History Images of vintage gas stations ~ pre 65

A very early Safeway store, Deep rock station close to Downtown Tulsa, OK.

 

'Thomas Calder showroom, garage and engineering workshop' - State Library of Queensland

 

'Service station at Kenmore, Brisbane, 1953' - State Library of Queensland [lots of asbestos cement construction materials being used, typical of the time]

 

Here's an unusual take on the subject:

Oil on canvas painting by Beulah Loomis Hyde, circa 1935-40. Won second prize in the Western Washington's 1941 Contemporary American Art Exhibition.

 

Rte 66 Adrian,Tx

 

Worked at both these stations , when I got out of school back in the 60’s . Both long gone now ….

 

Placerville, Ca.

 

'Sandgate Motor Company in Rainbow St, Sandgate, ca. 1928' - State Library of Queensland

 

New Mexico-Navajo


Beatty, Nevada

 

Arizona, 1937...
Family of nine from near Fort Smith, Arkansas, on their way to try to find work in the California harvests. Between Yuma and Phoenix, Arizona.

 

In that Beatty pic there is a Flxible Clipper bus. Probably the one I had.

 

Then & Now the former Dixie station on Rte.66 in Lupton, AZ.

 

North Carolina, 1939...
Caption
Country filling station owned and operated by tobacco farmer. Such small independent stations have become meeting places and loafing spots for neighborhood farmers in their off times. Granville County, North Carolina...

 

Rhyolite, Nevada, 1908
The handwritten caption on the back reads:
"Lucy B. Lane stands in the center of the group. This was taken in front of the business which her husband, J. R. Lane, conducted. He sold hay, grain, and gas and oil. Rhyolite, Nevada."

 

There was a lot of activity at the shops that surround the corner gas station. Repair shop , upholstery, tire store and detail shop

 

Here is an interesting photo of a building that was a blacksmith that became a Mobilgas filling station and garage at some point, circa the late 1920s. A lot is happening in this photo. They appear to have several businesses going on here.
This photo is from Iola, Kansas which is due north of Route 66 in Tulsa. OK. We have come to realize people never thought to document businesses along Rt.66 with photos except for marketing or tourist reasons, so lots of places that would have been of interest just weren't photographed. The people would have thought that Rt. 66 would be around forever. So photos like this interest our followers since they are of the same period, general location, and culture of those times.

 

Garages grew out of Blacksmith shops Gasoline was sold from the general store and tires from bicycle shops. They were all brought together in a multi ''Service'' station.... that is where the term came from, not from someone waiting on you hand and foot. JW

 

This is Two Guns, Arizona, a historic ghost town along Route 66 with a dark and mysterious past. The top image shows Two Guns in its prime during the early-to-mid 20th century when it served as a bustling roadside attraction, complete with a Texaco gas station, trading post, and a zoo run by the infamous "Chief" Henry Miller.

 

Mac's Iceberg Cafe and Gas Station, found on East Central Avenue in Albuquerque, was a classic only-in-America, only-on-Route-66 roadside attraction designed to make a spectacle—and a must-stop destination—for tourists. Of course, ice cream and gas were major attractions of their own for weary travelers.

Heisted from: 25 Historic Images of Route 66 in Its Early Days | Stacker

 

We love this wonderful photo of the "Willow Street Shell" service station, grocery store, and café on old Route 66 in Baxter Springs, Kansas with circa 1925 gas pumps, the family posing, 8¢ gas, and a Coca-Cola sign. The only thing missing is a beer sign but we need to remember this is Kansas where prohibition started and may still be in effect when this photo was taken in the late '20s to early '30s as the best estimate. We understand that this was at 3rd Street and Willow, Baxter Springs but don't know this to be certain. Shell did not market gasoline in Kansas for long. They pulled out of that state along with Oklahoma and other mid-continent states and the Rocky Mountain region in 1935.

 

North side of 8th Street between Franklin and Webster Streets, Oakland, CA, March 1958

 

Standard station at the corner of Hartz and Diablo road in Danville, Ca - note the little sign on the walnut tree "Cameo Acres"..... this station and the tree are long gone

 

The "CEDAR CREST CAMP, 12 MI. E. LEBANON, Mo. ON HWY. 66" in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks might be a great choice. They had it all in one place - "Cabins, Beer, Lunch, Groceries" and a Texaco filling station. This postcard has good resolution.

 

One of the best B&W pictures ever Texaco gas station along Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona, 1947

 

This is a wonderful, old photo from El Reno, Oklahoma of a filling station and grocery along old Route 66 in the late 1920s. We don't have any more information than this. We can't make out all of the name of their business that is on the sign on their roof.

 

Here is a real photo postcard of the "Top of the World Camp" and filling station at the Continental Divide, New Mexico in the late 1920s. We believe this Is this where the monkey was that smoked and played cards with the customers. If you enlarge the card you can make out the Route 66 shield on a post in front of this business.
The Great Continental Divide extends from Alaska through the Western United States down south through Mexico. From this divide, the water (streams) run either east or west to the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. This was on Route 66 just about 115 miles west of Albuquerque and 30 miles east of Gallup, New Mexico.

 

this one was recently restored in Longmont Colorado. I believe It is the original Johnson’s corner if you’re familiar with the area.

 

Cool pic but should be in the Derelict or Period Restored Thread as the photo was not taken pre 63. JW