Simpler Times

Thought some can reflect on some of these.
I know I did!
Notice the 10% corn alcohol

Enjoy.
Tom

Old Gas Stations[http://hipspics.freewebspace.com/gas/gas.html]
Untitled URL Link

Neat Pics. Can someone enlighten me on the cars in the storage or parking garage as to how they get there or down. Am I missing something.

Tractor300,

There's an elevator between the two stacks of cars. Car is driven onto the elevator at ground level, elevator goes up, car is driven off into the stack.

Reverse procedure to get it back down.

There was one of these operating in Cleveland Ohio in the late 1960s.

Tom in TN

TGP,

Thanks for the pictures, Some of them are clearly before my time, but MOST of them seem like just yesterday.

Tom in TN - an old codger

Did you notice the 2 door Ford wagon on the 5th level (back stack) in the front. Nomads are all you here about but we had a 54 Ford like that when I was very young.

pretty cool! see the one with the wagon pulling the travel trailer? I have a trailer just like it i use for storage. spartan trailer made by spartan aicraft in tulsa okla.one of the very best made, airstream made their trailers as travel trailers. but these were made to live in full time.

Thanks for the photos, brings back a lot of memories. Out of all of those photos, I only found 8 that were before my time. Interesting to note, in the photo of the "shark" roadster, behind the back of the roadster is a couple of oil tanks with the metering pump built in. Those were used for refilling the glass oil bottles w/ the conical spout, as depicted in some of the other photos. I actually have one of those metering tanks in my shop and use it fairly often.

Doc, (just another "old goat")

A couple of those look so familiar I'd swear I could drive right to them.
There's a Nash Metroploitan sitting there in the one with the overhead parking setup.

Lady pumping her own gas, I thought everything was full service back then? Cool pics.

About 19 pics down there is a red chevy convertable at a Standard station next to a green chevy PU with a camper.
My first new car after graduating HS and working const. all summer was that car. 1960 Impala with black and white interior. Used to carry a stick with me to keep the girls away!!!!
Thanks for posting.

Neat pics.

Those are some great shots, how about all the advertising going years back, my grandfather was commercial artist, he did a lot of advertisement artwork and lithograph work, I still have some originals of his work, this used to employ a lot of people.

We had as part of our Ford tractor dealership, the humble beginnings of the business, which was a Mobil gas station, which we kept in tact as part of the overall business, there was one old pump and a light fixture I kinda wish I still had. Place opened in the 30's and was just a wood framed 1 bay garage, before the much larger concrete block building was erected for the shop, parts counter/parts room and offices of the dealership.

Great to see the old advertisements, the vehicles and the scenes captured in those, will have to scroll through those again later !

"Neat Pics. Can someone enlighten me on the cars in the storage or parking garage as to how they get there or down. Am I missing something. "

They still have them in New Orleans.

I wondered that, too, since I didn't see any means of getting them up or down.

Good Pics! 48 model here so I was around when most of those were takin.

Thanks for posting!

Thanks for posting these. All of them are before my time but I really like seeing pictures like this. Most all of the older service stations like this have been torn down around my area. The ones that are left standing are in bad shape.

Chris

great photos, now do we need to start listing on another post how many of those type of cars have been in our families?

Good memories,, ahhh the good old days.

I especially like the one of the lady pumping gas with two dalmatians in the back with the top down.

Thanks for sharing!

Okay, then I am assuming the elevator is located on a track that moves between the two towers of cars, right?

Great pictures. I didn't see one cell phone. Stan

tractor300,

Yes, that is right. At the one in Cleveland, and I assume at others also, they had attendants who actually drove the cars onto and off of the elevator. It would sometimes take a little while to retrieve your car when you wanted to leave. They liked to have four or five cars to retrieve at one time. Sometimes there would be one on a certain level and two on a different level, etc. The attendants would load up the elevator with cars from different levels before they would come to ground level.

I moved away from Cleveland in early 1970 so I don't know how much longer they operated. I think that all of the elevator parking garages were located downtown in major cities where there was a shortage of ground space for traditional parking lots.

Tom in TN

I like the Sunoco motor oil billboard.
"more miles per quart"

There is a retirement condo in Seattle that has two layer parking. Rows of hoists with one car up and a second underneath. Parking for 300 cars that way. Works for them!

I can easily remember (I'm 70 yoa) when gas stations and attendants were like that. The first gas crises messed things up. When gas went to over $1.00 gal' most pumps would only register 99.9 gal., so the oil distributers closed down the small stations rather than replace the pumps.

the Gilmore gas station reminded me of one of their advertising gimicks,here a short article about the lion. (pictures didnt make it through the copy and paste.)Bill

—
Roscoe Turner and Gilmore. (80-12371, National Air and Space Museum Archives)

But a sifting of the files in the Museum’s Archives Division actually turned up a respectable number of lion cubs in photographic form. The most famous of them is Gilmore, shown above, posing with his partner Roscoe Turner (1895-1970) on Turner’s Lockheed Air Express 3. Turner was one of the most memorable figures from the Golden Age of flight – winner of the Bendix Trophy and three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy, he was known for his splendid custom-designed uniforms. In 1930, Turner was flying for the Gilmore Oil Company, which used a lion’s head as its trademark. Thinking that having a real lion might boost publicity, he adopted a 3-week old cub and named him after the company. Little Gilmore was an immediate hit with the public, and with the possible exception of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Gilmore became the most famous lion of the 1930s.

