| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
An April 6,2011 demolition permit has been applied for. Original price of gas was 15.9 cents per gallon. The underground fuel tanks were removed in December of 1998. Now in use as a service station.
Parman’s Super Service Station shows how the design of filling stations changed in the 1930s and 1940s. Petroleum companies responded to declining gasoline sales and plummeting prices by emphasizing auto repair and expanding their product lines to include tires, batteries, and other car accessories. The new functions called for new building forms. Oblong boxes with flat roofs now contained large offices, lubrication and repair bays, and merchandise-display areas, replacing the cottage-style gas stations of the 1920s. And whereas the designers of the cottage stations had chosen the style to minimize the stations’ intrusion on the surrounding neighborhood, designers of the later modern stations wanted conspicuous buildings to increase their businesses’ visibility. These new designs of the 1930s and 1940s drew on the International Style, which featured crisp lines and plain walls of stucco or brick, conveying an image of modernity and progress. Service bays, offices, and merchandising areas clearly expressed themselves on the exteriors of these stations.
Parman’s Super Service Station, built about 1941, appears to borrow from designs developed for the Texaco and Gulf oil corporations. The structure is an oblong box with white stuccoed walls and a flat roof. Above the small entrance canopy, raised vertical lines along the stepped parapet-wall draw attention to the entrance. Just east of this entrance is the merchandise bay, with its wide picture windows for product display. To the west, the lubrication and repair bays retain their original multiple-light overhead doors.
"Clayton Parman, Sr., began building this service station at the intersection of Monroe and Glenway Streets in 1940. Having lived on a farm on Odana Road near Monroe Street, he knew the site had an ideal mix of out-of-town and neighborhood traffic.
The building was completed in 1941, just before the World War II gasoline rationing. Parman's sons, Clayton Jr., and Keith, distributed flyers door-to-door to announce the opening and that the price of gasoline was 15.9 cents per gallon. The sons worked at the station while growing up, and they later took over its operation.
The building's appearance is practically unchanged, but in December 1998, the gas pumps and underground tanks were removed from the lot. The tanks were over 20 years old, and new federal laws prohibited using the older tanks because of concerns with gasoline leakage into the ground water. The Parmans decided not to undergo the expense of replacing the gas tanks, opting to remain a repair/maintenance service station.
John Parman, the earliest American ancestor of the Madison Parman family, was also in the business of making and repairing things with wheels. He arrived in Mazomanie in the 1850s and established a wheel wright, or wagon-making, trade, which prospered into the 1870s." Exploring the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood brochure, 1999. |
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