The following links will direct you to topics discussed on this page:

• 1939 New York World's Fair
• Little Tavern Hamburger Stores
• Rochester Grills Diner Company
• Tochterman Tackle Shop (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Ritz Theater (Brunswick, Georgia)
• Art Deco Kresge Store (Brunswick, Georgia)
• Flagler College (St. Augustine, Florida)
• Grandview Hotel (Bedford, Pennsylvania)
• Dunkel's Gulf Gasoline Station (Bedford, Pennsylvania)
• The "Eclectic" Period in Gas Station Design
• The "Standardized" Period in Gas Station Design
• ESSO Gasoline Station (Orange, Virginia)
• The Coffee Pot (Bedford, Pennsylvania)
• Isaly's Dairy Store (West View, Pennsylvania)
• Gayheart's Drug Store (Culpeper, Virginia)
• Baby Jim's Snack Bar (Culpeper, Virginia)
• McCoy Grand Theater (Moorefield, West Virginia)
• Mail Pouch Signs

  In addition to vernacular architecture, we have a special page on 1922 Tribune Tower Design Contest -- as well as a Calendar of Swing Dancing in DC, a Directory of Vintage Clothing Stores and a Guide to 1940s Collectibles. Thanks for tuning in! Feel free to Contact Me if you have questions or want to share photographs and roadside attractions stories with the rest of the readers.

The 1939-40 New York World's Fair, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (also the location of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair), was one of the largest world's fairs of all time. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. The NYWF of 1939-1940 allowed all visitors to take a look at "The World of Tomorrow." According to the official New York World's Fair pamphlet:

...The eyes of the Fair are on the future – not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines. To its visitors the Fair will say: "Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools with which the World of Tomorrow must be made. They are all interesting and much effort has been expended to lay them before you in an interesting way. Familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future...."

The World's foremost designers, architects, and planners contributed to the Fair, and it has achieved legendary status. Almost every serious Art Deco collector has at least one artifact from the 1939 Fair. This page can't even begin to scratch the surface of this great mass of collectibles. Rather, we'd like to share with you a few patent drawings related to the Fair that we have encountered during our research. In case you'd like to experience the event vicariously, here's a link to some home movies of the Fair that have been digitized.

First up are the Trylon and Perisphere, the central structures, known as the Theme Center, of the New York World's Fair of 1939-1940. Connected to the Trylon, which stood 700 feet tall, by what was at the time the world's longest escalator, the Perisphere was a tremendous sphere, 180 feet in diameter. The sphere housed a diorama called "Democracity" which, in keeping with the fair's theme "The World of Tomorrow", depicted a utopian city-of-the-future. Democracity was viewed from above on a moving sidewalk, under movies displayed on the sides of the sphere. After exiting the Perisphere, visitors descended to ground level on the third element of the Theme Center, the Helicline, a long spiral ramp that partially encircled the Perisphere.

The Trylon and Perisphere was designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux, with the interior exhibit by Henry Dreyfuss. The structures were originally built in Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York, but both structures were subsequently razed and scrapped for use in World War II armaments.

  

Trylon and Perisphere, Harrison and Fouilhoux Design Patent D-107,425
The "Helicline" is also shown
Click to Enlarge
Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings

One of the major attractions of the Fair was the spectacular fountain display in the Lagoon of Nations. The fountains were exceedingly complex, allowing for a wide variety of effects -- including complementing water display with bursts of flames from compressed natural gas. The fountains were designed by engineer Bassett Jones and sculptor Samuel Hamel. (Hamel went on to design fountains for the 1964 World's Fair as well). The details fo the fountais' inner workings were described in the August 1938 issue of Popular Science. (Click here to read this article.)

