Text by Patrick Bell.
A big and important part of traveling has always been the refueling stops, where the vehicle gets a short rest as well as a refuel, and passengers get to stretch their legs, visit the facilities, and perhaps get a drink and/or snack. Today we have a good selection of filling/service/gas stations from the past, so let’s take a look.
A female majority family was stopped for a fill up at a Phillips 66 station that offered a trucker’s discount. The kids were enjoying a soft drink treat, which was a real treat back then. Behind them was a ’61 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Sedan, and to the right was a ’57 Dodge Custom Royal. Other interesting items include the Pepsi and Coca Cola vending machines with the door to access your choice, and to the right of the purple shirted girl, a rack of motor oil with a selection of Pennzoil and maybe Havoline products.
We are now at a Standard station on a busy corner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. KCRG TV and Radio were across the street, and I presume Swede was one of their personalities. Sharing the building were a business machine and livestock supply stores. The crowns on the gas pumps indicated the fuel type; red was regular and gold premium. On the right, a ’55 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was visiting from Pennsylvania. It was equipped with the “Hy-Fire” V8, and appeared as if it was filling up with premium fuel.
On the left edge, a white ’57 Chevrolet, black ’46-’48 Ford Sedan, and a Volkswagen Type 2 23 window model. Both the Ford and VW had Iowa license plates that could have been ’59 or ’61. And the VW had a sign on the rear that said “NEWS CRUISER”, so I presume it belonged to KCRG.
Parked in the street was a green V8 powered ’58 Chevrolet Biscayne 2 door sedan, and a black ’57 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Sedan was passing by. Across the street were two green wagons; the light one a ’58 or ’59 Rambler, and the dark a ’59 Chevrolet, perhaps a Nomad.
Now we are in Los Angeles, overlooking the corner of Riverside and Fletcher Drives in 1960, with the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) construction in the background. The two service stations are now gas station/convenience stores with new buildings. The Richfield is now an ARCO, and the Chevron is a Sinclair.
There was some interesting eye candy at the Richfield; on the left a Jaguar XK 140 Fixed Head Coupe, two ’52-’54 Ford wagons; a white Country Sedan on the left, and on the far right a green Country Squire. Plus a white ’53 or ’54 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe, and a white and blue ’57 Dodge 4 door Lancer. In the street on the right, a red and white ’57 Plymouth Custom Suburban and a white over brown ’56 Rambler Custom Cross Country with the wood grain trim.
A photo note indicated this Texaco station was somewhere in Ontario. In the foreground, a ’56 Buick Century 4 door Riviera, a ’58-’63 Volkswagen Type 1 with eyebrows, and the truck was a ’48-’50 Ford (or Mercury), at least a F-4 (or M-4) going by the wheel style.
Cities Service was the forerunner of today’s CITGO, and this is another unknown location. In the center was a ’59 Ford Ranch wagon, and to the right a black ’61 Plymouth 4 door sedan was getting filled. On the far right edge was a black ’60 Oldsmobile Super 88 or Ninety-Eight Holiday SportSedan.
The Esso brand of petroleum products was under the Standard Oil umbrella and their stations were located in the eastern half of the country. This ’61 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Holiday Coupe with curb feelers was from California, and had extra clothes hanging in the back seat. He was a traveler heading to parts unknown. The rusty blue car looks like a ’57 or ’58 Plymouth Plaza Club Sedan.
It is hard to tell much about this station, other than it definitely was full service, with two attendants in white uniforms; one washing a windshield and the other checking the oil. The license plates all appear to be from California, and the northern part of the state seems likely for the location. From the left a ’62 Chevrolet Corvair Coupe, likely a Monza, a ’66 Ford Galaxie 500 4 door sedan, and a ’65 Chevrolet El Camino with a camper shell and a trailer hitch.
This one looks like a Standard station, with all kinds of deals on Atlas tires. My dad used to be a Standard/Chevron customer, so he bought Atlas tires. Robby’s Restaurant was next door, and what looks like a strip mall further down. In the driveway was a gold ’66 Dodge Dart 270 4 door sedan, while in the center a red ’67 Chevrolet or GMC C-10 Fleetside long bed that apparently was the service truck. On the other side of it was a ’59 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 wagon, while parked at the restaurant looks like a black ’65 Pontiac LeMans or GTO convertible, and a white Volkswagen Type 1.
One source dates this image to October 1971, with a location of Yellowstone. This station was a Standard, while down the road was a Chevron. On the left a ’64-’67 Volkswagen Type 3, before they had an outside fuel filler. On the right a ’63 Ford Galaxie 500 4 door sedan or hardtop that looks like a permanent fixture. It had no license plate and was covered in snow.
Here we are in Essex Junction, Vermont, at the 5 Corners intersection. As the name suggests, five roads converge at this point. Not a lot has changed since this image was taken in about 1965. The Shell station is now a Valero, and in the Street View image dated October 2023 regular was $3.69.9 and premium $4.49.9. The Gulf station across the street is gone, and was replaced by a new large building that has a McGillicuddy’s Irish Pub, some other retail space, and what appears to be apartments. The dark building right of center remains, with an addition off the back. It is (and perhaps was) the Lincoln Hall. The white building attached is now a Senior Center, and the Fire Station has moved to a new building just beyond this one and set back more from the street.
