Century Gas Station Photos
Century station at 270l Lafayette Road, Indianapolis, IN.
Taken by Walt Wimer, July 1, 1975.
Same location, Aug. 3, 1989 by Walt Wimer. Remodeled and now converted to a C-store.
Note the area now has a large billboard towering above the station.
Sept. 16, 2003, by Walt Wimer. Now in MARATHON colors and branding. "CENTURY" in small
white plastic letters still remains on the front of the building, as it did in
the 1989 photo, and also the small low white "bar" signs which date back to the
1975 photo. All else is now MARATHON. I saw two others in the Indy area and
they were done the same way, with just the small "CENTURY" signs.
Some history on this brand from Walt:
Century Oil Co is a long time Indianapolis Private Brander whom I believe dates
back to at least the late 50s. They were never very big, probably never more than
10-12 stations, and as far as I know, never got out of the Indianapolis metro area.
They are a survivor in a city where the SPEEDWAY brand is on an equal footing with
the three main majors, Shell, Marathon and BP. However, sometime in the past
ten years they branded up with MARATHON. The above photos are of their long time station
at 270l Lafayette Road, which was once US 52. Lafayette Road was once a major business street
heading northwest towards Chicago. But when they put in I-65 it began to go downhill like has
happened all over the country. Today there are many closed businesses on the street and
US 52 actually now runs right with I-65, taking even more traffic away. But the Century Oil
station at 2701 survives, although in MARATHON livery today.
Above is a Century cash receipt from 1975, which lists their then 10 stations,
including one further north on Lafayette Road that is now gone.
