Meadville

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

The Meadville Corporation began in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on June 9, 1930, and developed into a Northeastern petroleum marketer. From its Haverford, Pennsylvania base, it refined and distributed petroleum products and sold gasoline through Merit service stations.

Merit was the roadside calling card: a blunt red “M,” with part of its right-hand upright missing, above stations across the Northeast. The chain was particularly concentrated in the Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia markets: regional motoring furniture for the fuel stop, the road map, and the eternal windshield-squeegee gamble.

Amerada Hess held a majority interest in Meadville for years. On February 14, 2000, Amerada Hess announced an agreement to acquire the remaining 51 percent of Meadville for approximately $168 million. The deal included 178 Merit retail gasoline stations. During 2000, those locations were absorbed into the Hess network, with nearly all rebranded HESS.

Our Meadville collection celebrates the compact, no-nonsense visual language of the Merit era: the altered red M, the Northeast forecourt, and a corporate name that sounds less like an oil concern than a town where you might buy bait and a newspaper.