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Old gas stations

Ghostsoldier

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,410
Location
Starke, Florida, USA
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Rob
 

David Conwill

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,854
Location
Bennington, VT 05201
^ Seems to have been an early version of the modern mini-mart--get gas, pick up the mail, grab some tobacco, baking powder for the li'l missus...

A lot of country/general stores started selling gasoline in the 1910s or '20s, so in a way, the modern mini-mart concept is just things coming a full circle. It's the refuel/automotive-service operation that was the fad, as it turns out.

1941 September Tunbridge Vermont.jpg
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,697
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Yep. Every Sam Drucker-type store right up to the 1970s had at least one gas pump, and the oil companies considered these outlets important accounts. What greatly reduced that particular line of business was leakage from underground tanks finding its way into groundwater -- in communities where wells supplied the drinking water, this could be disastrous, and became a major problem for the newly-established EPA from the seventies forward.

We still have many of these types of stores in operation the further you get from Route 1, but most of them got rid of their gas pumps in the '80s and '90s for fear of such problems.
 

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