Cavalier couple restoring a historic oil service station from 1929 that was planned to be demolished
Apr. 6—CAVALIER, N.D. — A Cavalier couple are beginning work to restore a 95-year-old building that has held their attention for years and was soon to be demolished.
Kyle and Melissa Gagner, who have previous restoration experience from multiple projects, such as an
old bank in town
, said they want to reinvigorate and preserve the history of the property.
"And we're crazy," Kyle Gagner added, jokingly.
The building is an oil service station that has gone unused for decades. The building originally was built in 1929, local historian Jim Benjaminson said, and has gone through multiple iterations of being Freschette Oil, Stevenson Oil and Ben's Oil Service Station since its opening. The building has a unique appearance: a rounded door, peaked roof and an outside chimney.
Benjaminson said it was the first gas station with electric gas pumps in the state, and newspapers had labeled it the "grandest gas station in the state of North Dakota." Benjaminson himself used to go to the station for gas and did business with one of the previous owners, Marvin Freschette.
The station's disrepair in recent years led the city of Cavalier to threaten condemnation or demolishion, Benjaminson said. He had given a presentation to the City Council late last fall about how the station was a historic building and should be preserved, though the matter was in private hands due to its ownership. Kyle Gagner said multiple people spoke about purchasing the building to repair it, but plans fell through. He and Melissa decided to take on the project. They had driven past the building multiple times, noting its unique appearance.
"If it gets demolished, it's never coming back," Kyle Gagner said.
Multiple people have spoken with them voicing their appreciation for the Gagners' willingness to fix up the building. Benjaminson himself has heard some of those comments and, as a member of the Pembina County Historical Society, he's glad to see people working to preserve a piece of the town's history.
"Cavalier has never saved any of its historic buildings," he said. "This could have ended up as just an empty, vacant lot, but now there's hope for it, that it's going to be restored to its former glory."
The couple's plan is to first clean everything out and fix up the land around the station, cutting down trees and mowing the grass. They hope to have the building restored in time for Cavalier's 150-year celebration next year. Melissa Gagner is set to take over the Market Society — a collective vendor mart in town — in May, and hopes to move it into the station to provide a unique shopping experience.
"It's a more than average space for sure," she said.
