Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

The Gilmore family is a longtime Los Angeles institution, having acquired the Rancho La Brea in the mid 19th century. In the early 20th century, oil discoveries on Gilmore land brought about a new fortune in petroleum. The Gilmore family went on to establish Farmers Market, which was built alongside the original Gilmore Adobe. They also established the Gilmore Bank, built Gilmore Field for the Hollywood Stars, a minor league baseball team, and also sponsored midget race cars on a small race track. Both the field and the racetrack were later replaced by CBS Television City.

At one time there were more than 1,100 Gilmore Gas Statons throughout the West that sold only Gilmore products and another 2,400 that sold them along with other brands.

The clear glass globes at the top of gas pumps allowed the color of the gasoline to be seen. E.B. Gilmore jumped on this unique opportunity to become the first oil company to market its gas by its color. Blu-Green and Red Lion Gas fueled the cars and imaginations of West Coasters from the ’20s to the early ’40s.

Historical Notes

The towers in Westwood served to orient pedestrians within the Village, and were intended to catch the eye of motorists as they sped along in the “fast moving traffic” along Wilshire Boulevard.^

Historical Notes

This Union 76 Service Station had its grand opening in December 1933 as part of a massive industry opening of 750 stations citywide.  The station lasted only until 1936 when it was demolished to make room for Sontag Fountain and Grill, which opened in 1938.

Historical Notes

The Gilmore family is a longtime Los Angeles institution, having acquired the Rancho La Brea in the mid 19th century. In the early 20th century, oil discoveries on Gilmore land brought about a new fortune in petroleum. The Gilmore family went on to establish Farmers Market, which was built alongside the original Gilmore Adobe. They also established the Gilmore Bank, built Gilmore Field for the Hollywood Stars, a minor league baseball team, and also sponsored midget race cars on a small race track. Both the field and the racetrack were later replaced by CBS Television City.

Historical Notes

Built in 1935, this Art Deco gas station was designed by R.J. Kadow, and was one of the original service stations for the Gilmore Oil Company. The station remained with the company until its merger with Mobile Oil in the 1940's. It was later leased by Texaco. ^*^

On March 23, 1992, the above service station became Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 508.

Historical Notes

This prime example of L.A.’s car culture once again serves as a fuel station. Starbucks restored the once gas station into a walk up and drive through coffee shop. The architecture team removed incompatible alterations, such as metal roll-up garage doors, and replaced them with contemporary adaptations of historic garage doors. The team meticulously restored the station’s decorative lighting and recreated the historic cantilevered canopies.

The L.A. Conservancy gave this converted gas station a 2018 Preservation Award.^

Historical Notes

The average price of gasoline in Los Angeles in 1935 was $0.16 per gallon.

Historical Notes

The K52 was a 6 cylinder, 100 horsepower Dodge truck, with 1275 gallon fuel capacity.

The first Dodge K52 Airflow was produced in December 1934, ushering in a brief "Streamline" era in its production. Between 1934 and 1939, Airflows were built, of which were made for the Standard Oil Company, based in New Jersey and California.^

Note the uniform worn by the worker.  Looks like police or military. Civilian professional uniforms was common practice at the time. The fuel industry, postal services, milk delivery and even servers in restaurants wore uniforms. Some more military in design than others. But, it was the standard. You could tell what one did for work by their uniform or hat. Not so much today. On reason why it was common then was, a clean and tidy uniform gave a professional and trustworthy impression.

Historical Notes

Mr & Mrs Carter lived on Chase St in Canoga Park, as seen in city directories in 1937 & 1939, as well as the US Census in 1940.

Today, a Chevron station is located on the NW corner of Roscoe and Canoga. Click HERE to see Contemporary View.

