I was glad to see such an enthusiastic response to our new Friday series after last weeks inaugural post. Hopefully this week you can sleuth up some locations of Gulf Oil Service Stations constructed c.1920-c.1930.
Gulf Oil was the first company to sell gas to automobiles at purpose-built, off-street locations in the latter part of the nineteen-tens. During the 1920’s Gulf used a Box with Canopy form with either Craftsman Style or Colonial Revival Style detailing. The brick piers that include long vertical panels, along with the small square and diamond-shaped panel detailing seen on the Starkville station example below is usually a give away for a former Gulf station. Do you know of a Gulf station from this era? For more details on this era of Gulf service stations check out the 2016 A Field Guide to Gas Stations in Texas.
Former Gulf service station, 112 South Cosby Street Centreville, Mississippi
Former Gulf service station, 111 W. Main St., Starkville, Mississippi
Garner’s Gulf service station, 179 Magnolia Street Winona, Mississippi
Categories: Building Types, Cool Old Places, Historic Preservation, Starkville, Winona
Preservation in Mississippi 
The only one I know of at the moment is in Texas…. http://suzassippi.blogspot.com/2012/01/back-to-texas-and-50s-service-stations.html
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How cool. Those are two nicely restored stations.
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Just a thought since you’ve worked on pulling some examples of different types of stations – what about putting together a tour in a region where there is a collection of different examples? I was on something similar (a day long tour that also included historic bridges and courthouses along an historic highway in Texas) earlier this year at the Texas preservation conference and it was both fun and educational.
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That is an interesting idea. If not a tour, certainly as part of this new series. I’ve have a few Mississippi places in mind. Great suggestion, Thanks!
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There was a Gulf station in Oxford that, if my memory is clear, resembled the one in Winona. It is no longer extant, but I’m wondering…..
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Thomas, you highlighted one historic gas station in Starkville, but ignored one that is a close match to the Centreville one. It was at the corner of E. Lampkin and S. Jackson Streets. It was fully demolished sometime between 2013 and 2016, though what appeared to be an enclosed service bay was demolished in 2008-09.
These are photographs I took of the still-intact building in February 2008.
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I was completely unaware of this station so I wasn’t ignoring it. Thanks for introducing us and sharing the photographs. I am sorry to learn it is no longer extant.
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Here is a possible example at 100 East South Street, at the corner of South and Farish Streets in Jackson. Of course, without its roof, it is hard to be sure.
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Neat. Great photograph. Definitely a filling station, I don’t think its a 20’s-30’s Gulf though. Cross reference between Jackson city directories and Sanborn maps it was built between 1947 and 1949 w/o a canopy. In a 1954 city directory it is listed as the James B Fancher jr. Service Station, it doesn’t indicate what brand of fuel Mr. Fancher sold though.
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Take a look at these two buildings in EAST Tupelo. Feemster Lake Road at Martin Hill Drive (old, OLD U.S. Hwy 78. Old U.S. 78 (East Main St.) in the distance. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.257051,-88.6621164,3a,75y,2.56h,89.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxVfZAPCWCiGZ6EA8X2xJuw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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Interesting. The building on the right appears to have been a combination gas station and house?
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interested in seeing largest gulf oil station built around 1929 . INTERESTED IN SEEING PICTURES OF THE LARGEST I’VE SEEN IN ARKANSAS, located in pine bluff,ark. built in circa 1929 . juliuslever2@gmail.com my E mail address.
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