Full Service

Fueling one's motorcar in 1905 was onerous and dangerous, so Harry Grenner and Clem Laessig simplified the procedure by attaching a section of rubber hose to an upright tank and formed the Automobile Gasoline Company. Standard Oil ran with the idea two years later and built the first "filling station" on the West Coast. With motoring becoming an American pastime, there would be over 250,000 filling stations across the country by the mid-1920s. These typical two-pump stations would evolve later into gas stations with distinctive building styles, colors and signage that offered not only gas, but tires and rest rooms we well. The gas station attendants, as seen here in Montana ca. 1940s, were uniformed and provided a "full-service'", that is, refueling customers' cars, washing windows and checking oil.