Historical Notes

HANCOCK Oil Company was headquartered in Los Angeles. In the 1850’s, lawyer Henry Hancock helped the Rocha family establish their legal claim to Rancho La Brea, but they ended up owing him so much in fees that they gave him part of the rancho in payment. In 1860 Hancock and his brother bought the rest of the rancho. Hancock began to sell asphalt produced from the famous tar pits that gave the rancho its name. This was the beginning of the Hancock Oil Company. In 1885 Hancock’s widow leased part of the rancho to eastern oil men who went bust by 1888. But in 1902, Mrs. Hancock leased part of the rancho to the Salt Lake Oil Company, which proved a great success. Henry Hancock’s son, George A. Hancock, who had learned the oil business working for Salt Lake, established his own company in 1906. By February 1907, he had over 70 wells producing nearly 300 barrels a day, making the Hancock's one of California’s wealthiest families. The Hancock family built Hancock Park, a large upscale apartment community. The Hancock Oil Company was sold to Signal Oil in 1958. In 1965 Signal was sold to Humble, and both the Hancock and Signal brands vanished.*

Historical Notes

By 1936, Rio Grande had reorganized and merged with other companies to become Richfield Oil Corporation.^

Historical Notes

Rio Grande Oil Company began in the petroleum business in 1915.  At the time, its main business was supplying U.S. military forces with gasoline in support of operations against Pancho Villa.

By 1936, Rio Grande had reorganized and merged with other companies to become Richfield Oil Corporation.^

Historical Notes

The Zenith Model 12 didn’t work out too well. It was an attempt to travel on the success of Henry Ford’s trimotor. It was underpowered and not a roaring success. It became a one of a kind airplane. However, it wasn’t totally useless. Someone saw it as a gasoline station. It was set up as part of a Texaco station in the gore point created by the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Ventura Place in Studio City opposite Republic Studios.^

Historical Notes

History is vague but the Royal Albatross disappeared around the onset of WWII.

Historical Notes

This is Bob's airmail service gas station, which stood at 5453 Wilshire Blvd, at the corner of Cochran Ave. The plane is a 32-passenger Fokker F-32, which was a white elephant of an aircraft that never really worked right. They were probably going cheap so that when in 1934, Bob Spenser got the idea to build a Mobil gas station around one, Fokker probably said, “Here! Take it!” It sure must have been eye catching because in 1934, Bob's Air Mail Service Station sold more Mobiloil and Mobilgas products than any other dealer on the West Coast.

Historical Notes

Bob’s Air Mail Service utilized the twin-prop airplane to top its station, with the wings serving as canopies to shade its General Petroleum pumps. The plane was one of two Fokker F-32 aircraft operated by Western Air Express, circa 1930-31. The four engine F-32 was a design failure due to overheating of the two pusher engines and was only briefly in commercial service.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more of the Fokker F-32 in Aviation in Early Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Members of the Facebook group ‘You Know You Are from Old School Pasadena…’ disagree with the original location stated in the Huntington Library source. The majority opinion is that the station was actually located at Lake Ave and Green Street. Despite some conflicting evidence, we lean towards Green Street as the correct location instead of California Street. More details to come.

Historical Notes

*The above photo was donated by Mrs. Joy (Jensen) Feist who wrote: 

I’m a lover of history and a preservationist at heart. I was born in the Good Samaritan Hospital and raised in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. I have several photographs of the Melrose Motor Service Station once located at 7919 Melrose Ave at Fairfax Ave.

My father worked there until the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th 1941 when everything changed! After the war our family moved from Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley. My parents loved photography and documented our family life with their trusty Kodak box camera purchased in 1937 at the Vista House on the Columbia River.

I hope the attached photo will find preservation in your archives and be of interest to others who also love and value history.

Incidentally, both my parents lived long and healthy lives. My father passed at age 94 and my mother at age 99. Both of them were active and mentally sound right up to their passing. They were married for almost 73 years!

Historical Notes

Note the streetlight on the corner with what appears to be a cap or hood on top of the light bulb. During World War II many streetlights throughout the City were blacked-out on top as a preventative measure. Click HERE to see more in Early LA Streetlights.

Historical Notes

This business was initially a gas station and auto repair facility called Melrose-Sweetzer Service but became a car dealer named Challenger Motors soon after the above photo was taken. Today an office building stands at this corner. Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

Snow fell in the San Fernando Valley and in most of Southern California during a 3-day storm from Jan 9 through Jan 12, 1949, which is a rare occurance. Click HERE to see more on the Storm of 1949.

