According to Sanborn Maps of Stephenville, this service station was built between 1930 and 1949. Featuring large  chunks of petrified wood and pieces of other fossils, like ammonites and tufa, it was built during the era when residents  of neighboring Glen Rose constructed houses and businesses of “wood turned to stone” that was so plentiful in the  region. During the same period, Ross Wolfe created “the house that time built,” in Stephenville as an office for his  business, Wolfe Nursery. Unfortunately, his elaborate building of petrified wood and fossils has been demolished.  But this 1930s service station built of fossils remains along old Highway 10, the entrance into Stephenville’s business  district from the northeast. Some of the large pieces of petrified wood in the station feature bits of shimmering silica  and chunks of isinglass, or pieces of translucent, white quartz. Along the east elevation, large logs of petrified wood  support two window openings and a door, and the west side features two of these petrified wood lintels. Throughout the  exterior walls, petrified wood is interspersed with other stones, mostly limestone, laid in a random, or mosaic pattern  with beaded white mortar.  The front of the service station had a recessed entry protected by the building’s gabled roof, supported by two petrified  wood and stone columns. Recent owners enclosed this open area, where the gas pumps were located, with wood and  vinyl windows, and added two limestone planters along the front and east side. With this enclosure of contemporary  materials, the original façade remains evident.  Inside the enclosure, the station’s front wall of petrified wood and stone is intact, with a central door flanked by two  window openings. Pieces of petrified wood and fossils project from the wall. The window openings along the east and
west elevations are still trimmed in wood, but metal windows have been installed. Under the same gabled roof is a rear  addition built of wood, which is shown on the 1949 Sanborn Map.