Union Service Station
History
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Our founder, Pedro, his building and business, and our family.
Pedro C. Olivares was born in 1895 to Espiridion Olivares and Estefana Porras at Los Perez, a community in Porcion 74, west of Rio Grande City, Texas. After World War I, he was one of four "Mexicans" living at U.S. Army Fort Ringgold working as a Packer for the U.S. Pack Train, a job he held through 1920.
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In 1926, Pedro purchased a lot from Ida Davis, granddaughter of Henry Clay Davis and Hilaria de la Garza, on which he constructed one of Rio Grande City’s first gasoline stations. Taking a cue from the prevailing labor union movement in the United States during the 1920s, he named his enterprise Union Service Station. It was located at the western end of downtown Rio Grande City, sited on the northwest corner of Second Street (U.S. Highway 83) and West Street, adjacent to the historic Rio Grande City Cemetery.
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Pedro married Eugenia Olivares in 1937 and had a son, Jose Pedro “Leo” Olivares. Pedro and Eugenia continued to operate the gas station and altered the building throughout the years. They closed one lane under the canopy by expanding the office and adding auto storage bays, public restrooms and a residential area with a second story, which they called home.
Union Service Station would survive the gas rationing years (1942-45) of World War II until the 1941-50s when the Olivares converted the station’s auto storage section into a feed store and named it Union Feed & Seed Store. Starr County’s first feed store provided farmers and ranchers with a variety of seeds, food for livestock and small agriculture implements. Patrons also purchased cold cuts, meats and other snacks and drinks. The Olivares could be reach by telephone, their phone number was 83.
Pedro was active in the commercial, civic and political life of Rio Grande City. Like many Starr County residents, he continued ranching inherited lands dating to Spanish Texas. He also added tracts to his ranch, purchased several properties around the city and developed a residential subdivision. To clear title to his ranch, he petitioned a state district court to partition all of Porcion 74 which was purchased by his fifth great-grandparents Pedro Jose Perez and Manuela de la Garza from Pedro Lugo in 1787.
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Pedro also was an active member of the Knight of Columbus, the U.S. Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps, a notary public, a Democratic Party County Delegate, a benefactor for Immaculate Conception Church, Chair of the Starr County Agricultural Conservation Association and instrumental in establishing the Starr County Soil Conservation District to help ranchers and farmers improve their yields.
In the 1954 he ran for Starr County Commissioners’ Court. However, as an independent, he was not elected. He and Eugenia would host extended family and friends from Mexico who attended school in the United States.
Magnolia became Mobile in 1960. Pedro closed the gas station and retired about 1955-1962. He passed in 1966, but Eugenia continued to operate the feed store until she retired in approximately 1990. She then leased the property to a variety of commercial tenants until her passing in 2000.
His son and our father, Jose Pedro, and wife & mother, Ramona.
Three generations would call the property at 501 W. 2nd Street their home simultaneously.
Young couple to start a family and continue a tradition.
Young couple to start a family and continue a tradition.
Days after the John F. Kennedy assassination, on November 24, 1963, Jose Pedro married Ramona de la Cruz of La Grulla, Texas. They raised their children, Leonardo, Jaime, Liza and Alberto, in the family section from 1964 to 1972. Jose Pedro and Ramona reopened the gas station in 1973 as Leo’s Service Station, but the Texaco station soon closed due to gas shortages resulting from the OPEC oil embargo.
The station opened a third time in 1977. Jose Leo and Ramona removed the dilapidated bathrooms, upgraded gas storage tanks and purchased part of the adjacent lot north of the gas station in 1979, thereby expanding the operation to include car wash and small engine repair services.
The gas station closed a last time in 1990 due to new industry branding requirements necessitating major capital investment by independent mom-and-pop operators. However, Jose Pedro and Ramona then began operating Leo’s Small Engine Repairs through their retirement in about 2004-5.
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Jose Pedro would continue to tend to the family ranch until he passed in 2008. Ramona remains active in the spiritual life of the community in a variety of Catholic organizations. The property continues to be leased commercially.
The 3rd Generation: Leonardo, Jaime, Liza & Alberto
Today the gas station and feed store are owned by Pedro’s & Eugenia’s grandchildren, who have careers in public service. Leonardo has worked for the U.S. Congress, the Texas Senate and several cities in the Rio Grande Valley; Jaime has worked for The University of Texas at Austin; Liza is working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and Alberto has been in law enforcement with the City and U.S. Customs & Border Protection from El Paso to McAllen.
The Spanish Eclectic/Mission single-story structure consisted of the prevailing flat-roofed box building with a canopy and box column design constructed of concrete brick with white stucco. The building featured large office windows and elevated glass pumps and exposed canopy lights to attract motorists. Four pumps were located under the canopy which accommodated two bays, and a circular metal Magnolia Petroleum Company sign hung from a detached pole. Broad panels on the east and west facia allowed for advertising “Union Service Station.”
Jazz Age motorists could drive in with their archetypal Model Ts and purchase Magnolia Gasoline and Magnolene Motor Oils. Magnolia was a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony). During the 1920s the company was expanding nationally until it had stations coast to coast by 1930. The station survived the Great Depression and prohibition. By 1934, Mobilgas was sold in Rio Grande City under the iconic red Pegasus, soon after Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company of New York.