Old time gas stations
 

Here are some interesting pictures of old time service stations:

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Here are some more:

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Neat pictures Ross. Glad you were able to figure it out. Thanks for sharing.
Jon

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Check out the mechanical device under the lift? What is that? It looks to be some sort of drive or dyno run by the car. Although they appear to be servicing the car what is the guy in the rear forefront of the picture controlling?

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They used a lot of neat advertsing and signs then. I like the photo with the railroad tank car on the elevated track, the EPA would crap all over themselves in this day and age!

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Those are great - thanks for posting these. Please post more if you have them!

Funny how some things remain the same - Barney Oldfield working with a sponsor/supplier like the modern race car drivers do today!

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Is that a 3X sparkplug advertised on the bill board in the third picture in the first group?

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Thanks for sharing those pics! they are very interesting photos.

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Great pictures! The no. 3 picture looks like it should fit right in todays economy. Now that a second set of pictures showed up. What I was referring to was in the first bunch of pictures and the business behind the gas station.:)

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Love the picture of the Ford Sales and Service sign hanging in the tree!

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Thank you soo much I will add them to my collection.

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Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

Jack

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Wow, first six pics, then five more and who woulda though a dead match of the eleven pics that I have. :D

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I've seen the very first picture before (the one with the car up a ramp and over some sort of an assembly) and recall quite a discussion and several theories as to the apparatus the car was on. I believe it may have been on the old Fordbarn and in the end someone nailed it (but of course I've forgotten). Anybody have any idea?

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Post #4 led me to go back to the very 1st picture and blow it up to see more detail. It does look like a dyno and the fellow with the lever uses it to put a load on the vehicle. Whatever is going on has drawn a small crowd of observers. Counting the hat brims at the very edge of the picture, I count 9 or 10 guys watching.
I got it large enough to fill half of a standard sheet of paper and when I printed it, it came out a lot lighter than the original thumbnail. I can clearly see the facial features of the guy in the driver's seat and can count the rafters in the roof structure. Below the spare tire is a rod apparently hooked to the rear axle to hold the car in place. What else do you see? Has anybody ever seen anything like this before?

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It looks to me that the clue is the container marked "gasometer measures leakage past pistons".

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http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...g/10504341.jpg

Sometimes a shade tree mechanic has to carry his own shade trees. :D

This is an old gas station that was moved to the Nowthen threshing show grounds a few years ago. Last summer I bought a couple trees at the Saturday auction during the show.

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Great pictures Ross and Tom! Also really like the Shell station at Gilmore in the background of Ross' Avatar. That could be one of the most photographed old gas stations around.

Tom, you are using the A the way I believe they should be used! Somewhere I have a series of annual pictures of our family of four in our Coupe with a fresh cut Christmas tree in the rumble seat. The kids sure remember it and the salt damage was fixed later.

Gar Williams

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Tom- Is that the old station from the west side of 65 in Cambridge?

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No, this one came from Milaca, MN.

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Here's one that you can add to your collections. It's new and never been posted before. This is a photo of a gas station owned and run by my family (Brinkley). It was located on the corner of California Ave and Southern Ave in South Gate CA.

Not sure what year this is. My Grandmother wrote the location of the gas station but no year on the back. My great Uncle Roy remembers going to the station as a young kid. I'd say it's the late teens early 20's based on the C-Cab and the cars on the road. Plus Walnuts were .20 cents per lb.

Any clues to hone in a year???

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Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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Great pictures !!! I'd sure like to pull in one for some of that 29 cent gas

john c

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Photo is of my wife's Interior Design Studio in Canfield, OH.. was a gas station for only a short time as St Route 62 was re-routed one block North.

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Here's one that I passed by back in November that's still standing in Asheboro, NC.
http://images16.fotki.com/v368/photo...2011039-vi.jpg

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When that first picture is blown way up it almost appears to be a double exposure. When you look to the right of the rear passenger side tire there appears to be the frontend of what might be a TT truck. And yet the wall behind it seems to run through it. The apparatus under the ramp apears to be railroad tires until you blow it up and you notice what appears to me a oversize worm gear on it. The wheel on the other side of the picture appears to be a lot wider and smooth. Behind the back drivers side wheel there is a little stand of some sort with havoline on it (which makes sense it's a Texaco station). The car itself is a later model T. There are a quite a few people to the right watching as if this is some kind of a demonstration. Is there a chance the car is powering the apparatus rather than the apparatus being used to do something to the car?

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Nope not a double exposure. Just a board that sits between the camera and the tt truck.

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Del- You need to set her up in new digs and make that one your playhouse!
Buz- I always thought an old station would make a great apartment for
a car hobbyist. For some reason, I'd love to have one of those!

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This was Grandad's with my dad's Model a sitting out in front.

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Sure looks to be. The left and right vertical posts both have the same havoline oil signs nailed to them and the tracks are the same.

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Here is an add that explains it.
http://ghostsofdc.org/2013/10/03/ser...-florida-1924/


This one takes a little longer to load, but is worth it if you are interested.
http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2...20-%201902.pdf

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One of the many aspects of the 'Old Car Hobby' is all of the collateral avenues of fascinating 'side roads' of history that accompanied the development of the automobile. And the humble Gas Station is one of them. For the automobile to work in the 'grand scale', there also had to be other 'infrastructures' to make the automobile fully utilized.

Three things come to mind - the most important was roads. Secondly, motivation to 'get out of town'. And thirdly, the gas station, to allow greater travel than just the paved roads of towns.

If one were to have a greater wish to delve deeper into these interesting 'side shows' of the automobile, a good starting point would be getting and reading several books and magazines that deal with not only the early gas stations, but also road development.

A quick look at my automobile book collection turns up the following (with LOTS of vintage photos of 'cars in action') :
CHECK THE OIL (gas station related), by Scott Anderson, 1986
THE FIRST HIGHWAYS of AMERICA, by John Butler 1994
arba PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ROADBUILDING, by Charles Wixom 1975
"The Super Service Station" (1936) Merchandising Magazine for Gas Stations.
"The Highway Magazine" - 1923-1924 - "Published in the Interest of Good Roads".
"Concrete Highway" Magazine - January 1917 - July 1924

A good "Google Search" , I am sure, will produce more 'stuff' than any one can possibly swallow.

- Doug Vieyra, Eureka, Calif 62 degrees at noon

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While bored at work one night I was able to watch on you tube 'the bountiful harvest'(?) by Ford. It talks about how Ford bought X amount of lbs./tons/gallons/ whatever of other commodities. So as the car expanded through roads and stations, it expanded other industries as well.

Mike

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These are some great pics, would love to duplicate one at my place.. Some day..

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I had a little bit of a different reaction than many of you guys. Photos like this show to me how much business existed back then on a small, informal scale, compared to the size of business we see today, and not just big box stores. And not just gas stations, also retail businesses such as candy stores, record shops, haberdasheries, hat shops, bakeries, diners, dry cleaners, etc., all existed at small levels.

Naturally there were exceptions but the way many businesses existed with low levels of floor space and inventory (and presumably profits) amazes me.

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This goes to ModelaKid1 Glad to see you two again I was wondering how you were doing...... keep up the good work. Do you have your A finished so you can start on hers.

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This is in Fresno, Ca.

..................http://www.vannessauto.com/history/index.html................

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Rt66 New Mexico...
http://i60.tinypic.com/2yuajjo.jpg

What goes around comes around....http://i60.tinypic.com/16m296p.jpg

The gas station 'Bertha' was purchased from, Newport NY.
http://i61.tinypic.com/14e2ufn.jpg

Bob
:cool:

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Great photos all, thanks for sharing,

Henry's 31