     

The Fountain Display in the Lagoon of Nations
Jones and Hamel Fountain Patent No. 2,160,474
Cover of the August 1938 issue of Popular Science
Click to Enlarge
Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings

Other noted attracions were:

• The Parachute jump (discussed on our Erector Set Page),
• The giant S-1 locomotive (Discussed in our Streamlined Locomotives page.)
• The Mayflower Doughnuts Shop menu that showed locations all across the country so that you could "Eat Your Way" from the Golden Gate Exposition of 1939 (San Francisco) to the New York World's Fair.
• The Manning-Bowman Twin-o-Matic waffle iron, designed specifically for the Fair
• The Sunbeam T-9 Toaster with its special World's Fair logo
• The RCA TRK-12, one of the first television receivers offered to the public (The Fair was televised!)
• Of interest to Swing Dancers, Whitey's Lindy Hoppers perfromed hourly at the Savoy Ballroom pavilion

The availability of the new transparent plastic plexiglass stimulated designers to make "see-through" versions of complex objects, including a Pontiac and the TRK-12 Television. In addition to the very famous artifacts, thousands of small consumer products were sold, typified by the ladies shoes shown below.

  

Plexiglass Gone Wild

  

The Parachute Jump and Special Shoes
World's Fair Shoes Design Patent D-110,978
Click to Enlarge
Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings

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Little Tavern Shops was a chain of hamburger restaurants in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. The last restaurant closed on April 29, 2008. were once had many locations: in 1939, there were 21 in Washington, D.C., and 50 in the Baltimore–Washington area. The slogan of the chain was "Buy 'em by the bag", and its signs promised "Cold drinks * Good Coffee". The stores were quite small and could accommodate only a few seated customers, while most business was take-out.

     

Long Gone Little Tavern Stores

(left to right)
Remaining Hulk of a Little Tavern Store
Harry Duncan and a Model of the Little Tavern
Little Tavern Design Patent D-111,534
Click to Enlarge
Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings

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In the mid 1930s, there were quite a few companies making prefabricated "dining cars" -- that which we know as "diners" today. The Rochester Grills Company was one of these. They were fairly short-lived and most of their diners were located in Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania. (i.e. not that far from Rochester.) As of 2009, only four Rochester Grills diners are still in existence. Two have been encapsulated in larger buildings, and the remaining two are shown here.

  

Rochester Grill Diners

Click to Enlarge
Click here if you want to learn how to get Free Patent Drawings

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This is a fantastic neon sign for the T.G. Tochterman & Sons Fishing and Tackle store in Fells Point. The store opened in 1916. The sign was created in 1938 and was originally animated -- at night, it appeared that the big fish was being hooked. The sign ceased to be animated sometime in the 1970s and it was repainted in 1989.

Mr. Thomas G. Tochterman, a robust man with silver hair and a wide smile, spent his life working in the shop at 1925 Eastern Avenue, which had been founded as a confectionery store by his parents in 1916. He died in 2001 at the age of 89. In an interview, he said, " The trolleys came right by the store, and it was no trouble for someone to jump off, get some fresh peelers or soft crabs and get back on the car.." Recently, Edward Stonewall "Eddie" Tochterman, former co-owner of T.G. Tochterman & Sons, passed away at age 92. The store is now operated by Tony Tochterman, the third generation to run the venerable Eastern Avenue tackle shop that has kept fishermen in rods and reels for more than 90 years.

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On the way to visit Montpelier, the home of James Madison (The Father of the US Constitution), we spotted this ESSO sign. It is just hanging there -- there is no service station. There was atime when you couldn't drive 500 feet without seeing one of these. ESSO stands for "S.O." or Standard Oil, the trust that made John D. Rockefeller the richest man of modern times. In 1911, the monopoly was broken and Standard Oil was split into 30 separate parts. Many of them are still around and recognizable (!):

