Cache Valley builder restoring 1950s gas station

LOGAN — A Cache Valley builder is going to great lengths to restore a 1950s-era gas station to its original form but there won’t be any gas sold or car repairs going on inside.

On the corner of 100 East and Center Street, a piece of the 1950s is slowly coming back to life.

But while you might be tempted to try and fill up your tank here, what will soon take shape inside is something you might not expect.

“I have always loved flowers,” Haily Larsen, owner of Meraki Floral said. She has eyed the old gas station for some time, even if it’s been decades since it was a Sinclair. “I think it’s really cool that they’re restoring something so historical to Logan and we also get to play a part in that building now.”

But seeing it take shape now is huge, not just for her, but for Tony Johnson.

“I think it’s too easy for people to take some of these old buildings and tear them down,” Johnson said.

He’s the owner of Arden Management and TechOne Construction, the companies that are making this happen.

Logan’s history has become his passion.

“The largest project we’ve done is the old Borden Milk Plant, which was down on Third South and about Fourth West. It was about a 50,000-square-foot factory,” Johnson said.

He looks for old buildings with good bones that seem worth saving.

Johnson is going to a lot of effort even finding a contractor in Idaho who specializes in restoring the old gas tanks. Even the signs that say there’s lead gas inside, but there won’t be any gas in there.”

“I think people look at them and then they can kind of remember,” Johnson said. “The younger generation can look at it and wonder, you know, what is this?”