Old gas stations

[2jakes]

Happy Labor Day!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

"Minute Man Service."

Notice how the back of the service bay is wide open.

Rob

 

[GHT]

The views from that garage are something else, but the place does look like it's on a main highway. In this photo there isn't such a thing as a main highway, it's in The New Forest, an area where I live. The New Forest is designated a National Park, all building, including roads are restricted.

A motorist refuelling his Renault car at a Shell filling station at Blashford, Hampshire, England, 1930.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

"Red pepper ethyl"

Rob

 

[2jakes]

?

 

[Fading Fast]

[ View attachment 84757

Very cool. Judging from the TV antenna and air-conditioing model, I'm guessing early '60s. But I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzie can guess better or even has specific knowledge of what this is and when and where it was done.

 

[2jakes]

Very cool. Judging from the TV antenna and air-conditioing model, I'm guessing early '60s. But I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzie can guess better or even has specific knowledge of what this is and when and where it was done.

While you’re at it, ask Lizziepedia about this one too.

Car and movie marqee on the right should be a clue as to the year!

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I believe you control the Lizzie Signal - I believe, Commissioner Jake, it is time to use it.

 

[2jakes]

⇧ I believe you control the Lizzie Signal - I believe, Commissioner Jake, it is time to use it.

She’s not answering the signal!
Sometimes she falls asleep with
her eyes opened.

 

[GHT]

I've never seen that particular variation of the Texaco sign before -- it's the "Matawan Hexagon" as used in the US from the mid-sixties to the early eighties, but without the small circular red-star green-T emblem that the US version superimposed at the bottom. What do the British have against red stars with green T's?

We get what we are given Lizzie. Marketing gurus seem to think that what sells in one English speaking country won't sell in another. For example the Exxon brand as always been sold here as Esso, whether Exxon is a brand on mainland Europe I know not. Just taking you up on that Texaco Star. There's an old school Petrol Station in Wales, still going, that sells Texaco, is this the sort of star you mean?

 

[GHT]

If you fancy living in a rather attractive small town in Southern England and you think you can compete with the supermarkets at selling fuel and you would like a heritage garage and fuel pumps to do it with, here's your chance.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Very cool. Judging from the TV antenna and air-conditioing model, I'm guessing early '60s. But I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzie can guess better or even has specific knowledge of what this is and when and where it was done.

The label on the Coke bottle with the two-tone "dynamic ribbon," as the Boys call it, is early 2000s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

While you’re at it, ask Lizziepedia about this one too.
View attachment 84790

Car and movie marqee on the right should be a clue as to the year!

Mayor Wagner's anti-litter campaign was in full swing in 1955. Didn't help much.

 

[Fading Fast]

The label on the Coke bottle with the two-tone "dynamic ribbon," as the Boys call it, is early 2000s.

As always, thank you - you don't disappoint. Building looks pre-war, TV antenna is '50s (probably), window air-conditioner that looks like it is about to fall off is '60s (probably) and very creative Coke advertising is '00s. Well, at least there's nothing obvious from the ugly '70s.

 

[2jakes]

Mayor Wagner's anti-litter campaign was in full swing in 1955. Didn't help much.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We get what we are given Lizzie. Marketing gurus seem to think that what sells in one English speaking country won't sell in another. For example the Exxon brand as always been sold here as Esso, whether Exxon is a brand on mainland Europe I know not. Just taking you up on that Texaco Star. There's an old school Petrol Station in Wales, still going, that sells Texaco, is this the sort of star you mean?
View attachment 84866

Ah, the red, black and grey motif from the '80s. Nothing ever looked good in those colors with the possible exception of a Korean War general.

The US version of the Matawan Hexagon looked like this --

They rolled this out on a gradual basis in the mid-60s. It was featured on the annual Texaco calendar starting in 1965, but uniforms and many packaged products continued to use the old circular logo for several years beyond that. We didn't get our "banjo pole" sign replaced with this style until 1970. It never quite penetrated public consciousness like the original sign did, and it was abolished with the coming of the red-black-grey look in 1982, a year after our station closed down.

The Esso-Exxon situation stems from the consent decree which broke up the Standard Oil Company in 1911. Each of the "Baby Standards" was given the right to use the Standard Oil trademark in a specific geographical area in the US, and Standard of New Jersey was confined to the Eastern Seaboard as well as Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. They began using the Esso trademark -- a phonetic rendering of S. O. for Standard Oil -- in hopes that it would circumvent this restriction, but when it tried to move into the territory of other Standard companies it was usually sued, the only real exception being New England-New York, where they snuck past Socony long enough to get established.

Standard of New Jersey wanted to become a national marketer along the lines of Gulf and Texaco, but it was hamstrung every step of the way by the trademark issue, and ended up selling in states outside its territory under a variety of alternative trademarks with Humble and Enco being the most prominent. Finally in the early 70s they came up with "Exxon" as a trademark acceptable in all fifty states and began using it in late 1972 with a big splashy ad campaign featuring the Esso Tiger declaring "We've changed out name -- but not our stripes!"

Since they weren't bound by the consent decree anywhere else in the world, though, they kept using Esso everywhere else. A couple years back a court ruling declared that enough time has passed that their use of Esso in the US wouldn't cause confusion in the marketplace, so technically they're free to use it again. But Exxon no longer markets in all fifty states, and there hasn't been any movement to change the logo back to Esso in those where it does.

 

[Fading Fast]

Ah, the red, black and grey motif from the '80s. Nothing ever looked good in those colors with the possible exception of a Korean War general...

Good one

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Any information on the license plate?
Or do I have to flare-up the “Lizzie” signal for help?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The license plate appears either not to be there at all, or is blacked out to prevent it from being identified. The red thing is possibly a fire department plate topper, attached to the bottom plate mounting bolts -- many small-town fire departments issued these toppers, which were usually either red with white lettering or white with red lettering, in order to ensure that the vehicles owned by members could get emergency parking without being towed or ticketed. The top row of lettering is probably the name of the town, while the bottom row might say "FIRE DEPT."

The station is a generic concrete block building remodeled into the Teague Texaco format -- probably a paint lease.