• Standard Oil of New Jersey became ESSO, then Humble (of "Tiger in Tank" fame), and finally EXXON
• Standard Oil of New York became MOBIL (with the flying red horse) which was eventually eaten up by EXXON
• Standard Oil of Indiana became AMOCO, the first to market unleaded gasoline as a premium product, eventually eaten by EXXON
• Standard Oil of Ohio became SOHIO, then Boron, then was eaten by British Petroleum (BP)
• Standard Oil of California became Chevron, which still exists today
• Atlantic Refining and Richfield Oil were combined to be ARCO which was eaten by the Sun Oil Company (Sunoco)
• The Continental Oil Company (CONOCO) was acquired by Dupont and then merged with Phillips Petroleum
• Cheesbrough-Ponds, makers of Vaseline, Cosmetics and a wide variety of petroleum-based products

Click Here for a detailed description of the 34 separate Standard Oil companies

It is almost impossible to believe that at one time, one man owned all of these things -- absolutely. Rockefeller's fortune in 1911 was twice the US National Debt. In current dollars, this would be about 300 billion dollars. Rockefeller built the entire University of Chicago from current income without dipping into capital. That solitary ESSO sign has a LOT of historical significance.

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We spotted this marquee on the way to Jekyll Island. The Ritz Theatre, located within the "Old Town Brunswick" National Register Historic District, was built in 1898 to house the Grand Opera House, retail establishments, and the general offices of the Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad. Originally, the Grand Opera House, a three-story Victorian building featuring ornate brick and stone work, was built for the legitimate stage. Later, it served as a theatre for vaudeville.

In the 1930s, as motion pictures became the rage, the Opera House was converted into a movie palace. To give the building a more modern art deco look, the first-story brick work was covered with carrara glass, and an elaborate marquee and cascading sign were added. Thus, the Grand Opera House became the Ritz Theatre.

In 1980, the City of Brunswick purchased the Ritz, and again, the theatre was modernized and substantially altered; however, the Ritz sign was left intact. Under the management of the Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association since 1989, the Ritz is returning to its roots. Recent "cosmetic surgery" has revealed parts of the original brickwork, storefronts, transoms, and glass, while live performances again grace the Ritz stage. Further restoration will offer space for artists' studios and classes on the second and third floors.

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On our way through Brunswick Georgia in the spring of 2001, we spotted this wonderful Art Deco Kresge Store. It appeared to be still in business! I was stunned.

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Flagler College is located on 19 acres in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. The campus centerpiece is the grand Ponce de Leon Hall, a former luxury resort hotel now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture was the dream of Henry Morrison Flagler, industrialist, oil magnate and railroad pioneer.

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The Lincoln Highway's most famous landmark is the Ship Hotel located in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Before the full-size ship was constructed, the Allegheny Mountain curve housed a roadside stand offering refreshments to early motorists, and water to cool their engines. The architecture of the Grand View Point Hotel began as an open-aired castle courtyard; in 1932 it was transformed into the shape of a steamer ship. The Ship Hotel came complete with a dining room, living quarters, and observation decks to view the three states and seven counties from the Allegheny Mountainside. Some famous guests of the Ship were Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, J.P.Morgan, Will Rogers, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Calvin Coolidge, just to name a few. Tourists and local residents ventured to the grand ship for dining and entertainment. The ship thrived through the 1930s, yet business drastically declined with the unveiling of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940. The Paulson family sold the ship to Jack and Mary Loya in 1978. The new owners renamed the ship, Noah's Ark. Although the Ark has been closed for almost twenty years, today's motorists still stop to enjoy the breathtaking view atop the Allegheny Mountains. Today, there's not much to see at the site except "three states and seven counties" but, the memories of the Grand View Point linger on . . . memories of dining, dancing, ice cream cones, and spectacular views. You can bet if just one or two cars park along the Ship, in a matter of minutes there will be four or five cars, each sharing Ship stories.

All of the photos of the decrepit remains could not live up to my childhood memories, so I scanned in this post card instead. Maybe someone will restore this gem!

Alas, I received this from a reader:

"... The Ship hotel burned down in October 2001. So all that's left is the view. The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor Association tried to buy it for $50,000 but the owner wouldn't sell it. Supposedly, he had no insurance. This was never verified. Believed to be arson as no one living in it at the time. What a loss. ..."

