Pure Oil

The first began as a group of independent oil refiners, producers, and pipeline operators, in fall 1895 in Butler, Pennsylvania, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, although it was incorporated in New Jersey.

They also built bulk terminals in Amsterdam and Hamburg and competed in Europe with Standard Oil, the Nobel and Rothschild families, and Deutsche Bank.

In 1904 a refinery was built on the Delaware River which received 600 barrels per day (95 m3/d) from the United States Pipe Line.

Dawes was building an Oklahoma refinery, and Pure Oil had production capabilities there which would benefit his company.

By 1970 the Pure Oil brand was phased out and remaining service stations and auto/truck stops were rebranded as Union 76.

Initially, its stations were an architecturally heterogenous blend of both buildings Pure Oil had constructed and those designed by companies it had purchased.

Miller, a Columbus, Ohio architect, was hired to design a standard type of station, which was then produced by the Edwards Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati in prefabricated kits.

[10] Carl August Peterson, an experienced gas station architect, was hired in late 1925 to lead the company's new marketing construction department.

Peterson aimed to create a design with cheap construction and material costs, but that still had a distinct and recognizable appearance.

Additionally, he was also required to display Pure Oil's blue and white corporate livery prominently in his design, while making the structure acceptable in neighborhoods that were opposed to brightly colored gas stations.

It featured a design reminiscent of private homes as an effort to make the stations comfortable for motorists, and incorporated many aspects of the popular Tudor revival architecture of the time.

The walls of the building were made of white brick and the roof was covered in gloss blue Ludowici tile, specified in spite of its expensive cost because of its non-fading properties.

[10] The final variant of the English cottage design was introduced in 1946, and from that point on Pure Oil began to embrace influences of Modern architecture in their stations.