Red Crown Mini-Museum (Lafayette, Indiana)

 museum, 1920s construction

605 South Street, Lafayette, IN

The Red Crown Mini-Museum is a 1930s-era Standard Oil filling station that was restored in 1991 and turned into a "walk-by" museum by local businessman Don Stein. It features a couple of restored antique cars in the auto bays, a 1931 Ford Model B wrecker in the parking lot, and miscellaneous gas-station memorabilia inside.

The original building was constructed in 1927-28 by Standard Oil Company of Indiana. The Red Crown was threatened with destruction in the 1980s. In 1991, Stein restored the building at no cost to the public. A chronological history of the Red Crown Mini-Museum notes that over 1,000 man hours were spent hand-removing 41 layers of paint from the inside glazed brick walls. The "fallen roof was removed and replaced with red tile imported from Chillicothe, Ohio, where it had been in storage by Standard Oil for over 50 years.