[Lee Stewart]

The "Harley Sprague" station is famous -- it's one of only two surviving examples of the pagoda-style stations that were trademarks of the Wadhams Oil Company, which built them in and around the Milwaukee area in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was inspired by the popularity of pagodas at various World's Fairs of the early 20th Century, but there was no further Japanese connection to the company, which eventually became a subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum. This particular station was the last of the Pagoda design to remain in operation as a gas station, continuing into the 1980s.