Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion 1950s gas station, where to find?

Ken,
The station pictured on page 139 lower right is the same as the one pictured in the link Steve posted. It just doesn't have the canopy over the drive. The one pictured in the book has an awning over the windows. There were different variations of the Teague design.
Bob

The one near me has had the canopy long gone and the service bays are on the left side of the building. Oh how I wish I had a digital camera I could post a picture of the station down the road from me.

Hi I have the panels of a 1940's porcelain enamel station. Contact me at HPSearsjr@aol.com and I'll try to send you a picture of it or one that was very much like it.
Regards HPS

I was over in Olympia over the weekend, figured I would scope out the Old Service Station that was being discussed here in this post. I took a bunch of pictures of the station but before I post them all, figured I better make sure this is the one??

That's it! The building had been remodeled a few times over the years. It used to be located in the now vacant lot (in the 2000 block) on East 4th Avenue next to Eagan's Big Tom drive-thru restaurant.

At it's current location there are warning signs posted "Do not molest the rabbits" as there are several small bunny rabbits on the property.

[This message has been edited by Ken Layton (edited 09-23-2003).]

Some Bunny loves Gas stations.
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Hubba, its me its me.

A fellow I know sold a very few pieces of broken scrap blue and white enamelized porcelein from an old gas station to a roving collector for a good bit of money, maybe as much as a one or two hundred dollars. I'm not familiar with metal only gas stations, so they could be much less expensive. I suspect that you are not going to find any bargains in SoCal. Consider cities/towns in Texas, etc. 100+ miles away from any metropolises, where the turn-over of buildings is much slower, focusing on cities/towns with <100,000 population, maybe, and perhaps you'll find more than a few empty old 50s era gas stations...but even in these smaller cities/towns, I doubt anyone will be selling a weather-tight building on the cheap as such an old gas station can at least be used for storage. Also keep in mind that moving/altering a load bearing wall of any commercial building might call for a somewhat expensive asbestos survey. I'm not a professional builder or a building mover, so take my concerns as fairly speculative. Check out my website which along with the old gas station I am still attempting to develop: www.geocities.com/amwj2001

AJ
Advice well taken. Thanks. The search continues!
Steve

Hi guys. A friend sent me these posts last fall, and maybe even pix of my 1956 vintage porcelain-coated-metal-panel Texaco station.
I'm in the process of selling my property, and I am going to remove the porcelain-panel shell from the concrete block buildings. There are two buildings: A 30 x 20 office, and a 40 x 20 3-bay shop. These are the mainly white porcelain "icebox" designs by industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague. They have the curved tops, three light green stripes (porcelain), and the dark green bottoms (also porcelain). The same design is shown on page 60 of Robert Ball's Texaco Collectibles book.

There are panels on the front, and both sides of the office, and the front, and right-hand side of the shop. Some panels have some paint (just one or two coats, and just in spots), which isn't very hard to remove from that ultra-smooth porcelain (melted glass). There are some non-original holes here and there, which would have to be filled for full restoration. The fasteners for the origial red stars and letters, and black letters above the shop doors are still in place--the stars and letters are long gone. The fasteners still indicate "Marfak Lubrication" above door #3.

I will most likely remove the panels in April, and I'll photograph the existing structures, number the panels as they come off, and measure and photograph the concrete block remains.

The labor to remove, number, stack, and store will be significant. I figure that my asking price will be about $4500.00 in Spokane, WA. I just thought you guys should have first notice, as when I've got them ready to market, I'll advetise beyond here.

Just a correction to my previous post--the first line should read,"and even sent this board pix..."--guess I should proofread.

Hubba, Is one bay enough for those hubcaps

LOL jeff...maybe in a lil bit..i am trying to move them quick..i WANT my garage bak..hahahaha..Thanks :-)

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Hubba the GAS GEEK , OIL FREAK of Shoreline WA

bikexprt,
Shoot me an email with some pics of you buildings.
Thanks, Bob
Lastgas15@aol.com

I have looked high and low for a station to take down and re-build. I finally gave up and am now building a station. I found a company to make the panels and hired a contractor. We are building a fifties Pure station in my back yard.
What I found out for thought is this: Whatever size you find you will HAVE TO duplicate, most of the old stations had off size doors and so on. Also no two stations are alike in the size of the panels, so mix and match is really tough. Gulf used a different size than Sinclair and so on.
My contractor is willing to build fifties stations in the near future. We are looking into this very strongly along with the company that is making my panels.
We will post pics of our progress here at old gas.