongs in a Hindoo subterranean temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“After I was married a year I remembered things like radio stations and forgot my husband.”
—P. J. Wolfson, John L. Balderston (1899–1954)