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These wonderful polychrome tile gas stations were synonymous with the Gulf Oil Company. At one time, they were nearly everywhere and are an icon of the "Gas Station" where you could actually get help with your car or directions. Smartly clad attendants in khaki uniforms (with bow ties!) would cheerfully offer to check your oil, wash your window and inflate your tires. How long has it been since you have even been able to talk to anyone at a gas station face to face?

We have travelled all over Pennsylvania and (to our knowledge) this is the last example of the classic Gulf gas station still in actual use. Gulf Oil merged with British Petroleum in 1983 --- because the brand name was so well established in Pennsylvania, they kept it mostly due to the indelible image left by these buildings. This is Dunkel's Gulf Station in Bedford, Pennsylvania

BUT, this is not the last of our look at gas stations... or "Service Stations" as they were known in an era where the consumer did not have to contribute most of the labor in filling his car's tank with gasoline. Our first stop is a look at the zany eclecticism that preceeded the Art Deco era typified by Mr. Dunkel's establshment. Our next stop is a look at the Industrial Design wars that standardized gas station design.

In the early days of the automobile there were no labeling requirements or standards. The Motorist was on his own when it came to quality of gasoline, oil or any other automotive service. Indeed, the roads were lined with cut-rate "stations" offering products of dubious quality. From 1900 to the 1920s, the typical filling station was one pump outside a flyblown general store. Back then, "watered" or otherwise adulterated gasoline was commonplace and sold to the rich city slickers who ventured into the uncharted rural backwaters of Amerca. In this state of confusion, the various large oil companies saw an opportunity to build market share by establishing a trust relationship with the consumer. The first method of doing this involved creating eye-catching architecture that would convince the consumer that the station was backed by a company with some substance. Visible gasoline pumps, which allowed the motorist to see the product as it was pumped into the car, led to the practice of dyeing gasoline with colors like red, blue, or purple in an effort to distinguish one brand from another. Companies also began to diversify the range of products and services available to the public. Maintenance and repair services turned the filling station into the all-around car-care station.

Oil companies' drive to make their product identifiable led to the creation of exotic eye-catching buildings designed to look like lighthouses, Chinese airplanes, Swiss chalets and the like. By the end of the 1920s, a nationwide gasoline distribution system was in place in America that has not changed since. At the same time, a highway-building boom allowed motorists to expand their range of travel. Gas stations arose along the new highways to provide necessary and convenient services such as clean rest rooms, free maps, soft drinks, and snacks. As traffic increased and the automobile culture expanded, gas stations attracted other businesses, such as motels and diners. The desire to make the customer feel comfortable also led these early stations to clothe their employees in military-style uniforms, which added an air of legitimacy to a still relatively novel enterprise. Slogans like Texaco's "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" also encouraged consumer comfort.

Here is a wide array of designs (that can only be classed as "eye catching")for service stations that were patented during the "eclectic" period.

        

Lighthouses, Chalet, Shell

        

Castles, Planes, and a Tank Car

        

A Tank, Pagoda, Teepee, and the Alamo
Click to Enlarge

        

The High Art Deco Period of Gas Stations (like Dunkel's)
Shell Oil Gas Station Design Patent D-90,829
Atlantic-Richfield Service Station Design Patent D-91,913
Standard of Indiana Filling Station Design Patent D-93,308
Independent Gas Station Design Patent D-92,195
Click to Enlarge

Candidly, these ornamented buildings were expensive. In order to cut costs and improve visibility, oil companies hired famous designers to update and promote their image. In 1934, Norman Bel Geddes provided a new design for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (now Mobil), which proved too avant-garde and was never built. In the same year, Walter Dorwin Teague was hired by Texaco for the same purpose. His streamlined box design was an instant success and was used in more than 10,000 stations across the country. Teague created a universally adaptable form and an immediately recognizable symbol for Texaco products. Other companies were quick to emulate this, and filling station design adopted this mode for the next 30 years.

