Old gas stations

[2jakes]

Gas Station bookcovers

Gas Station Memories ~ M. Witzel

Pump & Circumstance. John Margolies

 

[Fading Fast]

Rob

Nice display of three different ways to two-tone a car's paint scheme. Anyone able to identify the car farthest to the right - I don't recognize at all?

 

[2jakes]

Nice display of three different ways to two-tone a car's paint scheme. Anyone able to identify the car farthest to the right - I don't recognize at all?

This is another model and not the one you are asking about but the size reminds me of this one:

My friend at work used to drive one. A white convertible which I
called "dino".
Huge with big fins at the rear.
One time he had it repainted the same white color.
Paid mucho bucks to have it done.
The car was nice before it was painted.

I really couldn't tell the difference and
I would ask him everytime we went for a spin to nearby towns hunting for antique
stuff..... "Hey Andy, how do you know if they just applied a good coat of wax instead of repainting it?"

He's a good pal to put up with my kidding all the time!

 

[3fingers]

Nice display of three different ways to two-tone a car's paint scheme. Anyone able to identify the car farthest to the right - I don't recognize at all?

Early '60s Chrysler is my guess. 300 maybe?

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I'm thinking either a Plymouth or Dodge... that huge cutaway front wheelwell gives it away.

Rob

 

[1mach1]

I'm thinking either a Plymouth or Dodge... that huge cutaway front wheelwell gives it away.

Rob

I totally agree.

 

[2jakes]

Big cars...oh my!

I drove a used all black Buick Riviera in early seventies.

Power windows failed with all the windows shut.
Summer was in the 100s everyday.
Luckily the top roof vent opening did not shut completely and I had room to stick my hand out
with a 5x7 index card to vent the wind inside towards me.
A bigger card board would’ve been better, but too embarrass to do it.
The wind hitting my perspiring body kept me cool.
Did this all summer until I had saved enough $$ to get it fixed.
This was the first and only time I ever have owned a big automobile.
Afterwards it was mostly beetles with side vent windows convertibles.
Back then, these beetles were available on almost every block.

Meet Shamu, my 1967 VW convertible.

 

[1mach1]

Big cars...oh my!

View attachment 113965
View attachment 113966
I drove a used all black Buick Riviera in early seventies.
View attachment 113967
Power windows failed with all the windows shut.
Summer was in the 100s everyday.
Luckily the top roof vent opening did not shut completely and I had room to stick my hand out
with a 5x7 index card to vent the wind inside towards me.
A bigger card board would’ve been better, but too embarrass to do it.
The wind hitting my perspiring body kept me cool.
Did this all summer until I had saved enough $$ to get it fixed.
This was the first and only time I ever have owned a big automobile.
Afterwards it was mostly beetles with side vent windows convertibles.
Back then, these buggies were available on every block, no kidding!

Meet Shamu, my 1967 VW convertible.
View attachment 113974

Great looking bug!

EXACT same thing happened to me in the Oldsmobile version of your Riviera (the Toronado). That car was nothing but trouble. Good riddance.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

On long distant trips the rear window of the two-tone car served as my sleeping compartment!

I don’t know what brand car this one is. My dad drove a Pontiac.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

It looks like a Chrysler product, based on that side trim spear.

Rob

 

[2jakes]

It looks like a Chrysler product, based on that side trim spear.

Rob

You nailed it!
Made it easy for me to find the logo. Wasn’t sure from the photo!

 

[tmal]

attention Lizzie.......is this gas station a ripoff of a texaco design?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty much all the porcelain-sided icebox stations were riffs off the Teague Texaco design -- the Gulf was the closest copy, right down to the three "speed lines" on the facade, and Cities Service also used a design that very closely duplicated the Teague. The Sinclair above is very close to the designs used by Esso and Socony-Vacuum during the 1950s, with only the color of the striping changing to reflect the colors of the particular company.

