The Fayette Tribune, Oak Hill, W.Va.

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  • Steve Keenan

    Pure ‘shame’
December 18, 2006

Pure ‘shame’

Crews from Rodney Loftis & Son Contracting in Charleston began the process Wednesday of demolishing the old Pure Oil gas station on Main Street in Oak Hill. Country music legend Hank Williams Sr. died while passing through the area on New Year’s Day 1953, and his driver steered the singer’s vehicle onto the parking lot of the gas station seeking help for his famous passenger. For several years, local residents and officials unsuccessfully attempted to come to an understanding that would lead to the location of a museum honoring Williams on the Pure Oil property. That failed, and owner Charlie Jones indicated in an interview a few months ago that he wanted to have the building razed before winter settled in. At the time, Jones said he had no plans to sell the property. The lost connection to Williams is not the only heartbreaking aspect of the building’s demolition, according to Jack Thompson, a longtime supporter of the creation of a Hank Williams Sr. Museum in Oak Hill. “(The building) was just so uniquely constructed,” he said. “It may have been one of the last Pure Oil stations built in that style still standing. That tile roof, everything. It’s just sad. It’s a shame. It’s breaking my heart.” Thompson also was disappointed in what he views as the failure of the city of Oak Hill to find a way to work with Jones to use the building to house a Williams museum. “So much for Oak Hill and its desire to protect historic buildings,” he said.

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