The Filling Stations That Time Forgot

If only we could pull into these old gas stations to get a Grapette soda, an oil check, and a tank of fifty-cent gas.

This Sinclair station on McCart Avenue is Paul Lemon’s personal restoration project. The inside is a shrine of Sinclair memorabilia, including a neon sign, a display stand for Dinolene motor oil, a smiling, bow-tied attendant, even a spare Dino the dinosaur (see insets).

A Texaco station on East Lancaster.

The Texaco’s pump.

Two pumps on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

This station at 1700 Alston Street in Fairmount dates to 1921.

Predictably, some Fairmount residents did not want a gas station in their neighborhood. The city’s approval of the station was front-page news along with the dispatch of U.S. Navy ships to Tampico, Mexico and the trial of eight Chicago White Sox players after the World Series betting scandal of 1919.

In 1922 Jerry’s Service Station was one of several in town selling Humble gasoline for seventeen cents a gallon.

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