HighBeam Research
Title: Filling station a roadway to style of past
Date:
April 26, 1999
Publication:
Chicago Sun-Times
Author:
Lee BeyIf any place has lost its sense of romance and adventure, it's the gas station.Many of them used to be stylish little joints. Some looked like villas andbungalows. Designers of postwar gas stations often experimented withswooping roof lines - the late George W. Terp Jr.'s marvelous 1971 Amocostation at Clark and La Salle comes to mind - and glass curtain walls. The oldstations were worth driving to in their own right.What have we now? Today's gas stations are efficient at putting out gas andextracting money, but their design is soulless. Get your gas, get your gumand go. Meanwhile, old stations are being demolished by the score. But aChatham neighborhood resident and state preservation officials are seekingto save a 71-year-old gas station at 419 E. 83rd by getting it placed on theNational Register of Historic Places. The shuttered and battered gas station,which was built to match the architecture of the Chatham neighborhood, isone of the few remaining "domestic style" stations in the city. "It's very rareto see a 1920s gas station, period," said David Newton, the Illinois HistoricPreservation Agency's assistant National Register coordinator. "It's veryamazing, I think." Gas stations began simply enough. Many were small brickbuildings built in the late teens and early 1920s with big hip roofs that keptcustomers dry as they gassed up their cars. Then the stations evolved. Somewere built in outrageous, eye- catching styles design to capture attention. The Chatham gas station was built by William D. Meyering and David L.Sutton, who both served as alderman of the 8th Ward. The full- servicestation in 1928 was a business investment, according to the NationalRegister nomination form. Shell Oil Co. leased the building, followed byMarland Refining Co. and Conoco Oil Co. Located on a two-lane street in aresidential area, the station was designed to resemble a house. The brick gasstation has a gabled canopy, arched doorways, limestone coping and Missiontiles, not unlike the homes that surround it. "It was always an attractivebuilding that kind of stood out in your memory because it seems soincongruous that something with the function of a service station would bebuilt to match the area's architecture," said Yvonne Polk, the building'sowner. Gas station design continued to evolve for more than 30 years. Clarkstations dabbled in architectural modernism with slanted roofs and glasswalls in the 1950s. Texaco stations were sleeked up with shiny enameledsteel panels. But the passage of time also brought design standardization. The advent of the self-service station and the "quickie mart" - replacing the
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