Painstaking restoration brings landmark back to life
Have you ever wondered about the former Sinclair service station at 715 East Lake Drive, just off the square at Harmony Park? You're not alone. A lot of people stop by the attractive art deco building when owner Wayne Allen is there to ask about it. It turns out, the station has been around since 1939. Over the years, it's gone through many owners and has been a car repair shop, a fruit stand and a rib shack in addition to a gas station. Wayne bought it and painstakingly restored it with his friends David Funderburk and Lisa Tenerovich. But the building now doesn't have anything to do with pumping gas or barbecuing ribs. These days, it's mostly a hangout. It's a place where Wayne gets together with buddies who collect vintage cars and motorcycles like he does. He also uses it as an office. And David uses it as a studio to pursue his hobby, photography.
The car club is known as the Georgia Outsiders. Some days, you might notice some of the lovingly preserved and polished cars from decades past around the station, and a gang of Wayne's friends inside. "Mostly, we just eat hamburgers and tell lies," he says. Only a few of Wayne's vehicles are at the station at any one time. There isn't enough room for all. He's got a 1933 Ford Roadster, a 1937 Ford Coupe, a 1957 Chevy, 1962 Corvette and a 1963 Comet Fastback as well as 1941 Indian and 1947 Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
When the building was a real gas station, Oakhurst had more of a commercial feel to it. There was a drug store, a hardware store, a shoe store and a supermarket in the square. The station was built in a design that typified Sinclair stations in those days, called the castle style. When he was restoring the building, Wayne examined pictures of Sinclair stations on old road maps that he's collected, to be as authentic as possible.
At first, the station was known as Tarpley's Service Station. A number of different owners and names followed. Wayne discovered advertisements from some of them in old Decatur High School yearbooks. A common pitch in the ads was, "Personal Attention to Washing and Greasing." That slogan now adorns a large window in the station's front room, along with an old phone number, PR3-3739. An artist friend of Wayne's painted them.
When Wayne bought the building for $200,000 in December of 2001, it had seen better days. In fact, it's safe to say it was a true eyesore. The concrete driveway was crumbling, there were abandoned vehicles in the back, an old phone booth out front, trash inside and the pungent smell of grease and garbage throughout. Wayne had been working for years in a Harley-Davidson dealership. He was thinking of retiring and doing something fun. Fixing the station up and turning it into a hangout seemed to fit the bill. He sold his share in the dealership, bought the building and got to work.
When he's not playing amateur photographer, David is a general contractor at the Schoppman Freese Co. of Marietta, experience that proved a big asset in the restoring the 140,000-square-foot building. He, Wayne and Lisa poured concrete, installed new ceiling beams, put in electrical wiring and lights, painted everything and looked around in antique shops for old service station signs to adorn their work. They also enclosed the front, where cars used to drive through, under a canopy.
We should note that local authorities at first were skeptical about what the three had in mind. It took months before they could get all the necessary permits. Today, an old sign inside again boasts about "clean rest rooms." There's an ancient coke machine in the office, along with an early television set. A display case features old maps and other service station paraphernalia, along with a few pictures of a much-younger Wayne, from when he used to race motorcycles.
In addition to getting a hangout, Wayne also got a sense of pride in his work and the contribution he's made to his community. "It was cool to do it. I was born and raised here, and I'd hate to see this area fall apart, " he says. "I think the community liked seeing how we changed this place." Wayne lives in Winnona Park with his wife, Laura Lee.
The energetic three friends aren't done yet. They plan to add a two-story addition to the back of the building, to yield more room for Wayne's cars and David's photography.
Part of the fun, though, is just hanging out and explaining what the building is to quizzical people who stop by. As if to prove the point, one woman who was walking her dog poked her head in the door while Wayne was being interviewed for this article. "Can I ask you a question? What is this place?" she said. Those same questions are repeated, almost word-for-word, quite often.
Perhaps this article has answered all your questions about the place. But even so, be sure to poke your head in too, or wave hello, next time you pass by.
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