The sign made oil look clean and attractive but I loved watching the light rise up, fall over, and fill up the letters over and over again. It was still extant when I went to Northeastern University. The Westminster Hotel later became the Hotel Buckminster and the sign persisted. Kenmore Square in 1940 with Cities Service (right), White Fuel (center) under construction and Gulf in the distance Photo: CITGO

If not within home-run distance of Fenway Park, it was a lot closer to the left field wall than the Citgo Sign. We can see it under construction in the photo below. The sign began its life in the 1940s atop the old Westminster Hotel at the southwest end of Kenmore Square. On ValentineвЂ™s day in 2007 White Fuel sold their assets to Griffith Energy Services.В Thus, the company outlasted the sign by decades. Gower grew the business through sales and marketing as well as through 17 acquisitions. When HaroldвЂ™s son Richard (Dick) returned from College in 1960, he took over the company. The White family sold the company to long-time employee Harold Gower in 1946. In the 1930s Samuel White added fuel oil to the companyвЂ™s products and changed the name to White Fuel Company. It soon became one of the largest distributors of coal in Rhode Island. White & Sons Coal Company was started in Providence in 1864, when Abraham Lincoln was president. The origins of the White Fuel Sign go back farther than you may have thought.

Watch: HereвЂ™s a video of the White Fuel Sign in action.

It curved over to the right and filled up the letters that spelled out вЂњWhite.вЂќ After that, the words вЂњFuelвЂќ and вЂњCorporation,вЂќ blinked on in cursive.ДЄ separate, non-automated, sign beneath the big one said, вЂњA Leader in New England for Over Forty Years.вЂќ This neon advertisement provided us with a deceptive view of an oil derrick, one that converted a gusher of black oil to a sparkling fountain.ДЇirst, the derrick lit up in white then a blue gusher shot into the air.

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