Anyone know the exact location of the very first gas station in College Station? The Ford Model T started production in 1908 and Chevrolet produced cars in 1911. I'm guessing that by 1915 there were probably enough cars in College Station to warrant a gas station being built.

Back then Texas A&M was oriented towards the COLLEGE depot (probably not far from the current location of Albritton Tower, but on the other side of the tracks). Northgate was the only area for commercial buildings in College Station. My guess is that the very first gas station was probably built somewhere between the College Station depot and Northgate. I would love to see photos of College Station's first gas station.

The first gas station in College Station would probably have looked like one of these:


Cat Spring, Texas


McLean, Texas


Adrian, Texas


Ander, Texas


Unknown location


Biddeford, Maine


Rodney, Mississippi


Unknown location


San Antonio, Texas



Gas pumps in 1915 looked like this:

























[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 12/23/2011 3:13p).]

Perhaps not the first but certainly one of the C/S old timers...

NE corner of Wellborn and University (across from the AAA Bldg, now the Bell Bldg) was an old red brick Magnolia Oil Company gas station.

Look like it might have been built in the late 1920's or early 1930's.

Was a hitch-hiker's corner for Ags going West.

As you mentioned that one probably wasn't the first gas station, but the second or third. The location makes sense and goes with my theory that the earliest gas stations were between the depot and Northgate. Have you seen any photos of the Magnolia service station?

Some Magnolia service stations in Texas:


Shamrock, Texas


Fort Worth, Texas


Giddings, Texas


Van Horn, Texas


Vega, Texas


Castroville, Texas


Amarillo, Texas


Alanreed, Texas


Brownfield, Texas


Star, Texas


Dallas, Texas







[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 12/23/2011 8:28p).]

Texaco and the Magnolia Oil Company can trace their roots to...Corsicana, Texas.

My grandad was the Magnolia distributor in Shelby County and had a filling station just off the square near his house. I guess he had someone work it for him when he was off in a whiskey bottle, which I've been given to believe was his favorite hobby for a few years. If you'd known the woman he married after my mother's mother died, you'd know why.

Below are some pics of the old wooden gas station on N. Bryan in downtown Bryan near Main Street. To me this building looks like it could have been built between 1915 and 1920 which would be the correct time period for the oldest gas station in Bryan. Does anyone know what brand gas station this was?







Below are two pics of an old gas station at 3410 S. Texas Avenue (about halfway between downtown Bryan and A&M). To me the art deco elements of this building indicate that it could have been built in the 1930s, but I might be way off. The bare metal poles are throwing me off a little as far as the time period. Since Texas Avenue was completed in the 1930s this might be one of the first if not the very first gas station on Texas Avenue.





Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s College Avenue connected downtown Bryan with A&M. The only other connection was of course the railroad (The Houston and Texas Central Railway was built in 1860 and the first College Station depot was constructed in 1883). College Avenue was probably unpaved and used by horse drawn carriages before the automobile appeared in 1908-1912. The old Interurban Streetcar ran between A&M and Bryan mostly down College Avenue (and also Cavitt and Old College) starting in 1910. From 1910 to 1915 the Interurban ran on gasoline. In 1915 it switched to electricity and the line ceased operations in 1923 due to the popularity of buses and automobiles. There is a good chance the oldest gas station between Bryan and A&M was on College Avenue. I have seen several old buildings along College Avenue that might have been gas stations predating 1920, but I haven't had a chance to take any photos of them yet.

What are the odds that "the first gas station" was actually at a hardware store? Before gasoline, kerosene was the liquid fuel used in homes. Would it have been possible that for however brief a time gasoline might have first been sold at the hardware or general store?

That is entirely possible. In fact I've seen pics of general stores (1915 - 1920) with gas pumps outside. Back then it probably wasn't that difficult to open up a gas station. These days there are so many more regulations, red tape, and environmental concerns.

This Fort Worth gas station/general store advertises BBQ, groceries and sandwiches. There is also a kerosene pump to the left of the gas pump.






[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 12/27/2011 2:37p).]

Old Maine,

I might send the picture of that white gas station to my dad and see if he remembers if it had a name and what it was. He was born in 1948 and lived in Bryan all his life but by then it could've been called something else.

Okay my dad doesn't remember, but this is what he said.

"There were always lots of gas stations but right now I can't remember any downtown. They were always on Texas Ave. I don't know about C.S. we didn't go there often."

I think Texas Avenue was completed in the 1930s so any gas stations along Texas would have been built in the 1930s or later.

Would sure be interesting to see old photos of C/S - North Gate business area say from the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's.

Anyone remember the original Loupots retail outlet ?

I grew up in Bryan and remember a few old stations on Texas. One was on the corner of 29th and Texas. It was torn down to build the new jail complex. There was also another across the street which is next to Wienerschnitzel. I do not know if this one is still there.