 

[2jakes]

Pretty much all the porcelain-sided icebox stations were riffs off the Teague Texaco design -- the Gulf was the closest copy, right down to the three "speed lines" on the facade, and Cities Service also used a design that very closely duplicated the Teague. The Sinclair above is very close to the designs used by Esso and Socony-Vacuum during the 1950s, with only the color of the striping changing to reflect the colors of the particular company.

Lizzie you are amazing!

 

[1mach1]

Pretty much all the porcelain-sided icebox stations were riffs off the Teague Texaco design -- the Gulf was the closest copy, right down to the three "speed lines" on the facade, and Cities Service also used a design that very closely duplicated the Teague. The Sinclair above is very close to the designs used by Esso and Socony-Vacuum during the 1950s, with only the color of the striping changing to reflect the colors of the particular company.

Fantastic information. Things I've thougt about but never put together. Thanks Lizzie!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Walter Dorwin Teague's book "Design This Day," published in 1940, is fascinating background reading for anyone interested in gas station design. While he doesn't specifically talk about the Texaco project in any great depth, there is extensive discussion of his personal design philosophy that informed the project. He had a mystic fascination with rectangles and the figure of the five-pointed star, both of which figured in the Texaco design. He was a man who had considerable influence on industrial design in the Era, and it's rather unfortunate that he's primarily remembered today as the man who revolutionized the American gas station.

There are remarkably few unmolested Teague Texacos still standing today -- those that survived the unfortunate "Mattawan" design of the late 1960s usually had their siding removed for the eye-burningly-ugly black-grey-and-red design Texaco rolled out in the early 1980s. Those that do survive are often subjected to sloppy, distasteful paint jobs that obscure their origin. There's a good example just down the street from where I live -- a two-bay Teague built in the early 1950s, and operated as a gas station until about ten years ago. Somewhere along the line the porcelain was painted over with Mobil colors, and then when it was converted to a marine-electronics shop around 2010, it acquired a coating of two-tone blue latex house paint that really uglied it up. That shop closed a few weeks ago, and the building is now slated for demolition in favor of an "office complex."

The building itself is cinder blocks, and is probably not worth dismantling, but all of the porcelain panels are intact under the paint, and they'll be headed for the scrap-metal yard soon as one more Teague bites the dust.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I'll have to see if I can find that book, Lizzie; it sounds like interesting reading.

On the subject of gas station design, are there any reference tomes that specifically detail the design and construction of those lovely pseudo-Tudor/Storybook styles, like my beloved 20s-era Pure stations?

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Walter Dorwin Teague's book "Design This Day," published in 1940, is fascinating background reading for anyone interested in gas station design. While he doesn't specifically talk about the Texaco project in any great depth, there is extensive discussion of his personal design philosophy that informed the project. He had a mystic fascination with rectangles and the figure of the five-pointed star, both of which figured in the Texaco design. He was a man who had considerable influence on industrial design in the Era, and it's rather unfortunate that he's primarily remembered today as the man who revolutionized the American gas station.

There are remarkably few unmolested Teague Texacos still standing today -- those that survived the unfortunate "Mattawan" design of the late 1960s usually had their siding removed for the eye-burningly-ugly black-grey-and-red design Texaco rolled out in the early 1980s. Those that do survive are often subjected to sloppy, distasteful paint jobs that obscure their origin. There's a good example just down the street from where I live -- a two-bay Teague built in the early 1950s, and operated as a gas station until about ten years ago. Somewhere along the line the porcelain was painted over with Mobil colors, and then when it was converted to a marine-electronics shop around 2010, it acquired a coating of two-tone blue latex house paint that really uglied it up. That shop closed a few weeks ago, and the building is now slated for demolition in favor of an "office complex."

The building itself is cinder blocks, and is probably not worth dismantling, but all of the porcelain panels are intact under the paint, and they'll be headed for the scrap-metal yard soon as one more Teague bites the dust.

I'm like a school boy...
I never will tire of praising you.
We are fortunate indeed to have you here to share with us.
Thank you Lizzie!

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm like a school boy...
I never will tire of praising you.
We are fortunate indeed to have you here to share with us.
Thank you Lizzie!

And a hearty ditto!