Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion gas pump/gas station ID needed

My niece found this old black and white photo of a gas station with her husbands family name and has asked me to paint it (in color) as a Christmas Gift. The owner, standing in front with the white beard, was born in 1872.

I have a bunch of questions whose answers would help me with the painting, plus this photo has made me just curious about how folks lived back then.

If I can get an ID on the gas pumps and gas globes, I can look them up to get their color, their shape which is hard to determine for the pumps, and date the photo. Any ideas?

It looks like the globes on the two right are texaco (partially covered in snow...I will paint the station in summer) which was surprising as it is an Amoco station. What explains that? The pumps under those two globes are different. What about the other two. Were they all gas?

I don't see a power line going to the building. Were they hand pumped?

Any ideas on the signs on the building? There is an ice cream sign behind the pumps. There is a soda bottle on the side of the building. There is a shiny diamond shaped sign on the porch by the side wall (with the porch post reflected in it) and on the gable sign above the owners name, there is the name Peters to the left (as we are looking at it) of the white diamond but I can't make out the wording on the right.

What might have been on the porch of this building? Although St. Mary's County Maryland is a rural county, this store seems to have a lot of gas pumps and must be on a main artery or cross road. I contacted the author, and the location is incorrect in her book, so I don't know where in the county it would have been.

The author gave me permission to share the photo for the purposes of getting this information, but as the photo is part of this copyrighten book, please do not reproduce this without permission from the author.

Images of America, St. Mary's County
Copyright 2004, Linda Davis Reno

To see the image, please google J. Ralay Wathen and click on the link that says: St. Mary's County google books result.

I tried to copy the link to this page, but it didn't work when I tested it...

Any id's or suggestions for this painting would be appreciated!

Nicole

Please Highlight & copy the http: address @ top of your Browser, then Paste into your posting.
I tried several ways & come up w/ Zero.

In full page, there is an icon for LINKS to make them clickable.

Welcome to oldgas.

Here is the picture. Click on the thumbnail to get a larger version cropped to show the pumps and sign. Click Here to see a full size version directly.

To answer a couple of your questions; yes, the two globes on the right do appear to be Texaco globes. The different colors of the pumps may indicate gasoline grade. Likely three of the pumps are red, and one is white or silver. The left globe may be "AMOCO GAS" and the second from the left may be a red-dot "American Gas" globe, although the body on that type of globe is typically yellow. Odd that it appears so dark.

Pumps of this type are typically hand operated.

Is there any chance of getting a better, bigger, or clearer scan of this picture? The one that I'm seeing on ImageShack is fairly small and blurry.

Wes

By the way, here's a guess as to what the leftmost globe may be:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9376?size=_original

The two pumps on the right are of the type picture here, too.

AMOCO globes
http://www.gaspumps.info/gallery/v/globes/AmericanOilCompany/

Texaco Globes
http://www.gaspumps.info/gallery/v/globes/Texaco/

Looks like they sold both brands. Not that unusual in the early days.

that picture has to be teen's or early 20's..cool picture
these early stations with all the pumps lined up, do you think they had that many tanks in the ground?

Pumps left to right;
Gilbert & Barker T-176
Gilbert & Barker T-176
Guarantee Liquid Meas. Co. 117 [10gal]
Guarantee Liquid Meas. Co. 17 [5gal]

[Guarantee also referred to as FRY or Mae West body style]
Not that unusual for a Mom & Pop station to have 2-5 or more Brands of gasoline. Have seen pictures of 8-10 Brands.

Randy, back then not all tanks had to be underground, in the country most were above ground.

You think they had four different brands, coming out of the same tank?
OK, That's it! I'm starting on a time machine, so i can drive around and check out all the cool old country stores of the 20's... I may need some of your extra pumps, for parts. LOL Cool photo, wish it was a little more clear.

I purchased these photos a while ago. I thought they fit the description of the small station as db stated, with the different brands almost spot on. Thought I would post them again.





Nicole's photo is of an earlier era.

In Bob's last picture against wall of station/building, each Vent pipe is for a single tank. I count 7 & maybe 9 [not sure on 1st & 4th pipes from right side] & possibly another behind center pump [10 total].

Nicole's picture will date 1925 or Later.

I agree with DBs date of 1925 or later on Nicole's picture.

Did you guys see the air meters in the background of shorpy's picture? How many of you can name the brand of the meters.

Also, it is no wonder that so many Guarantee Liquid Measure (Fry) pumps show up at every gas show. I still believe they sold more of them than any other visible made.

Jack Sim

Nicole, Welcome. I have seen a bunch of old Maryland gas station/country store pictures. I was always surprised to see several different gasoline brands sold at these places? It seems to have been a common practice at the time? As for the soda sign.......it looks like Coca Cola.....notice the bottle design? Good Luck, Paul www.severngaspumps.com