Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Luke Hamlin's Standard Station...

I thought I would share this neat little piece I found a couple years ago. I had purchased a bag of misc. WW2 paper items for a dollar at an antique store. There were ration books, train tickets from the soldier's trip home, and papers detailing what types of war trophies could be taken home by soldiers. Also included in the bag was this little oddity, a cardboard baseball autographed by Luke Hamlin. At the time I didn't even research the item as I figured it was probably a local personality from somewhere. A while back I rediscovered the item and decided to Google the name. I was surprised to learn that at one time Luke was a pretty well known baseball player for the Detroit Tigers as well as the Dodgers. His nickname was "Hot Potato".
I would assume that after his career fizzled, Luke had to find something else to do to make a living and purchased a Standard Station. There really isn't much information on the guy after his baseball career. I was curious if any other Old Gassers have found anything related to Luke or his station? I could just imagine kids going to this station and listening to Luke tell baseball stories and going home with an autograph. I also wonder if the greasy finger prints on the ball are from ol' Luke himself. I do not know where the station was located, but assume from the streets that it could have been in Detroit.
Darin

I did a Google map search of Michigan & Clemens, and found an intersection in Lansing Michigan. Based on the satellite image, its possible that the station was there.

Same thing as Thunder, pretty cool item. I'm a big Tiger fan and never heard of him. That's my next search. Years ago I worked with Gehringer's grandson.