History Old Gas Stations Today-Derelict or Period Restored.

Toro Place Cafe
Hello,

In an old streaming series, "Ratchet" takes the cake for such an oddball series. The locations are outstanding, the period old cars and surrounding structures are a taste of the 40s time period. They, too make the series a great location era story. It is just that the story is so weird that it ended up not being watched after the first episode. YRMV

As Hollywood movie magic stuns us with their expertise in editing, one looks at the backgrounds and believes they are in the middle of the time period as the action continues. It is supposed to be a prequel to “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” from our historic past.

But, as good as the Cuckoo’s Nest was as a movie, this series missed the point just because it was weird.

One location was perfect for a time era site. It was green, matched the surrounding Big Sur coastline area and looked appropriate for the time. My wife and I have been through the coastline a zillion times since 1966 and we just could not place the cool gas station location anywhere along the curvy coastline. From our campgrounds to small motels to view sites and coastal restaurants, there just was not a historic gas station around.

Jnaki

from "Ratchet"
Don’t get fooled by the beautiful locations, they are very good, but a good part of keeping the viewer glued to the scenery. Old cars as depicted during this time period were spot on and played an important part of the show. The story line showed how Nurse Ratched would have gotten started.

As nice as the gas station location was, it is not in the Big Sur area. Those location spotting film folks are good and it just seemed to be the entrance to the main shooting location area of Big Sur.

Where is the real location? 12 miles inland from Monterey/Big Sur coastal area!


In the first episode, the gas station where Ratched stops when she's heading to Lucia, was filmed in the Toro Place Cafe Restaurant on the Monterey Salinas Highway.

 

Gas station used in the Movie California Kid

 

My home town

 

Found these in Iowa on a trip to the Meltdown Drags.

 

Spencer, Mo.

 

Gary Turner's Gay Parita, Paris Springs Mo.

 

On Hwy 30 near the intersection with Hwy 218 in Iowa.

Gary

 

Williamson NY, I inquired into buying this place about 10 years ago...Since then the roof has caved in and the unique cobble stone original structure is crumbling.....Now it's for sale but I believe it's not worth restoring .

 

83rd Street here in Chicago. Started off as a Conoco station in 1928. It's a city landmark so can't be demolished, but it's been vacant for decades. Still has the pit in one of the bays.

 

It's so good to see a survivor from the bombing of Germany when so many crews were lost before the P-51 made its debut. Properly named a "Flying Fortress" !

 

Beautiful and rare '57 Merc longroof !

 

Really classy looking Volvo !

 

Here in suburbs north of Detroit, right on Woodward Avenue is the Vinsetta Garage. It used to be an active gas station and repair shop. Now it is a restaurant. Good food. They kept the gas pumps out front. Inside it still looks like a dirty, working shop. I don't know how they did that. And one of the owners is Chili Catallo's son.

 

Where is this gas station located, please ?

 

this is in clinton mo

 

Here's a shot of the FortyNiner at a former Esso station that is now a coffee and sandwich shop.

 

Check out this excellent online post from @pgan - a great read with the info you seek.
TRAILING THE CALIFORNIA KID – Pat Ganahl's Rod and Custom

 

About 25 miles from where I live. Have photos of some of my past rides here too but this is the only one I could dig up at the moment....

 

Great info and pics from a classic, thanks. JW

 

Exeter Missouri

 

I had lunch here today in Des Moines. It doesn't look much like an old station, but you can see were the pump island was torn out and patched.

This is what I had. Very tasty.

Gary

 

That's a heartbreaker. Such a neat building, but like you said, would be incredibly difficult to repair at this point. Maybe some of it could be salvaged but the failed roof really hurts it. I wish you could have bought it before that happened.