Historical Notes

Associated Oil Company was an American oil and gas company once headquartered in San Francisco and served much of the Pacific West Coast, including Hawaii, as well as the Orient and merged with the Tidewater Oil Company in 1938.*^^

Historical Notes

The station was built on a portion of the original Sun Lumber Company that once dominated the area. Today, the site is the south wing of the Beverly Hills Public Library. Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

In 1936, the separate companies, Associated Oil Company and Tide Water, were dissolved into the holding company, now renamed Tidewater Associated Oil Company. Associated was based in San Francisco with a market area limited to the Western United States. Associated, founded in 1901, had created the prominent Flying A brand for its premium-grade gasoline in 1932.

With the merger and creation of Tidewater Associated Oil Company, Flying A became the primary brand name for the company, though the Tydol and Associated names were also retained in their respective marketing areas. During the 1950s, the Associated and Tydol brands gradually fell into disuse, and were dropped entirely in 1956.*^^

Historical Notes

Mark C. Bloome immigrated to Southern California from Canada in 1924 and parlayed a 15-cent-a-gallon Richfield gasoline station into one of the nation's largest chain of tire stores.  He survived the Depression years by offering glassware giveaways and other free premiums at his expanding chain of stations and at one point even had women on roller skates speeding among the pumps dispensing gasoline.

By the 1950s, Bloome's stations numbered an even dozen and they were selling a broad range of tires from nearly all manufacturers. Customers were waiting in air-conditioned rooms while their cars were being serviced in giant bays a few feet away, a system that was a forerunner of the modern tire store.

In 1972, the family sold the business to Petrolane Inc. and Bloome retired. In 1986, Goodyear purchased it. *^*

Historical Notes

Gas Stations used to be called service stations ... they would rush to your car, check the water and oil, put air in your tires, wash your windows, and pump your gas.

Historical Notes

If you look at the street lighting in this picture, you’ll see that the lamps are all the “Wilshire Specials” which became prevalent along Wilshire Blvd starting in 1928.

Historical Notes

E. B. Gilmore appears to have invented the self-serve gas station. He created a “gas-a-teria” not far from Farmers Market where customers saved 5 cents per gallon by filling their own tanks. Those who preferred to have their gas pumped by “professionals” at the gas-a-teria got unusual service for a period of time when young ladies on roller skates would glide to the pumps to gas the cars up.^**^

Historical Notes

Following the break-up of Standard Oil in 1911, the Standard Oil Company of New York, or Socony, was founded, along with 33 other successor companies. In 1920, the company registered the name "Mobiloil" as a trademark.

In 1955, Socony-Vacuum was renamed Socony Mobil Oil Company. In 1963, it changed its trade name from "Mobiloil" to simply "Mobil", introducing a new logo. To celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1966, "Socony" was dropped from the corporate name.*^^

Historical Notes

Signal Gasoline Company was founded by Samuel B. Mosher in 1922. It renamed itself to Signal Gas & Oil in 1928 to reflect its expanding businesses; by the 1950s, Signal was the largest independent oil company on the West Coast of the United States and Mosher held large stakes in American President Lines and Flying Tiger Line. In 1964, Signal merged with the Garrett Corporation, an aerospace company, and the combined company adopted "The Signal Companies" as its corporate name in 1968.*^^

Historical Notes

The 1979 Oil Crisis was an energy crisis characterized by a precipitous drop in oil production for the second time in the 1970s (the first being in 1973). In the wake of the Iranian Revolution, 37,000 Iranian oil refinery employees went on strike in 1978, causing Iran's oil refineries to go from producing 6 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day. The global oil supply decreased by 7 percent, causing a surge in oil pricing and within 12 months oil markets had doubled to $39.50 per barrel. This surge caused major gas shortages, long gas lines, and panic buying. In the United States, the Jimmy Carter administration began a phased deregulation of oil prices on April 5, 1979, which allowed U.S. oil output to rise sharply from the Prudhoe Bay fields in Alaska, while oil imports fell sharply. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that oil prices returned to pre-crisis levels.

Historical Notes

The Standard Oil station pictured in the photograph was later replaced by the Renaissance Tower Apartments.

Historical Notes

There was the “odd-even rationing” (only people with an odd-numbered license plate could purchase gas on an odd-numbered day), as was used during the 1973 Oil Crisis. Several states implemented odd-even gas rationing, including California, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Texas. Coupons for gasoline rationing were printed but were never actually used during the 1979 crisis.*