        

The Streamlined Period of Gas Stations
Norman Bel Geddes Socony-Vacuum Station Design Patent D-95,906 (not built)
Walter Dorwin Teague Teague Texaco Service Station Design Patent D-107,463 (10,000+ built)
Standard Oil of New Jersey Service Station Design Patent D-86,691
Teague Conoco Gas Station Design Patent D-175,051 (20 years later) Click to Enlarge



Toy Model of the Teague Texaco Service Station

Texaco deserves some special mention.

Texaco began in 1901 as the Texas Fuel Company. It was founded in Beaumont, Texas by Joseph S. Cullinan, Walter Benona Sharp and Arnold Schlaet upon discovery of oil in the monumental Spindletop Field. The company that was merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. For many years, Texaco was the only company name selling gasoline in all 50 states. [Standard Oil was everywhere, but it had been broken into smaller regional companies and was forbidden to use a common marketing image.] People who were around during the 1940s and 1950s cannot forget these omnipresent lyrics: "We're the men of Texaco, We work from Maine to Mexico..." Click Here for the rest of the lyrics).

The Singing Texaco Servicemen

The corporate logo features a white star in a red circle (a reference to the lone star of Texas), leading to another long-running advertising jingles "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star." and "Star of the American Road." For many years, Texaco sponsored the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, as well as the Texaco Star Theater that featured such entertainment legends as Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Milton Berle.

  

The Trustworthy Star and its Theater
Ed Wynn hosting the Texaco Star Theater on Radio
Click to Enlarge

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Mass marketing and the influence of giant chains have all but eliminated the quirky roadside archictecture created by individual vision. This is a great example --- a building in the shape of a coffee pot. This acted as a beacon to weary travellers on Route 30 in Pennsylvania. This was a diner until the mid 1980s and then became a beer distributorship. It is now vacant. Perhaps someone will realize that there is a retro craze on and reopen it as a restaurant.

Update: August 2005!

One of our alert readers has noted that The Coffe Pot has been restored!!. The building has been moved across the street to the Bedford County Fairgrounds and is open to the public. The exterior has been given a stucco finish instead of the original scored concrete (to resemble bricks), but it looks very spry, indeed. Way to go, Bedford!

The Coffee Pot Is Back!
Saved from ruin!

While researching patents, we found this zany design -- perhaps it should be erected next to The Coffee Pot!

The Doughnut Building (Design Patent D-110,466)
Click to Enlarge

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Our friend "Acme Ron" sent us this: "...It was originally called Goody Goody but later The Coffee Pot c.1932 to 1949 in Phoenix at 7th Street and McDowell St..."

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When I grew up in Pittsburgh, there was an Isaly's dairy store on practically every corner. The Isaly's chain had two specialties:

• Chipped Ham: This is pressed ham (don't ask what's in it...) that is sliced one molecule thin and piled on Braun's Town Talk white bread that has been slathered with mayonnaise and topped with yellow American cheese and a tomato slice. Chipped ham was one of the four major food groups in Pittsburgh during the 1950s.
• Skyscraper Cones: The Isaly's Dairy made unusually rich ice cream and they shipped it in metal tins. An enterprising fountain attendant discovered that you could dip a big serving spoon into the tins and create a "dip" of ice cream that was six inches tall. This "mountain" of ice cream was irresistable to children. The favorite flavors were "White House" (vanilla with whole maraschino cherries) and "Maricopa" (vanilla with chunks of butterscotch.

The Isaly's chain went bankrupt in the 1980s. Several individual owners have kept their stores open and try very hard to keep things authentic. This one, located in West View, a suburb of Pittsburgh is particularly well kept and has all the feel of a "real" Isaly's, even down to the plastic parsley that decorated all the lunch meats in the cooler.

The owner also has a great display of artifacts from West View Park, a wonderful "End-of-Trolley-Line" amusement park. I learned to dance at Danceland, the ballroom at the park that corresponds roughly to the role that the Spanish Ballroom played at Glen Echo.

