FEATURE STORY
Eddie’s Service Center in Oakley, Kansas.
“Eddie’s Service Center is eye catching”
—— Barb Glover
Photos by Keith A. Sculle, July 2017.
A main street where stores are busy with commerce on the Great Plains is often rare. More so a garage in an old gas station, awash with color as the product of recent restoration is even more remarkable. Oakley, Kansas, enjoys both, its main street an appropriate setting for Eddie’s Service Center. Here’s the man behind the story, reprinted with permission of The Oakley Graphic, August 9, 2017. Barb Glover, now deceased, wrote:
Photo of Eddie Manning, made by Keith A. Sculle, July 2017. There’s a new business on Center Avenue, Eddie’s Service Center. It is owned by Eddie and Jo Manning. It is located in an old Standard Station on the corner of Center Avenue and 2nd Street. He has lovingly brought [it back], restored the building to its former glory[,] complete with the Standard colors and the standard sign. It is like stepping [into] the past as you drive by the building. The pumps are still there but they no longer pump gas.
Eddie has been a mechanic most of his working life and spent 25 years in the oil fields over seas. “I just couldn’t take it anymore,[“] he said. “I wanted to be my own boss.” His shop will [complete] oil changes, minor repairs and sell used tires.
He said restoring the building was partly in honor of his dad who owned filling stations in the sixties in Wyoming. “Jo and I went looking for buildings to house our business [and] I knew that this needed to come back to the community[,]” have a friend in Oklahoma who restored [a] 66 station and I saw what could be done.” When restoring he came across some antique documents that show that the station was on Center in 1930 and was owned by Noah Frazer.
The Service Center is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.
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