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Old gas stations

LizzieMaine

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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Judging from the way the Shell guy wears his tie, he either just got out of the Army or just can't wait to get in.

Here's a shot of the famous Old Mobil Sign Pole at the end of my childhood street, courtesy of Google Earth 2019 -- a fascinating testimony to what a piece of 1930s roadside Americana looks like after being completely untouched for forty-nine years. It hadn't been painted since the station closed -- the station being the square building to the far right.

pole.JPG

There used to be two floodlight stalks instead of the one that's remaining, and that bend in the middle was never there until very recently. The other buildings visible didn't exist when I was young -- there was a second pump island on that side of the station building, and after the station closed we used the lot as a place for various vacant-lot-type outdoor games.

There's also an apartment over the station where the operator and his family lived, and which, after the station closed, we convinced ourselves was haunted.

When this station was operating, as Grant's Garage, it was the only station in our town, as of the 1960s, to employ female attendants. As a kid, I thought that was pretty neat.
 
St. Louis, Missouri, April 23, 1942 - The man who opened the first gas station in the US here died at the age of 65. Early in 1905, C.H. Laessig and his partner Harry Grenner ran a garden hose from a tank at 418 South Theresa to fill up the cars. Prior to that time, most motorists brought a can to fill with gasoline at the hardware store. Laessig and Grenner ended up with a chain of 40 stations across St. Louis.

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19,434
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Funkytown, USA
St. Louis, Missouri, April 23, 1942 - The man who opened the first gas station in the US here died at the age of 65. Early in 1905, C.H. Laessig and his partner Harry Grenner ran a garden hose from a tank at 418 South Theresa to fill up the cars. Prior to that time, most motorists brought a can to fill with gasoline at the hardware store. Laessig and Grenner ended up with a chain of 40 stations across St. Louis.

175495335_3994061167307413_3537526508227496500_n.jpg


175836991_3994073330639530_1050987045447301830_n.jpg


176816935_3994073047306225_7353263608378348082_n.jpg

Welp, I guess the thread's over. You win, Bob.
 

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