Closed Gas Station opposite Itmann Company Store and Office, Itmann, Wyoming County, West Virginia
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Across the road from the Itmann Company Store, which we looked at in the last post was a small gas station. Like the Company Store this gas station is long closed. I have not been able to find out if this gas station was run by the Pocahontas Fuel Company but the location makes me believe it had to be part of the Company Store operation. The style of the pump, although I am no expert, looks to be from the 1980s. This would help support my theory that this gas station closed around the same time as the Company Store.
UPDATE – Thanks to the comment from Russell Goodwin from June 26, 2014 below I now know that the gas station had no connection to the Company Store. Russell has been kind enough to provide a lot more information on both the gas station and the Company Store. Please make sure you read his wonderful comment. I cannot thank him enough for taking the time to not only visit this post but also to write up this information for me and everyone else.
Closed Gas Station opposite Itmann Company Store and Office, Itmann, Wyoming County, West Virginia
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase –
Twitter: ljsaltiel
| April 16, 2014
Nice shots Mark. You don’t see these gas pumps much anymore.
Twitter: twitter (username)
| April 29, 2014
Many thanks, Len.
Twitter: wrgood1
| June 26, 2014
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the great pictures! I actually grew up in Itmann during the 1980s and 90s. I can tell you with certainty that the gas station had no connection to the company store. The station was called “Cooks Packette” although the local kids called it “May’s” after the name of the lady who owned the store. As a child and through high school, I would get off the school bus and go in there to buy candy.
The company store closed around 1982 or so. I was born in 1977 and have no memory of it being open. My mom, however, grew up in the coal camp and has fond memories of my grandfather taking her “down the hill” to the company store.
Billy Wayne Bailey–a former state senator and my distant cousin–bought the company store in the late 80s/early 90s for what I heard was a ridiculously low amount (I heard around 30K). The post office remained there until the early 90s and a homeless shelter operated there for many years.
The homeless shelter was actually good for the company store in many ways. The residents kept it up and the store was actually in good shape until the shelter closed in the late 90s.
A couple of years ago, an article in the paper quoted Bailey as saying he wanted to start a bed and breakfast at the company store. As you can see, little has happened. It breaks my heart to see this magnificent building in the shape it is in and I fear for its future.
Twitter: twitter (username)
| July 6, 2014
Thank you very much for this information, Russell. I have added a brief update to the post referencing your comment. I thought it best to leave the main update to you rather than copying the information into the main text.
Twitter: ddubstweetybird
| August 15, 2015
This wasn’t the first gas station that stood there. The original station stood in that spot and blew up around 1978. It was owned but the same people who owned the company store then. They re-built, then it stayed open until the company store closed down in 1986. They both closed to the public then. They later sold the gas station to May Cook and her Husband and the company store to Billy Wayne Bailey. Bailey bought it after it was placed on the national registry in 1990. He then made a homeless shelter out of the one side of the building that closed around 2005. It has stood empty since. They have filmed a movie there in 2013. Called Hollow Creek. It was vacant then. There have been looters and squatters in the building.
My father in-law worked at the gas station and the company store back in the 70’s. It used to be even more beautiful, than it is sitting empty.