WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Like most people who find themselves at the Filling Station, Anna Guenther and Jesse Pollard have been coming to the Gates Street watering hole for years to play pool and enjoy a couple beers.

The two friends first had the idea to buy the Filling Station when they saw the for sale sign in the bar’s front window in February.

They took some time to mull the idea over, but eventually they “ran out of reasons not to do it,” said Pollard, 29, who lives in Wilder.

They purchased the Filling Station from longtime owner and South Royalton resident Jennifer Kaar on April 25 for $385,000.

The watering hole closed for renovations the same day.

Originally built in 1930, the one-story building sits on a .1-acre lot in the center of town. The building’s area is roughly 3,000 square feet, including the basement, which is unfinished. 

Last Thursday evening, the front door of the Filling Station was wide open, but those looking for a cold beer or a hot dog would have been out of luck; the interior of the White River Junction hub looked more like a construction site than a working bar.

“We’re trying to do everything right, so we don’t have to do it twice,” Guenther, 38, said in a phone interview earlier that day.

To help finance the purchase and renovation, which has cost about $50,000 to date, the co-owners have taken out loans with Mascoma Bank. 

During two weekends after closing, Guenther and Pollard hosted community work days that saw friends and family stop by to help with the renovation project.

White River Junction resident Chico Eastridge had the job of clearing debris from the bar ceiling.

“It was like the ceiling barfed on me,” he said at the bar on Thursday.

The work has been slow-going, but the business partners hope to have the bar operational within the month, or “as soon as we can be,” Guenther said.

Neither new owner has run their own business, but Guenther has been working in the food service industry since she was 14 years old. Originally from Georgia, she moved to the Upper Valley in 2004 to study religion at Dartmouth.

Starting in 2010, she spent almost four years as a hostess and manager at the Canoe Club in Hanover, before taking a job as an event planner at the Enfield Shaker Museum and later as a project coordinator at Vital Communities, the White River Junction nonprofit.

“I’m looking forward to getting back into that industry world where you’re on your feet,” said Guenther, who lives not far from the bar in White River Junction.

Pollard, meanwhile, works for an energy development company, a career he plans to continue while managing the bar with Guenther. Hailing from Florida, he moved to the Upper Valley late in the pandemic by way of Boston. 

Guenther said she thinks the two will make for good business partners. “I’m feeling nervous when he’s feeling confident,” she said.

Since Kaar purchased the building in 1995, the Filling Station, with its no-frills menu of beer and spirits, has remained a reliable spot for an affordable drink and a game of pool.

“It’s kind of the only real townie bar where everyone goes,” said Jakob Breitbach, of Wilder.

A self-described “fiddle ninja,” Breitbach has been hosting the bar’s weekly Acoustic Jam Sessions for about eight years.

Every Wednesday evening, residents from across the Upper Valley packed into the bar to play improvised bluegrass music and enjoy a cold beverage.

During the renovation, the jam has relocated to the Coolidge Hotel across the street, but the event will be back at the Filling Station when the bar reopens.

“There isn’t another room that I would take it to,” Breitbach said.

Along with the weekly jam, Guenther and Pollard plan to add new events to the bar’s roster such as a cabaret night in collaboration with neighboring Northern Stage or a roller derby social.

In addition to the cosmetic changes, the new owners plan to shift the bar’s hours, opening at 11 a.m. instead of at 3 p.m. Lights will stay on until 10 p.m. for most of the week, and later on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Guenther and Pollard also hope to add some additional food items to the menu.

Coffee, tea, sandwiches and pastries will be available during the day, while southern comfort food dishes such as fried okra and shrimp and grits will be prepared in the bar’s kitchen in the evening as an homage to the co-owners’ Southern roots.

Guenther also can envision adding a beer garden to the back of the bar so that patrons can enjoy a drink outside, after a show at Northern Stage, for instance.

Despite the changes to the menu and some additional programming, Guenther and Pollard want to maintain the low-brow atmosphere that the Filling Station is known for.

Robert Prior, the Filling Station’s longest-working and only employee, will retain his post behind the bar. Prior has been with the bar since it opened, and even before that, he worked at Del Roma’s, the bar that occupied the building before Kaar purchased it.

“You can’t have a conversation about the Filling Station without talking about Bobby,” Guenther said. “I’m glad he’s keeping us.”

Drinks also will stay the same price, or “50 cents more,” said Guenther, and the pool table will remain in its usual spot in the back right corner.

“We want people who have been drinking here for 30 years to come here and still recognize it,” Guenther said.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.

CORRECTION: Filling Station co-owners Anna Guenther and Jesse Pollard took ou   t bank loans from Mascoma Bank. A previous version of this story used an outdated name for the bank.