A teenage entrepreneur recently acquired a historic gas station in Miami, Oklahoma, he eventually will move to a better-known historic Route 66 gas station in Miami.
Eli Chenoweth, 19, who owns and operates The Frozen Elephant snow-cone shop on Route 66 in Miami, several months ago bought the Miami Marathon Oil Service Station on Route 66 on the south side of Miami.
KSNF-TV on Thursday reported on Chenoweth’s latest acquisition:
Yesterday, he found out he acquired Miami’s oldest gas station dating back to the 1920s in a city auction. […] Chenoweth’s goal is to work with the City of Miami to determine where he can relocate the 1920’s station near the Miami Marathon Oil Service. He hopes to do this within the next year. […]
“I’m fascinated with history I’m fascinated with our town I love Miami. This is one of the proudest buildings that we can have and it’s set neglected for too long. I’m always watching to see the people that take the old dilapidated homes, dilapidated buildings and see what they can do with them.”
Chenoweth stated in a text message the unrestored station sits at A Street NW and 5th Avenue NW in Miami (map here). A Street NW lies one block west of Route 66.
He said in about three weeks, “I will be moving the building to a temporary location as I solidify where it will be sitting permanently.” He added when he settles on a site next to the Marathon station, he hopes to have it fully operational by next summer and “not just an empty shell.”
It does a heart good to see such a young person so interested in historic properties and reusing them.
Chenoweth started The Frozen Elephant when he was 16. This article from 2016 in the Miami News-Record provided a glimpse into his character, including these quotes:
“I just like making money,” Chenoweth said (about buying the shop). “I actually looked into buying it when it was up for sale two years ago and we got outbid. I messaged the owners and asked if they’d be interested in selling the business. They said they weren’t interested and a couple weeks later they messaged me back and we made a deal.” […]
“I can’t work for anybody else,” he said. “I like to have all the money; I don’t like seeing the money go to somebody else; I want to have it. So, why not put in the extra work to make more?”
The Miami Marathon Oil Station sold at auction in 2016 after Daryl Buckmaster of Miami had owned it for years and restored it to exacting detail.
According to the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, Transcontinental Oil Co. built the 320-square-foot station in 1929 — less than three years after the creation of U.S. 66 — and a local family leased it for $40 a month. Marathon bought the property not long after that.
The station once was used as a beauty salon. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
(Images of the old gas station and the Miami Marathon Oil Station, both in Miami, Oklahoma, courtesy of Eli Chenoweth)