In the right foreground of this photo was a ’57 Chrysler Saratoga 4 door hardtop with a ’65 issue Vermont license plate. Turning the corner heading this way, a ’65 Buick Special Deluxe 4 door sedan, while heading away was a ’64 Ford Falcon wagon. Ahead of it, parked at the curb another Falcon, a black ’64 or ’65 sedan with a ’63 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Celebrity Sedan in front of it. The fire truck looks like a ’55-’57 GMC with a tanker body, and a Jeep Forward Control is on the other side of it.
Our final stop for the day is in farm country, as you can see the irrigation sprinklers at work in the distance (on the right). There was also a highway sign that would help with the location if you could read it. The station was an ARCO, which was the Atlantic Richfield Company. Front and center was a ’71 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, and on the left a Volvo 145 or 245. The third car was not showing enough for me to ID.
Thanks for joining us and enjoy the rest of your holiday!
The first pic wasn’t one family, was it? They would need a bus!
BTW, loved the prices!
Another view of the Essex Junction in VT. Interesting. And that building is still there in this photo from Google Maps.
Third photo, LA, in the background, an H model Mack stretched way out to meet the bridge laws.
You are not realizing the width of that era’s cars, ravenuer. The light blue car they are standing behind may be a 1960 Ford. The 1960 Fairlane (or Galaxie, 1960 Edsel, or 1960 Canadian Meteor, which all use mostly the same body stampings and windows) are 81.5 inches wide. You can easily fit all four children and the dog in the back seat, plus three adults on the front bench seat.
As a teenager I was regularly chosen as the designated driver for rock concerts with my Edsel because it could easily carry 6 passengers plus me. The six passenger teens split the cost of my ticket, so I got in free. Nobody sat squished. Full sized cars of that era are big. Really big.
And of course back then, seat belt and child seat use were optional. In 1979, my folks, me (3), and my baby sister went from Michigan to Colorado and back in an El Camino.
As far as the service stations, I was always partial to the Sunoco stations. Big yellow sign with flashing red arrow. Some of them flashed crazy fast. We had one in my little town which was a true service station with garage bays, along with 2 other gas stations. By the early 90s the pumps were removed from Sunoco and another station, citing leaks. Then in 2011 the Sunoco garage burned down. Growing up in the 80s and 90s it was a little town that had everything. Now it’s little more than a bar and a feed store.
Wow fuel almost free and gas pump attendants, I remember that, I was a one of those for a while, its all self serve now and your lucky if there is a thing to clean your windscreen there sure as hell aint anyone there to do it for you.
And now you have to tell the attendant three or four times how much gas you want, and it`s rare to find an air hose, let alone one that works and doesn`t eat your change like a hungry animal.
Why did the lighted globes atop gas pumps disappear? Seems like a good place to advertise. They were gone (along with those narrow pumps) where I live by about 1971, save for a rare independent garage.
Esso rebranded as Exxon in the early to mid ’70s, though their diesel pumps are still branded Esso (assumedly to retain the trademark). Canadian stations still used Esso throughout the last time I was there.
Service stations are fast disappearing, replaced by convenience stores that sell fuels. More reliable cars that need specialized parts to diagnose and repair them (but need less routine maintenance) have made things difficult for traditional service stations, which now subsist on low-margin work like oil changes.
Probably widely-known, but since la673 mentions trademark retention, I’ll expand a little here…
After the dissolution of Standard Oil, rights to use of the “Standard” brand names (deemed to include “Esso”) were assigned to the various resultant companies. For example, “Standard Oil” could be used only by American Oil in Illinois, Sohio in Ohio, Chevron in California, Kyso in Kentucky, Jersey Standard in the Northeast and a few other states, etc.
In states where another company owned the rights to the “Standard” trademarks (i.e. where Jersey could not use “Esso”), the company, around 1960, started branding those stations with the “Enco” (“ENergy COmpany”) brand. This Enco brand, used in states such as Texas and California (where the”Standard” rights were held by Socal / Chevron) was intended to give Jersey a more easily understood, nationally unified brand.
“Happy Motoring” and the “Tiger in your tank” also tied Esso and Enco together, as did the attempted use of “Humble” as a unifier. The 1972 adoption of the single “Exxon” brand Nationwide mooted all that.
You can see a decal of the Enco trademark (identical to “Esso” other than the two middle letters) on the nose of Jim Clark’s 1965 Indy-winning Lotus 38.
I could be wrong, thought “Esso” was “Eastern States Standard Oil”
It was just phonetic spelling of S. O. for Standard Oil.
It’s still Esso here in the great white north, but they seem to be getting thin on the ground these days. In my little seaside town there are still a couple of full service stations, and a couple of gas stations with a mechanic on duty but the median age here is about 70 so they manage to survive.
A buddy of mine owns several convenience stores that sell fuel, according to him he makes all his money in the store and the fuel is just a draw to get people in.