—
Gilmore, outfitted in his parachute and harness, with Roscoe Turner. (99-40528, National Air and Space Museum Archives)

But Gilmore was not immediately charmed by the idea of flight. Roscoe told the story of the cub’s first flight:


He was a pretty tired and nervous little cub when it was over. He was all right until we began to take off, but the moment the plane left the ground he made one terrified dive for Mrs. Turner’s lap and stayed there. It was weeks before he stopped trying to scramble in someone’s lap when we took off…

The Humane Society raised fears of Gilmore’s in-flight safety, so Roscoe had a cub-size parachute and harness made for him. He’s wearing the ‘chute in the photograph above, and…

—
Gilmore's parachute and harness

… Gilmore’s parachute and harness are on display at the Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center. Gilmore quickly became a confident flyer, logging over 25,000 miles in the air and working the stick with Roscoe’s assistance, but in turbulent weather, he would still curl up in Roscoe’s lap. But it wasn’t long…

—
Roscoe Turner with Gilmore, full-grown. (78-13936, National Air and Space Museum Archives)

… Before Gilmore grew too large for Roscoe’s lap. He was grounded, retiring first to the Turner home in Beverly Hills, and finally ending his days in a California wildlife park, with Roscoe footing his hefty food bills. “For a long time he paid my bills; now it’s my turn,” Roscoe said.

—
Gilmore

Gilmore died in 1952 at the age of 22. When Roscoe Turner died in 1970, he left Gilmore to the National Air and Space Museum. Turner’s Boeing 247-D is exhibited in the National Mall Building, and his RT-14 Meteor racer can be seen at the Udvar-Hazy Center. As for Gilmore, he’s currently in storage at the Museum’s Paul E. Garber Facility.

—
From left to right: Soda, Douglas MacMonagle, Raoul Lufbery and Whiskey. (2006-21463, National Air and Space Museum Archives)

I"m a young 76 and I can immediately identify everyone one of those cars in those pics, a few made in the 1930s make me think twice, but it is easy to figure out the company just by the designs. Every car had a unique flair to the body, fenders, or chrome piece that was easy to identify.

Going on a hot date in my "53 Chevy with Powerglide I would stop for gas, they would check the air, oil and wash the windshield while filling the tank. About $3.00 to fill and away I would go. Plus I got a bunch of Green Stamps to lick and stick in my booket.

And the push buttom AM radio would be blaring with Chuck Berry.

To this day when I meet old cars on the hwy I always tell my wife what kind of car that was and she just shakes her head...she is not a car person.

Sure wish I had my 1956 Ford with overdrive and overhead valve "T-Bird" V8 again...but now I wouldn"t go looking for Chevies to race. Well, maybe I would if it was a straight stretch of Iowa hwy.

LA in WI

Thanks for posting the link. I collect petroliana (gas pump globes, signs, gas pumps, oil cans,etc) and used to be an admin on a petroliana collector website. I love those old station pics!
The one with the hot rod in front of the Pure station is a modern shot staged to look old.
Gilmore items are the most sought after in the petroliana hobby.
Note the one station offers three brands of gas. Richfield,General and Gilmore. That was a common practice on the west coast.

The bomber station was in danger of being demolished a few years ago. Not sure how that turned out.

The Covey's Little America Mobile (not Mobil) station is still intact as a Sinclair station on I80 in Wyoming.

A project I have planned is to build a replica gas station on my property. If things go as planned it will be L shaped with three bays on each side of the L. One side will have 50's era Sinclair signage, pumps and displays, the other side will have 60's-70's era Sinclair signage, pumps and displays. I'll use the service bays for workshop and the corner "sales/office" area to display my late son's Sinclair collection (which I've been adding to). So far I've accumulated six aluminum and glass overhead doors (most have the exhaust port), white porcelain panels from a Champlin station in Dennison, Iowa, porcelain panels from a Mobil station in Tonawanda, NY that looks like the Mobil station with the wrecker/snow plow. I still need some more porcelain panels before I have enough to do what I have planned.

Thanks again for the pics!
Pops

Very interesting. Did not see a Skelly station but did notice one Pure. Local funeral home here restored the Skelly station next to his parking lot. It is on Google maps. Did a lot of bussiness there, gas and television that is, not the undertaker.

jackinok:

My storage trailer is a 1947 Flamingo with the port-hole windows all around, and the port-hole vents in the roof.

Doc

The Cucamonga Service station is still standing on Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Which is where I live. Its in poor condition but the city has given it a historical designation to preserve it. No pumps in front, just the buildings are there.

(quoted from post at 10:04:50 02/01/13) Neat Pics. Can someone enlighten me on the cars in the storage or parking garage as to how they get there or down. Am I missing something.

Click to expand...

It is all operated by one person.

The car is driven unto an elevator deck on the end between the two rows. The wheels on one side are in a channel. The car is left in neutral. The elevator moves sideways to the desired column and then rises to the correct level. The car is then rolled either forward or backward depending on which spot is being filled. The parking areas have a slight incline away from the center so they just roll up against a curb stop. To retrieve the vehicle the process is reversed. Cars are pulled back unto the elevator and delivered to the end on the building. It takes about a minute to store or retrieve a vehicle.

With no computers to keep track of things I imagine the electrical system was quite complicated.

Owen,
A friend lived in a city that had a parking rig like that. He said it was very trouble prone.

Doc, How 'bout some pics of your trailer?

Some globes from a simpler time.

I'd swear that the shot of the Sunoco station is the one my dad filled up all the time in NJ when I was a kid. Had the RR bridge right there too.

Rick