Old gas stations

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Let's Get Associated!" -- radio-commercial tagline for Associated Oil Company football broadcasts on the West Coast in the 1930s and 40s.

Associated merged into Tide Water Oil to take the Flying A brand national, and later turned into Getty Oil Company, which was later bought out by Texaco, leading to years of litigation. What little was left of the company later faded away into a morass of international licensing and marketing agreements., surviving today only as a "ghost brand." That's what happens, I guess, when you Get Too Associated.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

[emoji14][emoji14]

Rob

 

[KY Gentleman]

I remember my dad getting glassware from gasoline purchases at our old Tressler Comet station in town.

 

[1mach1]

1970s Standard

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those fake Colonial cupolas were a huge fad in the early 70s, during the runup to the buy-centennial, and they were especially prevalent in New England, where there are more fake cupolas than real ones. Along with American/Amoco, which seemed to pioneer the trend, Sunoco went in big for the style, renovating hundreds of their oblong-box stations with fake gable roofs and a quaint little cupola with a functional weathervane on top.

 

[dh66]

My ex-wife's house has one of those, complete with the eagle weathervane like in this photo, on top of the garage. Along with the colonial looking brass eagle topped porch lights, I always thought it looked oddly out of place on an otherwise sleek, low roofed, mid century modern ranch style house.

Those fake Colonial cupolas were a huge fad in the early 70s, during the runup to the buy-centennial, and they were especially prevalent in New England, where there are more fake cupolas than real ones. Along with American/Amoco, which seemed to pioneer the trend, Sunoco went in big for the style, renovating hundreds of their oblong-box stations with fake gable roofs and a quaint little cupola with a functional weathervane on top.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[David Conwill]

Our house in Vermont, built in 1970 to replace an older one that burned the winter before, is redolant with that late-midcentury faux colonial stuff. I kinda like it, but my wife detests it and we've been slowly stripping it away and going for a sort of pseudo late-'40s look. "Buy Centennial," I like that.

 

[Fading Fast]

Those fake Colonial cupolas were a huge fad in the early 70s, during the runup to the buy-centennial, and they were especially prevalent in New England, where there are more fake cupolas than real ones. Along with American/Amoco, which seemed to pioneer the trend, Sunoco went in big for the style, renovating hundreds of their oblong-box stations with fake gable roofs and a quaint little cupola with a functional weathervane on top.

Like you, that's the world I grew up in, in the '70s. Many of those of-the-period new / redone stations looked like the one in your post and 1mach1's station one post above. Never thought a lot about the roof style / cupola then, but you look at them now - especially the cupola - and it just looks silly.

The classic Art Deco box gas stations we talk about here all the time like these



look great, IMHO, because they aren't trying to be something they are not. They seem to be a very form-follows-function design with a simple, clean aesthetic.

A gas station should look like a gas station not some bastardized house.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The most ubiquitous "updating" of the highway-beautification era was the Shell Ranch Station --

Thousands of these were built all over the country -- some of them from scratch, others reworkings of existing oblong boxes, and the reworked stations are usually pretty easy to spot, since the template didn't quite fit:

From this --

To this --

Shell even ran a memorable magazine ad around 1968-69 where they showed a bulldozer taking down an old box-style station, and bragged in the text about their contributions to a less gaudy roadscape. So many of these stations went up that they're still the most instantly-recognizable gas station building you'll see, often reworked into dental clinics, real estate offices or whatever --

 

[2jakes]

District of Columbia, 1919. Willard Service Station, Washington Battery Co., 1623 L Street.

The sign: “We respectfully request customers to refrain from talking to workmen. Any information desired will be cheerfully given out by floor superintendent.” National Photo Company glass negative.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The sign: “We respectfully request customers to refrain from talking to workmen. Any information desired will be cheerfully given out by floor superintendent.” National Photo Company glass negative.

I can think of several reasons for this policy, but none reveal an honest, open company. Nothing changes - some percentage of companies are always bad. Great pic though.

 

[David Conwill]

The place installing Willard batteries sent me back to some of my early favorites on Shorpy! Both in the Washington, D.C. area, circa 1921.

 

[David Conwill]

Every DC-area visible-register pump has had a metal protective screen around the glass. Makes me wonder if it was some kind of local ordinance--or there were just a lot of vandals around.

 

[David Conwill]

Another parts store, this one from 1926:

 

[2jakes]

The place installing Willard batteries sent me back to some of my early favorites on Shorpy! Both in the Washington, D.C. area, circa 1921.

View attachment 118344 View attachment 118345

I've used this as my desktop wallpaper. Very pleasant with my apps
resting on the bottom wood floor.

 

[David Conwill]

One more that I love from Shorpy: Cambridge, Vermont, 1937.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The wire screens around visible pumps were a safety requirement in many communities. Their primary purpose was to protect the glass cylinder from damage by hail.

 

[2jakes]

Using Preview, I can see the name. Seaton Garage.

 

[3fingers]

The place installing Willard batteries sent me back to some of my early favorites on Shorpy! Both in the Washington, D.C. area, circa 1921.

Many moons ago a 1948 Clark Carloader forklift appeared at my job with a 6 volt Willard battery in it. I wondered then how old that battery was. It was still in place several years later when I left there.