Old gas stations

[Fading Fast]

Rob

⇧ Nice simple deco lines - would be cleaner without the awning.

 

[Fading Fast]

Liberty, Maine. This station was abandoned in the early 1970s, and has been used ever since as a storage building for the used-tool shop across the street. The "Mobil" lettering originally said "Mobilgas," but the last three letters were removed when the company stopped using that branding in 1963. The pump plates reflect the new Mobil logo adopted in 1965, which is likely the last time anything was done to the building.

Mobil had a habit, at least in Maine, of leaving closed stations to go to seed. While most companies would send a truck around from the bulk plant to pull the pumps and remove the signs the very day a station closed, the Mobil office in Maine didn't seem to care one way or another. This station's been frozen in amber for more than forty years.

As GS says very cool.

Also, I'm confused, did / does the oil company own the land? If so, wouldn't they clean it up and try to sell it? And if so, and even if it wasn't cleaned up, wouldn't the new owner (when it was sold by the oil company) do so to try to market it to a new renter or buyer?

And if the station was only rented, would the extant owner of the land and building try to clean it up to re-rent it or sell it?

Or are these areas so depressed that there is no demand for commercial property, so no reason to put any money (even just taking away the old signage) into trying to re-rent the land? Hence, it just goes to seed as you said?

Also, nice touch of using the "l" in "Mobil" to also be the "l" in "lubrication -" flows well and probably was good marketing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm not sure what the real estate specifics were at the time at the time that station was operating, but I suspect it was a land-lease kind of deal. The town is a ways off the beaten track, and it may be the local Mobil jobber just didn't want to bother to go out in the boonies and retrieve the stuff when the lease expired, especially since it was all obsolete anyway. But the same kind of situation happened with the Mobil station that was at the end of the street where I grew up -- it had been there for many years, but the operator retired around the time the place in Liberty closed, and just left the place sitting there for about five years, completely untouched. The building finally sold to a guy who opened a welding shop there, and the buyer was the one who had to take down all the signs and get rid of the pumps and other gear. I was there the day the Flying Red Horse came down, and was transfixed with amazement at the shaky looking block and tackle rig they used to get down.

But they never took down the main sign pole -- and to this day a standard 1930's-vintage Socony pole -- sans sign -- remains on that corner, paint almost entirely rusted away, but light fixtures intact. Every time I go down to visit my mother I'm amazed some petroliana collector hasn't pulled it down and hauled it off.

I've been to that station in Liberty any number of times when I'm looking for some weird old tool or other, and since the photo above was taken the current owner has repainted the red trim lines on the building. The "I" in "Mobilubrication" was hanging from only one bolt, though, and may have fallen off since I was last there. The thing I do wonder about is the status of the tanks -- Maine has very strict laws about removing tanks from abandoned gas stations, and usually the pump island is also removed. But there doesn't seem to be any excacvation scars on the lot from where this would have been done, so maybe the DEP doesn't get out to the boonies much either.

The "Mobilxxx" branding was all over Socony-Vacuum stations in the Era. Mobilgas, Mobiloil, Mobilubrication done with Mobilgrease, Mobilwax for sale inside for your canning needs, Mobilthis and Mobilthat and Mobiltheotherthing ad infinitum. But "Mobil," the just plain word, wasn't actually used to brand the actual gas station until 1956.

There is, by the way, a geographical feature in Antarctica called, variously, "Mobiloil Inlet" or "Mobiloil Bay." Seems that the expedition that discovered the spot in the 1920s decided to name it after the brand of motor oil used in their airplanes.

 

[2jakes]

As GS says very cool.

Also, I'm confused, did / does the oil company own the land? If so, wouldn't they clean it up and try to sell it? And if so, and even if it wasn't cleaned up, wouldn't the new owner (when it was sold by the oil company) do so to try to market it to a new renter or buyer?

In my neck of the woods there were two gas stations that were removed.
The city made sure that the underground tanks and whatever
else was needed was done before the land was sold.

I have been very fortunate that my friend who works for the city code compliance
has put me in touch with many items from the past that otherwise would’ve been
destroyed.

EDIT:
There are still a few “old” buildings around.
They are my “time machines."
One building in the attic I found intact two auto-sunshield
metal visors from the 40s. Complete with box & instructions.
Another time, an Iver Johnson 1920s bicycle that was only used for store display.
And the all wood swivel-chair from Ohio Co.
I know you would appreciate this!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

A few survivors from my weekend travels....

Rob

 

[Stearmen]

A few survivors from my weekend travels....

Rob

Ohhhhhhhh, I want it!

 

[2jakes]

Ohhhhhhhh, I want it!

You’re in luck!

1:25 scale model Gas Stations are still available!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Hupmobile dealership and station in Australia, 1925...notice the spelling of the word "tyres".

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Speaking of dioramas, check out this guy: http://blog.modeljunkyard.com/2011/07/16/retroold-texaco-gas-station-1-25-scale-model-1/

Rob

 

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

July 1939. Granville County, N.C.

Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Admin.

 

[2jakes]

July 1939. Gordonton, N.C.

Original 4x5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for Farm Security Admin.

Same location with slight variation of the figures.
Colorization has been added & submitted to Shorpy Photo Archives.

 

[Stearmen]

You’re in luck!

1:25 scale model Gas Stations are still available!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

July 1939. Gordonton, N.C.

Original 4x5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for Farm Security Admin.

Same location with slight variation of the
figures. Colorization added & submitted to Shorpy Photo Archives.

The building is still standing to this day.

A slight trace of the pump footing appears to be visible in the grass.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Now, that's awesome to see.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

The building is still standing to this day.

A slight trace of the pump footing appears to be visible in the grass.

Some documentary maker could probably have a field day weaving together from that picture a "what happened to" the people, the town and the building - heck, even the companies in those signs - movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It astounds me that the building, as ramshackle as it looked in 1939, could still be standing at all -- to say nothing of how little it seems to have changed in nearly eighty years. You don't see that kind of thing in the North -- very few 1930s shacks have survived to the present day.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Even the leaning porch post is the same.

Rob