R.C. Baker Memorial Museum

Wayne James is a man who does what he says he’s going to do. In 2002, he promised Jim Peavy that he would faithfully restore his 1934 Richfield Service Station if Mr. Peavy would donate it to the R.C. Baker Museum. Mr. James spent the next two years taking apart the classic are deco station, scrapping, painting and putting it back together. He and his wife spent weekends and vacations driving up and down the western part of the Untied States searching for authentic artifacts of the period. “I got that gas pump in Oregon. It was run over by a truck. That oil can came  from a yard sale in South Dakota. I found a man in Minnesota who recreated the faceplates for the pumps. That yellow color and detail work I found in old catalogues. It’s not perfect but it’s as close as close can get.” “People can walk in here and see what a piece of 1934 looked like. That’s important. Coalinga was a historical town. The 1983 earthquake killed most of our history. Buildings were crushed, bulldozed, and hauled away. All that’s left is pictures and belongings. This Richfield Service Station is not a picture. It’s the real thing and people can touch it and walk in and around it from now on.”