Golden Imperial Photos

Imperial station in Connersville, Indiana, June 30, 1975. Taken by Walt Wimer.
The Imperial stations in Indiana were Golden Imperial out of
Indianapolis which later sold out to Rock Island Refining at which time
the stations were rebranded to United. They had no relation to Imperial
Refineries of St. Louis, except that in the long run
after they sold out to others, both ended up parts of Marathon.
Walt Wimer

Two shots of a defunct Golden Imperial at 1931 Main St. in Lafayette, Indiana.
Taken Dec. 23, 2002 by Sonya Cirillo.
I had been interested in this derelict station for some time but was reluctant
to add it here without a decent example of what the sign would have looked like.
Now that Walt has sent me a picture of a complete sign, I've decided to post
these pictures of the derelict. If anyone has a photo of this station in
its heyday, please send it along.

Also of interest is the long history of gas stations at this location.
From looking at the old business directories in the Tippecanoe County
Public Library, I was able to get a good history of this location:

1953: Residence
1955: Max Demaris Gas Station
1957: Paul W. Silvers Gas Station
1958-1963: Cooper's Standard Station
1964: vacant
1966-1968:Crabtree's Sinclair
1969: vacant
1970-1984: Golden Imperial Oil Co.
1985-1998: United Oil Co.
1999-2003: vacant

The Clark station on the next block has also been there for many years.
At one time there was a third station in the area, possibly where the Dollar General is now.
Cooper's Standard, which was at this location from 1958 to 1963, moved to
another part of Lafayette and remained in business for many years.