Pics of classic gas stations

[Benzadmiral]

Not all from the Golden Era, but quite a few are. The latest is from the Sixties: http://hipspics.freewebspace.com/gas/gas.html

The fourth pic from the bottom features a tall lanky fellow in a dark windbreaker, his light-colored fedora cocked a la Sinatra on his head.

 

[3fingers]

Thank you for posting this. Really wonderful.

 

[dhermann1]

I would like to get a positive ID on that big Goodyear station. Looks like New York, and it really reminds oif a building that's still standing down near Canal Street that I've always loved.

 

[Foxer55]

Fantastic!

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I had the chance to stop and see this one on a Texas trip. http://www.oldgas.com/info/towerconoco.html

-dixon cannon

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Not all from the Golden Era, but quite a few are. The latest is from the Sixties: http://hipspics.freewebspace.com/gas/gas.html

Many parts from the 'Bomber' station B-17 'Flying Fortress' are now additions to the CAF/AZ Wing B-17G 'Sentimental Journey'. For an exchange of reburbishing for some of the parts they obtained some guns, and turrets to complete the look of 'Sentimental Journey'.

-dixon cannon

 

[TomS]

Terrific, thanks...

 

[Stearmen]

Many parts from the 'Bomber' station B-17 'Flying Fortress' are now additions to the CAF/AZ Wing B-17G 'Sentimental Journey'. For an exchange of reburbishing for some of the parts they obtained some guns, and turrets to complete the look of 'Sentimental Journey'.

-dixon cannon

The upper turret was donated the CAF. It is a B-17G-VE 44-85790. Bob Sturges, who worked for Boeing during the war, and test flew B-17s in the states and England, convinced Art Lacy, he needed a B-17 for his service station. So Bob went to Altus, Oklahoma to find a low hour G model, complete with turrets. He flew it to Portland, Oregon for him. Lacy owned it from 1947-1995. It is now being restored to static display by The Bomber Foundation, Milwaukee, OR. Bob and a friend bought another low hour B-17G-95-DL 44-83842 with 25 total hours, turrets and all, no MGs though, for $1055, as a personal fun airplane. It cost them $2100 to fly home. The next year they were offered $12,000 for it, so off it went. Bob went on to become Mister B-17, the go to man for parts. Ironically, even at that low price, only ten B-17s made it onto the civil registry during the great sell off of 1946-47, no one new what to do with them! Fortunately, others were sold to Legion post, VFWs, trade schools, collages and even the boy scouts, and that is where most of the surviving 17s come from.

 

[sal]

Love these. I really like the Rat Rod. Looks like they tried selling the 10% corn fuel back then as well. Also for the time the verticals stacking of cars at the Texaco must have been innovative

 

[skyvue]

I had the chance to stop and see this one on a Texas trip. http://www.oldgas.com/info/towerconoco.html

In 1992, while traveling the length of Route 66, I stopped for lunch at the U Drop Inn, which was housed in the same building as that gas station (I don't know if the cafe is still in operation or not).

I had chicken fried steak, and it was darned tasty.

 

[John in Covina]

There still a couple of art deco type gas stations on our local section of Rt66

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a relatively-intact Teague Texaco just down the corner from where I live -- it's no longer a gas station, having been converted into a salesroom for marine electronic equipment, but the white porcelain enamel wall panels are still intact. The green stripes above the windows, a distinctive Texaco feature, have been painted disturbing shades of red and blue, relics of its post-Texaco life as a Mobil station up until two years ago.

The Teague Texaco design is the most influential gas station format of all -- Walter Derwin Teague created the "porcelain icebox" style in 1935, and every major oil company would follow his example, creating the definitive, standard gas station of the forties thru the sixties. My family's station was a Teague, but it didn't have porcelain enamel when it was built in 1940 -- instead, the design was replicated in painted clapboards.

However, in 1962 the building was expanded with a new service bay, and the classic porcelain siding was added. It retained this design until it closed in 1981.

We sold the building to a convenience-store operator the following year, and removed the Texaco signage (one of the red enamel stars over the bay doors hangs in my stairwell), but the building itself remained intact until about five years ago, when a new owner stripped off and junked all the metal siding and installed some kind of painted beaverboard in its place. Hideous, and a crime against historical preservation of commercial architecture. Because of this sort of thing, there are very, very, very few intact Teague stations left in the US.

 

[DNO]

I was just lamenting the loss of these classic gas stations two days ago when I noticed that another local station was being torn down for yet another condo. It won't be long before these things will only exist in photographs. They certainly don't seem to attract any attention from any historical societies or any other agencies concerned with preserving classic architecture.

 

[Talbot]

Here, a lot of gas station destruction has to do wth EPA regulations.

The new regulations require underground tanks to be replaced or removed regardless of condition if over a certain age.

This means that its not an option to leave older tanks and plumbing in the ground even if you don't intent to use them. This has stopped a lot of older gas stations being preserved due to the expense of removing the tank from under the concrete - especially if the tank or plumbing run under the structure.

 

[3fingers]

We have 2 art deco station buildings left in town. One is still in daily use as a repair garage and is well cared for. It does have a recent service bay addition that is covered in vinyl siding, but the original building is intact. The other is across the street and is abandoned and falling apart. It was a beautiful building, but the present owner won't do anything with it, nor will he sell it. There is a third slightly later one down the street about 3 blocks that is still in use as a garage. Unfortunately the owner there does the absolute minimum to the building and it will likely meet the wrecking ball at some point.

 

[RBH]

A couple of shots taken by Jimmy the Lid at the 2009 FedoraFest in Monteagle TN.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Either that's a well-preserved original or a good restoration -- only thing that's wrong is the style of the TEXACO letters atop the canopy. We had a full set of spare original letters in the shipping boxes when we closed -- I put them aside when we were cleaning out the building, and that's the last that was ever seen of them. I think they're going for a couple of hundred dollars per letter now.

The "canopy" variation is very rare in the East -- for the most part Texaco built them only in the South or West, where sun was a problem.

 

[RBH]

I believe there was a history of the station inside the building...just cant remember it all.
But it was a family run station and it had been turned into a museum.
There are a few inside shots in this old post.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?36304-MONTEAGLE-2009&p=729130&viewfull=1#post729130

 

[rocketeer]

Love these. I really like the Rat Rod. Looks like they tried selling the 10% corn fuel back then as well. Also for the time the verticals stacking of cars at the Texaco must have been innovative

The rat rod photo looks just a little too modern to me. Note the WWII German steel helmet used as a carburettor air cleaner cover, very Viva Las Vegas, Hot Rod Deluxe.
In support of the B24 Liberator I have a pic of a restaurant someplace made from two of them.
These are fantastic pics, not that much like this in the UK, maybe the Bluebird Garage in Kings Road London is the only one I can think of.
John

 

[Stearmen]

Not the best photos, cell phone. This is on a side street, the owner repairs Jeeps as you can see, he has some what restored the station with pumps and the sign. He bowed to convenience and had the buildings Stuccoed!