If you notice the features of the building, you can look all around towns in Texas and see old gas stations that have become something else. Some knocked the awning area off or whatever, but there are a TON of them still around as I drive around the state.

An old-timer told me that the old white wooden building in downtown Bryan (pictured below) used to be a Sinclair Gas Station. Their logo was famous...it had a green dinosaur on it. A lot of the Sinclair stations had a dinosaur model outside for photos.







[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 1/15/2012 9:43p).]

I asked me ol' Department Head this question as he's been in/around A&M for many years (his dad was an Aggie as well). Although it doesn't answer your question directly, I thought I'd post what he had to say anyway:

quote:

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I don't have any idea where the first automotive fuel station in Brazos County was. However, I think it could have been a blacksmith shop, a hardware store or a general mercantile store. When the first few cars were bought in a town, it is likely that fuel and lubricants were dispensed from some existing place of business. At first there would be an above-ground tank and a pump. Then they buried the tank in the ground and had a pump above ground. The free-standing pumps had a ten-gallon glass cylinder at the top. (You can see them in museums). A hand lever in the pump would be pushed back and forth to pump the gasoline up into the cylinder. When the cylinder was full, gasoline was then fed into the vehicle tank by gravity. There were markings on the cylinder so the flow could be stopped at any time, and the markings would show how many gallons had been dispensed. Many people would buy only 2 or 3 gallons, or perhaps 5 gallons at the most. If they were prosperous, they would take the entire 10 gallons. At ten or fifteen cents per gallon, one had to be prudent.

After enough cars existed, someone would build a "filling station," like the frame buildings shown below.

For many years there was a general store called "Bond's Store" on the East side of Texas 6 a couple miles south of College Station. I think it was about where Rock Prairie Road is.The store had one or two of the hand-operated gasoline pumps in front, mounted on the ground, and cars could pull up to the pumps and be re-fueled. I think the store was there long before they decided to put the gasoline pumps there. This highway did not become Texas 6 until about 1935, when the highway to Navasota was moved from the present Wellborn Road over to where it is now. In the early days, the road in front of Bond's Store was a dirt road, and I doubt that it extended to Navasota. In fact, I think that the road in front of Bond's Store turned East at the store and followed the route that is still known as Rock Prairie Road. The Rock Prairie Baptist Church is behind the site of the old Bond's Store.

In the 1930's there was a large filling station/garage at the northeast corner of University Drive and Wellborn Road. This was before the underpass was constructed, which obliterated the property. At that time University Drive was known as Sulphur Springs Road and Wellborn Road was the highway between Houston and Waco. It was the only road to Bryan at that time, and Aggies who wanted to hitchhike a ride to Bryan (or Waco or Dallas) stood at the filling station. I think they sold Humble products. I think it may have been called Boyett's filling station. Sulphur Springs road crossed the railroad tracks going West, and became Jones Bridge Road. It is now FM 60. The road to Wellborn (the Houston highway then) crossed the railroad four or five times before it reached Wellborn. It was a gravel road. I was on it many times in the early 1930's when we were driving from Fort Bend County to College Station (103 miles) so my parents could attend summer school. From Hempstead we went through Bellville and Sealy to Rosenberg. The highway was paved from Navasota to Rosenberg. I think there was a portion of the highway between Sealy and Wallis that was gravel. The trip took 3 hours in a Model A Ford. It now takes about 90 minutes.

---

I really enjoy listening to him reminisce about the old days at A&M.

I have a couple of pictures of my grandfather's (Charles Hampton Nunley) "Nun-less" Philips and then Sinclair Service Station in Amarillo, that look MUCH like a station that you captioned "McLean Texas". It is now a Beauty Supply Shop, on the 1200 block of 10th St.
But I don't have a URL, as I am not that "Comp" literate. I was only a High School History teacher.
So I sent them to your web site.

Great photos and commentary; please continue!

I believe it was at the northeast corner of Texas and University. My husband had relatives who used to talk about it.

I always understood the location of the Chicken Oil where one of the first filling stations was built in B/CS. The old building fr Ag Solar Guard at Texas and Dunn was from the 30s and was preceded by what is now a mechanics shop across from the Bryan Justice Center. There is also an old wooden gas station on E 23rd that is the right age to have been built in the late 20s.

I think every neighborhood was likely to have a gas station along with a small grocery store. There was definitely one on the corner of 23rd and Robertson near the old Ursaline (later Allan Academy, later the women's facility). I have a photo of the place, but can't figure out how to insert it. The car port area is all curved - perhaps from the 1920s or 1930s? And a small building has been added to the main garage building - maybe a barbecue or store at one time.

Eventually the small neighborhood gas stations and stores merged into one building in the 1970s, but they would have all been separate clusters in the early part of the 1900s.