December 2007
Collectible of the Month
Vintage Service Station Photos
Hosted by Curt Cragg
“The Poor Mans Museum”

I don’t think that we’ve tried this before on Oldgas, but why not start now.

Those of you that have been around this site for awhile know that I started collecting historical photos of the service stations in my area several years ago. I began this project to add relevance to my collection of Petrolania and also because I was interested in what brands were sold in the local towns around me.

What I discovered was far more than I ever imagined. My interest in the photos led to writing a series of articles for the local newspaper, many of which were first published here on Oldgas. This collection of articles and picture then led me to write and publish the first historical account of the town of Buellton, which was once known as “Service Town, U.S.A.” because of all of the services stations that lined Highway 101 here in the central part of Santa Barbara County.

As of today I have designed several historical exhibits to help tell the story of the small service towns in my area. One of the exhibits is located in Andersen’s Pea Soup Restaurant in Buellton and another in an old garage in the town of Los Alamos, California 15 miles to the north. Of course, these exhibits include many pictures of the local service station that once populated our local towns and highways.

So for our Collectible of the Month feature this month we are looking for historic photographs of service stations in your towns. Many of us have pictures of old service stations, but here we would like to see photos of stations or bulk plants that are where you live while they were in operation. We’d also like to hear some of the history of the stations and their owners or operators if you know it.

The real point of this COTM is to honor those guys (and gals) that operated the stations where all of our collectibles come from and show some homegrown photos of what they looked like during the glory years of the service station industry. GOT GAS station pictures? Start posting them or send them to me and I will get them posted for you.

Here's one to get us started:


C Cragg