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This is the exterior of Gayheart's Drug Store in Culpeper, Virginia. This is the among very last of the drug stores with a functioning lunch counter. We only know of four others, located in Fredricksburg, Woodstock, Remington, and Warrenton. The latter two are technically "re-creations", and the Fredricksburg and Woodstock stores do not serve full meals. Thus, Gayheart's stands alone: Courteous service, comfort food, and low prices.

In the 1940s, the Drug Store was the most common place for ordinary Americans to eat an "away-from-home" lunch. Sort of like the passenger pigeon, the common, everyday experience of having an egg salad sandwich and a cherry coke at the lunch counter of the Rexall Pharmacy has almost completely faded from existence. If you value recreating the 1940s or 1950s, you really owe yourself a trip to Culpeper. Get there at about 11:30 and have the egg salad. Save room for a pineapple sundae. Gals, wear a tight sweater and pretend that you are Lana Turner waiting to be discovered at Schwab's

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This is a VERY nice example of 1940s neon sign art that advertises Baby Jim's Snack Bar in Culpeper, Va. I only wish that the food was as great as the sign! This seems to follow a trend that I have noted in Southern Barbecue places --- they seem to delight in showing happy little pigs serving barbecue...

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This is the McCoy Grand Theater on Main Street in Moorefield, West Virginia. A landmark in Moorefield, the theater originally opened in 1928. Reopened in 1989 as a community museum and arts center with two show rooms and a 240-seat restored theatre, the McCoy-McMechen Museum Theater hosts four season events annually as well as community and local performances.

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It is my understanding that the folks from Bloch Brothers have decided to stop painting the famous "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco" signs on barns. Sensing that this is the end of another era, I stopped to take this picture somewhere near Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

I have gradually learned a lot about this unusual form of advertising. A crew of painters did the signs. They painted the slogan on the side of a willing farmer's barn in exchange for a choice of several things, such as cash, magazine subscriptions, or of course, a hefty supply of Mail Pouch chewing tobacco. Another popular option was that the farmer could have the rest of his barn painted.

"The last living Mail Pouch painter, Harley Warrick, joined the crew when he returned from service in World War II. The crew happened to be at his parents farm painting a sign on their barn, and they needed an extra pair of hands. Mr. Warrick joined them on the spot. Warrick estimates that he painted or repainted over 20,000 barns and signs throughout his career. Retired, he now lives in Belmont, Ohio with his wife, where he spends time painting birdhouses and mailboxes in his workshop

One apocryphal story concerns the man who owns the Buckeye Candy and Tobacco Company in Bucyrus, Ohio. Warrick bet the unsuspecting owner a steak dinner that he could paint the Mail Pouch slogan on the side of his business in a mere afternoon. The skeptical owner took him up on the bet, and lost! It usually took Warrick about four hours to paint the side of a building. He also said that his first 1,000 or so signs looked like he'd painted them with his feet, but eventually he got the hang of it.

At one time there were more than 10,000 of these landmarks dotting the countryside in the Midwest (and a few along the West Coast), but now less than half remain. Unfortunately for enthusiasts such as myself, this number grows smaller every day as the old barns succumb to time and the elements. Many are torn down, while others simply fall down or are brought down by high winds or tornadoes. Eventually there will be no Mail Pouch signs as Warrick has retired and long ago gave up trying to hire a replacement. A few interested young men gave it a crack, but none stuck with it. Another hindrance is the tax placed on advertising for any billboards or signs within a certain distance from the highway. According to Warrick, the company which produces Mail Pouch is unwilling to pay this steep tax to continue the advertising."

For those of you who are STILL interested, here are a few more websites:

• Chasing Mail Pouch Barns
• Mail Pouch -- 100+ Years
• To bacciana
• Bygone Signs
• Bloch Brothers' 75th Anniversary
• Beacon Journal Extra
• The Four Seasons of Driving

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