Historic Woburn Gas Station To Stay, For Now

WOBURN, MA — The Woburn Historical Commission voted Tuesday to impose a one-year delay on demolition permits for a domed gas station at 477 Main St. While the Colonial Beacon Oil Company built more than 35 of the domed gas stations in greater Boston in the 1920s, just four remain, with one of those already slated for demolition. Carol Seitz of the Historical Commission said Wednesday that the board plans to work with the property owner to locate money to defray the costs of rehabbing the building.

"Without additional funding, the repurposing of the building is not financially feasible," Seitz said.

The property was purchased in August for $375,000 by a subsidiary of the Clancy Group, which is owned by Liam Clancy of Winchester, according to state corporation records. That purchase followed several price drops after it was first listed for $565,000 in 2016. One of Clancy's companies is Absolute 47, which develops corporate event and workspaces. The company currently has two locations and says on its Website it plans to announce a third location this summer.

The Woburn Historical Commission reviews all applications for demolition permits for buildings more than 75 years old. The design of the gas stations by the Coolidge and Carlson architectural firm was meant to pay homage to the Massachusetts State House's dome.

Remaining buildings are also located in Malden and Boston. The Woburn station had the longest tenure as a gas station; it was operated as a Best Gas station until 2012 but has been vacant since. Of the four remaining stations, the Woburn station is the only one that has the metal globe topping the spire on top of the dome. The spires originally illuminated like beacons, from which the station drew its name.

As for Colonial Beacon, the company didn't survive the Great Depression and its stations were purchased by Esso, which later became Exxon and then Exxon-Mobil. Many of the domed stations were torn down and the remaining ones were converted into other businesses. Most notably, the Stoneham station was a florist and fruit stand before becoming the Dairy Dome in 1980. That business closed in 2016 and the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, has been vacant ever since.

Stoneham, however, has approved a plan to raze the former Dairy Dome location to build a condominium complex.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).