OLD SERVICE STATIONS....

[Fast Eddie]

I was in the industry for about 15 years. We Did a lot with the Oregon Petroleum Marketers Association. The industry, at the local level, was was and still is filled with really a lot of great, hard working people.

 

[JRuby]

The best example of an old time gas station I can think of is Dale Oregon right off 395. Stop there when coming and going from Northside.

 

[partsed]

That's what we might think should happen. I've done a little research, and apparently it is an issue. Back before anybody cared, a gas station could be leveled and the property remain undeveloped for years. Then when somebody buys the property, he might never know there was a garage or gas station there.

Growing up in Portland, I could point out many locations where a gas station or garage existed in the fifties and before, and you'd have to look long and hard before you'd find someone from the old neighborhoods that would remember.

Here's an example from my old neighborhood. As a kid, this was a gas station. Maybe 40 years ago, the gas pumps were removed but the building remained as a low budget automotive service garage. Eventually, the building disappeared.

View attachment 481935

Now, if this property came up for sale, who would know to look, or where would a feller search, to find if the land had been decontaminated and the tanks removed?

Real estate records possibly....

 

[JRuby]

Real estate records possibly....

I lived in my own home for 22 years and never new we had a pre world war 2 ( old).tank in the ground
They searched old records and found it. They know where a lot of these tanks are and seller will be responsible for decommissioning the the tank or removing it depending on contamination prior to completion of the properties sale going through.

 

[Bigbaddude]

Bill's in Lake Oswego is still pretty old school. They still work on cars and sell ethanol free gas.

 

[SA Shooter]

WOW!!! What a flashback, man....

I spent my teen years as a service station attendant at a Union 76. When I returned to the US and was discharged from the USAF I went back to college and worked at a Texaco. Both stations were located in LaGrande on Adams Avenue, which was the old Hwy 30 route back in the day.

This is the actual Texaco I worked at in the '70's. It was built in 1959, then I believe it was shut down in the late 1980's or early '90's. A new station was built closer to the freeway just North of the town center.





When I say "service station" it means full service for every customer at every pump every time. I put many miles on my old boots traipsing back and forth between those bays, the two pump islands and the cash register in the office. Since I closed the station and made the final day's deposit at the US Bank down the street, I also was privileged to be in charge of restroom and work bay cleaning. I was also in charge of washing windows, checking oil levels, topping off the coolant and making sure the tires all had enough air. Oh, and I fixed a few flat tires along the way.

Somehow it managed to remain standing and was restored in 2008, then began selling fuel from its vintage pumps in 2009.



The old Union 76 station no longer exists.

 

[jbett98]

An old guy I knew had the oldest gas station in Sandy Oregon just East of the old Napa store. He retired and shut down the station because he couldn't compete with the low prices of the Arco AM-Pm store just up the block.
He let the property go for back taxes and the City of Sandy jumped on it.
A couple of years went by and some of the old buried tanks started to leak.
The city tried to sue and make him pay for the clean up, but his lawyers counter lawsuit put a stop to that.
There were 13 old underground tanks on that lot.

 

[JRuby]

One of the laws passed was that all underground petroleum tanks had to have double walls to prevent ground contamination and many old stations found this cost prohibitive which led to them being closed.

 

[RicInOR]

1926 design by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Now inside the Pierce Arrow Museum - Buffalo.


Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station



Design called for 1k gal of gas in roof - as to use gravity feed. 2 fireplaces under that gas. The man was a genius, or insane. Fine line there.

If you goto Buffalo, there are a lot of FLW buildings to tour. I recommend it.

FLW filling station at DuckDuckGo