I bought some old gas station sign frames out of a salvage yard today and one of them had the old 6' porcelien sign with it but unfortunately it had been sandblasted and painted over as a real estate sign. I was able to make out some of the letters and it looks like it says COSDIN across the middle at a slant from lower left to upper right. It was a red and white sign and the letters were in a slanted rectangle shaped border and the whoe signe was round. I believe COSDIN was out of Texas. I googled it and couldnt find any images.
Cities Service became Cosden which eventually became FINA. My Grandfather was the Cities Service distributor for the Texas Panhandle, opened shop in '28..
Cities Service actually became Citgo. Cities Service started using the name Citgo as a trademarked brand in 1965, with the company becoming Citgo in 1982. Cosden was purchased from W.R Grace in 1963 by Petrofina (Fina) and acquired a very large number of Cosden gas stations in Texas and New Mexico. I remember as a kid growing up in Tulsa when Cities Service came out with CITGO and the Cities Service building downtown had big red-orange panels put around the top of the art deco tower. It was a big deal.
I done some more cleaning on ths sign and it does say COSDEN. They were started by a fella name Josh Cosden who is credited with starting the oil business in Tulsa, OK. I think they later became DX back in the early 20's or 30's. Thanks for the help!!
Cool stuff, petrolina signs are neat in any condition. This is a new name for a midwestern dude. Neat to see the pump tops and other pix. Thanx gang. ~Sololobo~
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