Gas Station – RDZ Photography

Urbana, Ohio – October 2020 – Random Views of Champaign County and beyond

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

Todays road trip through the country takes us to the town of Urbana, county seat of Champaign County. Full disclosure – some of the photos are likely from border counties as I was on country roads without county line markers.

Each little town seemed to have a commercial block of 100 year old buildings, this one with a restored clock tower.

Talk about a barn find for the Ohio countryside – an old Mercedes with late 1980s license plates!

An abandoned school in a crossroads town.

This stylish little building was in the small town of Mechanicsburg.

Normally ‘Quilt Barns’ are much larger than this, but the contrast of the farm implements added to the look of this one.

Not too many farms date from 1814 in Ohio.

Eventually I reached the town of Urbana. As with most county seats it seemed to have the best collection of buildings in the area. Some nicely restored, some not so much, it was worth the stop.

The Hotel Sowles dates from around 1800, it is said to have hosted every Ohio governor from the beginning of the state until 1900. A community effort resulted in this great old building being restored.

This former bank in an Art Deco look is now a law office.

The Perpetual Federal Savings and Loan has been located in Urbana for 140 years. The building is generally designed in a Roman Corinthian style, but with classical touches. A true midwest building it is built out of Minnesota granite and Indiana limestone situated in a small Ohio town.

Personally I think the Yellow Mini sets it off nicely.

This classic Gulf Gas Station from the 1970s is still in use as an auto repair shop.

The local airport is home to a small museum where they are restoring a B-17.

This small theater started life in 1904, However in the 1930s it was destroyed in a fire, and was rebuilt in 1941 – hence the Art Deco look.

It is currently undergoing restoration.

Urbana has a number of great ghost signs.

This vacant, decaying building once housed a company that provided galvanized iron for railroad use.

Just across the street is the former train station, now a coffee shop. This station served the Pennsylvania Railroad for many decades.

Our time in Urbana is over, time to move on.

Ash Grove, Missouri – May 2019 – Getting Your Kicks on Route 66 Missouri Style

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

As the song goes Route 66 went from Chicago to L.A., going through Missouri along the way. While much of it is gone, replaced by freeways, there are still portions that are intact.

Many unique places remain along these portions of the Mother Road. One such place is just west of Springfield, Missouri. It is a restored Sinclair Gas Station full of cool, quirky things, including numerous ‘vintage’ vehicles.

A very nice lady named Barbara is the current owner of the property, having taken over for her father after he passed away. Barbara enthusiastically welcome all visitors, and the visitors seem genuinely pleased to be there.

On the day we were there one of the old trucks her father had owned was returned to it’s rightful spot at the station.

As noted plenty of tourists make the stop to check it out. I suggest if you get the chance you do the same.

Houston – May 2019 – Random Views

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

We had a great couple of days in Houston, coming away with a great feel for the city. This posting is to cover the random sights that don’t fit anywhere else, like the featured image above from the Sam Houston Park Village with a little church in the middle of the skyscrapers downtown.

Even though I had been in Houston briefly a couple of times previously I had never seen the Astrodome. The world’s first indoor baseball and football stadium when it was completed in the early 1960s, it still stands unused.

The Wateralls across from the Williams Tower is 64′ high, 1 foot for each floor of the nearby skyscraper.

The ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ is located on the campus of Rice University. I had read that this was a cool thing to see, but when we got there in the middle of the afternoon I couldn’t understand why. It turns out you must be there at sunset or sunrise – maybe next time.

Houston is notorious for their traffic, with over 6 million people in the area and very little public transportation. They do however have a streetcar that covers a few miles in the center of the city.

As well as crossing a man made pond in the middle of Main Street.

Discover Park has an interesting pinwheel display with a device that when you blow into it just right, kicks off fans that make all the pinwheels spin.

Buffalo Bayou Park is a nice urban park space complete with a skateboard park.

The highlight of the park though was our tour of the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern. Once used for retaining water for the city, it is now a cool space to explore on a guided tour.

The city has numerous examples of public art.

I have often wondered who has the concrete contracts for road construction in Texas as they build ramps that seem far longer than needed, and never pile up dirt to make the overpasses shorter.

In the theme of ‘Everything is Bigger in Texas’ – As we left the city and reached the suburb of Katy, Texas we made a stop at a Buc-ee’s. A Texas based chain, Buc-ee’s are massive – this one has over 60 gas pumps (the photo is only showing about 1/2 of them)!

The highlight though was the World’s Longest Car Wash (according to the Guiness World Records) – the 255′ long one at Buc-ee’s easily cleaned off 2,000 miles of dirt and grime. Now it is off for San Antonio!

Cassopolis, Michigan – September 2018 – Restored Gas Station Tour Continued

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

Cassopolis, Michigan – A Restored Sinclair Station

Previous trips:

Two stations in the same small Ohio town of Bucyrus. First up is a Sinclair Station.

