Published: March 26, 2008 03:54 pm            

Shell was one of many gas stations here

Shell held down corner for more than 50 years

By PAUL LORENZ

paul.lorenz@mcleansborotimesleader.com

McLEANSBORO — At one time, there were probably “15 or 16” service stations here, local resident Jim Hunt says.

One of those stations was the Hunt Bros. Shell, owned at one time by Jim’s father, Ralph, and uncle Vernal.

It was located at Washington and Randolph streets, where the ROC One Stop, a gas station/convenience store/car wash, now sits.

The Shell station was a family business, Jim said. His grandfather, Frank, owned it in the 1920s, and Jim himself ran it from around 1968 to 1980, when he left to go to work at the Wheeler Creek Mine here; he worked there until the mine closed in 1988.

“I just grew up there,” he said of the Shell station.

Jim’s father and uncle served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, and during that time, Buck Miller ran the full-service station, Jim said.

Jim, who once served as the city’s fire chief, recalls that the Shell station was torn down in 1960 and rebuilt farther back on the lot because of the widening of the roads at the intersection.

After Jim left to work at the mine, the station continued as a Shell for a few years, he said.

Leon and Janet Russell bought the property in 1986 and used the existing main building “for at least 10 years” before tearing it down and rebuilding to what it is today, their son, Jonathan Russell of ROC One Stop, Galatia, said.

        

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