Crown Central Petroleum, commonly known as Crown, is an American oil company that has flourished in Baltimore since the early 20th century until its recent decline due to rebranding.
History
Crown Central Petroleum Company or Crown, first began in 1917 in Harris County, Texas, when the New Crown Oil and Refining Company's Number 3 well struck oil.
In 2013
Clark Brands acquired the brand licensing business of Crown Central Petroleum.
An abandoned Crown gas station was used in the production of
House Of Cards
A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a struc ...
, a Netflix original series.
The building, in
Churchville, Maryland, is currently still standing.
Endangerment
During the summer of 2006, many stations began to disappear. All but about 20 stations were rebranded to either
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...
,
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...
, or
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
gas stations. This is because the company sold these stations about two years ago, as reported in ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.
Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...
''.
As of the Spring of 2022 20 Crown stations operate in the state of Maryland. There are four Crown branded stations operating in Baltimore, Maryland. All four stations utilized a standard self service canopy set up featuring a brick and tan stucco design. All four stations currently operate 24 hours a day. The stations can be found at 4201 Erdman Ave
, 5101 York Rd, 501 E 33rd St and 4123 Frederick Ave
In 2010 Crown Central LLC formed an alliance with Clark Brands LLC and Crown Clark to outsource key payments processes to Clark. In October of 2010 the two companies merged to form Clark Crown Brands to further expand Crown licensing. As of 2025, Clark Crown Brands, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clark Brands, LLC that licenses the Crown brand to petroleum marketers.
The goal of the merger was to offer brand licensing to marketers who want to offer a low-cost alternative brand to entrepreneurial dealers. The licensees manage their own petroleum supply, purchasing petrolium at their lowest available cost each day. Clark and Crown branded programs—combined with unbranded fuel—allow dealers to optimize the petroleum procurement while still being able to a sell a name brand product in the retail market.
References
External links
Crown Central Petroleum's Official WebsiteClark Brands Official Website
Oil companies of the United States
American companies established in 1925
1925 establishments in the United States
{{US-energy-company-stub