Old gas stations

[2jakes]

 

[David Conwill]

I don't think Lee Chapel pumped any gas here, but his facility dealt in used auto parts with an emphasis on racing equipment. Here it is in 1932 with a hopped-up Ford Model T out front and his Chevrolet 490 roadster Muroc racer alongside.

 

[2jakes]

Knoxville,Tenn. 1929-30.

Now

Barber shop.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

That Texaco features a rare look at the "Fire Chief Ethyl" brand, the transitional stage between Texaco Ethyl and Sky Chief. It was only on the market for about five years betwen 1932 and 1937, and you don't see very many pictures of it. The presence of the Teague-style "banjo sign" specifically dates this picture to late 1936 or the early part of 1937.

Note also the "Indian Gas" pump -- Texaco acquired that brand when they acquired Havoline motor oil, and sold it only at selected stations as a "fighting gas," a sub-regular brand to be sold below cost during price wars. It was the last "unleaded" fuel sold by Texaco until the 1970s.

 

[Fading Fast]

Rob

First pic, note prominently displayed money changer

Bottom pic, Sinclair but no dinosaur

 

[2jakes]

”Keep em flying”

How to break in new saddle shoes!

 

[2jakes]

First pic, note prominently displayed money changer

 

[2jakes]

"Sir...there's no need to kick the tire."

 

[2jakes]

Before jack stands there was milk crates!

 

[3fingers]

First pic, note prominently displayed money changer

Bottom pic, Sinclair but no dinosaur

Before jack stands there was milk crates!
View attachment 98256

No money down and 22 weeks to pay for your new tires. Wonder if he's still offering that deal?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Note the "factory sash" window panels in that grease room. Sure sign of a prefabricated station.

 

[Fading Fast]

Note the "factory sash" window panels in that grease room. Sure sign of a prefabricated station.

But what awesome windows they are. You can still see those windows on many abandoned or "repurposed" red brick factories from the early 1900s up and down Amtrak's Northeast corridor.

It's odd, you'll be steaming along and run by a football-field long factory from the height of the smokestack era and it will have a run of windows like that - could be several hundred in a row - and three odd ones, for no discernible reason, will be tilted open.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Sunshine cracker bakery in Long Island City became famous as the "Thousand Window Bakery" because of its use of such windows -- and even adopted the motif for their packaging:

I don't remember having such an earnest conversation with my mother about crackers. Must be a bourgie thing. But I digress...

Shell's famous Type A "crackerbox" stations of the 1920s were built almost entirely from panels of factory sash, bolted together to a concrete slab and roofed with a steel canopy --

Shell built hundreds of these all along the West Coast starting in 1915, but finally abandoned the design when they pushed into Eastern territories and found the structures couldn't handle cold weather very well. But you'll still find specimens on occasion in milder climates -- when I lived in Santa Barbara in the early 80s, there was one just up the street from my building, converted to a motorcycle repair shop but otherwise physically unmodified. Pretty impressive for a flimsy structure.

 

[Fading Fast]

Lizzie, you may have outdone yourself by taking our windows / gas station / factory conversation and tying it to a classic cracker brand with wonderful GE advertising highlighting the packaging connect.

I am fully confident that we never had as earnest a conversation about crackers or any food item in my house growing up. I'm not sure I ever had as earnest a conversation about, well, anything with my parents growing up. Being told right and wrong was the norm - expanding on the why of it was not how it was done.

And the Sunshine factory (I'm guessing) that inspired the packaging:

We had plenty of Sunshine products in our house growing up, but still, the brand did feel a bit like an also ran versus the bigger names at the time. Perhaps you just can't overcome the perception that selling Hydrox - and not Oreo cookies - does to your brand.

Edit add: just came across this great image and note:

Note the lack of flags on the flagpoles in the first picture.

I promise to stop - but how cool is this ⇩ (note Lizzie's "thousand windows" reference in her original post)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I love that one of the windows is tipped open in that ad.

Sunshine no longer exists as a company -- it was subsumed into Keebler in the 80s, and is now owned by Kelloggs, but the brand still survives on Krispy crackers and Cheez-Its. I worked in a neighborhood grocery store for a brief time before all this merger stuff happened, and the way the Sunshine and Nabisco route drivers would glare at each other was almost as hilarious as Coke vs. Pepsi. The two companies fought for every square inch of shelf space.

 

[Fading Fast]

I love that one of the windows is tipped open in that ad....

Yes, that is fantastic, just a great touch.

I love that one of the windows is tipped open in that ad.

Sunshine no longer exists as a company -- it was subsumed into Keebler in the 80s, and is now owned by Kelloggs, but the brand still survives on Krispy crackers and Cheez-Its. I worked in a neighborhood grocery store for a brief time before all this merger stuff happened, and the way the Sunshine and Nabisco route drivers would glare at each other was almost as hilarious as Coke vs. Pepsi. The two companies fought for every square inch of shelf space.

I've seen that equally in the bread aisle with the Arnolds vs. Pepperidge Farm guys.

 

[2jakes]

From windows to crackers.... amazing!

 

[2jakes]

Chill....and go ride a bike Groucho!

 

[3fingers]

From windows to crackers.... amazing!
View attachment 98293

One of the best things about this joint. The conversations go wherever they go and then back to the original topic again.