Average price for regular here is about 1.55 per litre Canadian, or about $4.40 US per US gallon. Premium runs about $5.50. Diesel usually a bit more.
Things have changed a lot since these photos were taken!
In our time, how long do you think a lighted glass globe would last. I grew up in the sixties in So Cal. and hood ornaments were already being torn off hoods massively. Just sad.
The Cities Service looks turnpikey, with two opposite sides. Google says Cities Service had a contract with the NJ Turnpike, which seems to fit the architecture.
Yes, that looks very much like the NJ Turnpike to me.
My family frequently traveled the NJ Turnpike when I was roughly between the ages of 3 and 6 (we lived in Baltimore and drove nearly monthly to see my grandfather and other relatives living in NYC). The Cities Service signs became a prominent landmark in my mind, and so I was particularly disturbed when the company rebranded as “Citgo”. It somehow didn’t seem – to 5 year old me – like it should be possible for a known brand to change its name and logo. I still don’t care for the name “Citgo”, although I will abide it on the giant sign we have here in Boston that looks down over Fenway Park.
By the way, I particularly like the next photo, the one with the 1961 Oldsmobile. Excellent composition.
I see these pictures and remember a road trip from Miami to NYC. I lived in Miami and read an article about people with Florida tags were being ripped off at stations on the Jersey turnpike. It was about 1971, I was young driving a luxury car. Stopped for gas on the Turnpike, full service, gas up, attendant popped the hood. Opps…there is a leak of some sort. Better get it fixed or I would break down soon. However, I had just had the car serviced at the dealership in Miami less than a week previous. I drove on to NYC then back to Miami, no issues.
The Volvo wagon in the last Image is a 145. You can tell it by the rims. Probably a MY 72 or MY 73 – see the flush door handles and the bumpers (though the latter ones are not clearly identifiable).
BTW: Great shots ! Love things like that.
Uhen’s Garage in New Munster, Wisconsin opened in 1921 and is still in business.
It’s hard for me to imagine the Five Corners without a traffic light, even as late as 1964 since the IBM plant in Essex opened in 1957. For decades it, and GlobalFoundries that bought the factory when IBM got out of actually making stuff, was the state’s largest single private employer. To this day it’s a major traffic bottleneck although they finally opened a bypass road a block away for traffic traveling through on VT-2A to 15 (which would be left-to-right in the picture).
We moved around a lot in my parent’s younger days; in 1965 my Dad had his first stint up in Essex Junction (till ’69 when IBM moved him to help startup the Manassas location; by ’75 Manassas was done with semiconductor production and we moved back up to Vermont). He’d previously worked for Westinghouse Semiconductor (in western PA and near Baltimore MD) and we were vacating our house in Catonsville MD staying in a nearby motel when my Dad was returning from work on rte 40 he got hit turning left into the motel totalling his ’63 Rambler Classic wagon. We were staying with grandparents after that, and he found his way first to East Fishkill NY and eventually Essex Jct. He bought a ’65 Olds F85 at Val Preda’s in South Burlington which he picked us up in to take us to the north end of Burlington where he’d bought our next house. We now live 1/2 way across country but my niece lives up in South Burlington.
Even before that, my Dad worked in Southern California for Hoffman Electronics making solar cells starting in 1959…some of them went up on the Explorer VI satellite. He picked up the Rambler while out there; his original car was a ’56 Plymouth Plaza standard with the flathead 6.
In another post, it said the Richfield station became an ARCO…it’s been many years (more than 50) but my Dad used to have an ARCO gas credit card…but I thought ARCO was just short for Atlantic Richfield Company…so maybe the station just adopted the newer naming (new is relative, this would have been in late 60’s or early 70’s they became ARCO).
So many great memories ! .
The 3rd picture, the Chevron was there until fairly recently . the liquor store across the street ia now a Ricks’, passable fast food, I ate there now and then, drove West on Fletcher and turned North on Riverside Drive Friday evening .
-Nate
In the last photo, the car behind the 71 Chevelle appears to be a 65 Chevrolet Bel Air or Biscayne. Since all four brake lights are lit, it did not have the back yup lights that were optional on those models.
I knew of Cities Service as the ancestor of Citgo, because in the early 70s my father’s office was in the Cities Service building at 70 Pine Street in lower Manhattan, overlooking the building with the biplane on the roof. It sticks in my mind partly because the building still had elevator operators.
Once again I am sad that there are no Amoco Paul Bunyans or Sinclair dinosaurs.
Having worked in 3 different Mobil stations before being drafted in 1969, these types of pics have had such an impact on me. Great shots ! Thanks very much.
Third pic has a white austin Healey 100-6 or early 3000 in the upper left, and a black cherry Jag XK140-150 coupe going by the roof profile and trunk trim at the station in the lower left.
Third pic has a white austin Healey 100-6 or early 3000 in the upper left, and a black cherry Jag XK140-150 coupe going by the roof profile and trunk trim at the station in the lower left.
That location in LA at Fletcher and Riverside I know very well. When I first moved to LA, I lived about 1.5 miles up the road just off Riverside Dr.
It sure doesn’t look anything like that anymore. And getting in/out of that Arco today is brutal.