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The
Moran Gas Building at 75 and 1075 in Willis was built by
Charles Johnson. Johnson built his service station and
grocery store in 1923 for a cost of $17 ($11 for bricks
and $6 for labor).
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Willis is interested in preserving its rich history, but it’s
not ready to move forward with a museum, the Community
Development Corporation said Thursday. |
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Instead the CDC is considering different options such as park
that could include a recreational center or museum later on. |
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While reviewing action
plan goals for improving the community with Public Management
President J. Andrew Rice of Cleveland, the corporation discussed
the option of a visitor’s center or museum to capture the past. |
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CDC member John Lovelady
said the city looked at renovating the Moran building into a
museum, which was an action goal set in July 2014, but it didn’t
work out. |
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In 2011, the city bought
the Moran building that was originally a service station built
by Willis business man Charles Johnson. |
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“In 1923 on the 23rd day
of June, I opened a filling station where the Moran building is
now. Daddy had $1200 and Mr. Cooper loaned me $600—that’s what I
started with,” said Johnson in an article written in the Willis
Centennial Edition by Wayburn Castleshouldt. |
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“Didn’t cost me bust $17
to build the building. Eleven dollars for the brick and $6 to
lay them. Wasn’t any light plant in Willis then. We bought a
power plant, dug a deep well with an overhead tank, and stocked
our store all on $1800. I opened that place at 5 in the morning
and closed at 9—seven days a week. I had a service station and a
grocery store…” |
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Johnson also helped
build a private water line distribution system that the City
later purchased from him, owned a Chevrolet dealership before it
became Turner Wise Hardware and was recognized by General Motors
in 1955 for selling the second largest number of Chevrolets in
the United States, his daughter and Panorama Village resident
Eve Elmore shared. |
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“The building probably
stayed as a grocery store until the 1940’s,” Montgomery County
Historical Commission Chairman and City Attorney Larry Foerstier
said. “By 1933, Moran had started his Moran gas company. He
started in Conroe but expanded in Willis and then on to New
Waverly. The building would have been purchased in the 1930’s or
1940’s and served as the Moran gas building for the city of
Willis during that time.” |
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After the city purchased
Johnson’s old building, now called the Moran, the city
contracted an architect company from Kingwood who provided a
pricey estimate. |
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“They did some drawings
and in order to bring the building back to par it was going to
cost $500,000,” City Manager Hector Forestier said. “An old
building is always going to have the same problems, so the city
and the CDC decided it would be better to sell it.” |
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In March 2015 the motion
unanimously passed to put the Moran Building and Property up for
sale by sealed bids and asking for a minimum bid of $160,000. |
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The building is still
for sale and has not received any “nibbles” yet from buyers,
Mary Reed said Thursday during the CDC meeting. |
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From a developer
standpoint and his experience, Rice encouraged finding a way to
preserve the city’s history. |
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“The more you preserve
history the better the community,” Rice said. “You man not want
to keep this (Moran) building over here. You may want to keep
this building over here, you may want to sell it or do something
else. But I would encourage you to keep focusing on your
history. Because I think there is a lot of good history in
Willis and if you don’t have a place to preserve it, you’ll lose
it...” |
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The CDC appeared
conflicted and decided it does want to pursue preserving its
history such as with a museum, but is “no where near that right
now”. |
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“I’d like to keep it as
a goal but later down the road we could pick it back up,”
Lovelady said. “At one point before we purchased the building we
talked about building a museum and it was said Willis wasn’t
ready for a building and the next thing I know they were talking
about the Moran building. I think it would have been a whole lot
better if we would had built what we wanted.” |
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Traylor said it lends to
what the CDC is suppose to be doing. |
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“My question when I came
to this meeting is what do we really want to accomplish this
year in making Willis better,” Traylor said. “…It’s unfortunate
the buildings that have been lost in this city because there was
some amazing ones…now stuff has moved in and Stripes is a nice
facility but I can go to a gas station anywhere. We are slowly
losing our downtown feel and we’ve got to keep taking action.” |
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Rice said it begs to
question what to do with the Moran building. He encouraged the
CDC to either stop the sell or engage a real estate agent to get
serious about selling the building; otherwise, he said the
building currently serves no purpose. |
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“Your point is that is
part of the history,” Traylor said. “That building is one of the
last pieces and if we sell it, and if it goes, someone will tear
it down and it will become retail…that could be a really neat
spot for the city.” |
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Conroe Courier |
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January 9,
2016 |
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