This station is next door to a repair shop owned by Carl. We stopped by at 7 AM on a Saturday morning and Carl was just opening his business up for the morning, and invited us in. Carl has a large collection of auto related items – so much in fact that the TV show American Pickers once paid him a visit.

Just outside of town is a small restored Marathon station called ‘Mom and Pops’. We saw someone walking out of the driveway as we drove up and asked him it if the station was his. He replied no – but yelled at ‘Bob’ who was outside the house next door if it was ok if we took some photos. Bob yelled back ‘ yep thats what it is there for’.

In the early days the stations were tiny little buildings, unless they did service.

This station was well restored.

As our weekend continued we found ourselves back in Plymouth, Indiana for a stop for dinner. We have previously visited this Mobil station, but in the rain. This gave us a chance to get some photos in better weather.

And the time warp gas station travel continued.

On our way home from Pittsburgh we stopped in Steubenville at a auto repair shop that is actually a fully restored Sohio station.

When John Rockefeller had grown Standard Oil to be a monopoly the government forced them to break up – as a result there were a number of Standard Oil companies in different states (not a full list):

Standard Oil of New Jersey – Esso, which became Exxon

Standard Oil of New York – Socony, which became Mobil

Standard Oil of California – Socal, which became Chevron

Standard Oil of Indiana – Stanolind, which became Amoco

Standard Oil of Ohio – Sohio. In the 1980s BP bought Sohio and converted all the stations to BP.

There are many people who are collectors of ‘petroliana’, old gas station items. Barry Robb must have been one of those people. According to their website Barry was an assistant manager of a former owner, and he took over the station in 1986, operating it as a BP station.

In 2011 their agreement with BP ran out. They restored the look of the original Sohio station, and continued in business as a repair shop only (as well as a museum).

As a side note Sunset and Wilshire looks nothing like the one in California, but still a nice neighborhood.

Out front is a collection of pumps from various eras.

While inside (it was closed this day – photos taken through the glass) is a collection of smaller items.

Interestingly next door is a modern gas station/mini mart.

After checking out my photos I realized that we have recently came across 3 fully restored stations, and all 3 times we had the same car with us.

This spectacular Shell station is in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Today it serves as a tourist information center.

Shaped like a giant scallop shell, it is the last of a handful that a local oil company owner had built in the 1930s.

Another restored gas station – another shot with the GTI in it. This one is a Mobil station in Plymouth, Indiana.

To add to their atmosphere they have a restored police car in the parking lot.

Much like the Sohio station in Steubenville their interior has a collection of smalls for Mobil.

They also have a restored tow truck.

Hickory Corners, Michigan – September 2018 – Gilmore Car Museum

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

I have had the opportunity to visit most of America’s great transportation museums. Having that background I can state that in my opinion the Gilmore Car Museum is the best in the country.

I had read about the Gilmore for some time now, and had always looked forward to going. With the long Labor Day weekend and the emphasis on cars, now was the time.

When we arrived one of the staff said ‘see you in 4 hours’. He was wrong, we spent 4 1/2 hours 🙂

Gilmore is more than just a single building with some cars. It is a campus of buildings and barns, each featuring a genre of cars or car companies.

Each building is immaculate, clean and well light with great presentations. They also take pride in that there aren’t barriers for most cars, just notes to remind you not to touch. This makes photography much easier.

Among the buildings is a 1940s diner that was moved from Connecticut. It serves as the restaurant for the museum. We had a basic lunch there, with great milkshakes and friendly staff.

An example of one of the barns. This one was moved from a nearby farm, with 2 levels for cars.

A complete 1930s Shell Station.

The pumps represent different eras.

The motorcycle building.

Inside are a number of bikes from the early 1900s to current day.

A vintage Cleveland and 1919 Johnson.

As the sign notes – a 1928 Indian. Check out that rear seat.

Outside near one of the storage barns is an un-restored London double decker bus.

Another building – another collection. This one has a peddle car collection.

As with the motorcycles, the collection was vast and pristine.

Even some peddle airplanes – how cool.

In the 1960s Mr Gilmore built a replica of the train depot for the little town of Hickory Corners. Inside is a hood ornament display.

I am always enthralled by the old hood ornaments.

Almost too nice for the hood of a car.

At the Gilmore they have over 1300 of them.

While the photography was tricky with the display cases and the light and shadows, many came out very nice.

Also called mascots, it was a common occurrence in the 1930s to personalize your car with a different ornament.

Our next building was called ‘The Classics’. Higher end cars from the 1930s.

A Cadillac for a movie star.

The large two level barn shown earlier from the outside had 1950s cars on the lower level.

And the impressive upper level had earlier models.

Hudson Motor Car Company made automobiles from 1909 through 1954. This one is from the 1940s.

So many great cars.

In the same barn is a Ford display.

One interesting feature of the the Gilmore campus is that car clubs build their museums there. In this example the Cadillac club built essentially a Cadillac dealership on the outside.