noirish Los Angeles

[Mackerm]

I'm blanking out. How were gas stations listed in directories and yellow pages from the 1910s-1920s? Phone books from the 1940s have a category of "gasoline service stations"

[ethereal_reality]

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Thanks for trying, Mackerm, but I can't answer your question, sorry.



Another mystery location (sort of)

I happened upon this interesting photograph on eBay a couple of weeks ago.



B.ut does anyone know where in East Pasadena.

I thought it would be fairly easy to find the address of the post office but so far I haven't had any luck.
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[Mackerm]

I see "Giddings" on one sign. The house on the left is pretty darn close to the 2-story house shown here:


Calisphere Giddings First Home.


Sorry, only a small preview is available, but the description says 1318 East Colorado Street.

(Hmmm, on second thought 🤔 the roof doesn't seem to go down far enough. Oh well. Can't take it down, so enjoy!)

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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I've been trying to get on NLA all day but it kept saying "server busy". This has been happening alot lately. I hope Skyscraperpage fixes the problem behore we all get discouraged.


Guess what noirishers: I have a mystery location that needs to be solved.

Here's how it's listed on eBay.

Van Fleet & Durkee 427 Shell gas station S California Los Angeles ? visible pump....< - - - - Note the question mark behind Los Angeles.


eBay

We have seen other Van Fleet & Durkee sevice stations on NLA but I don't believe we have seen this particular one. ..I initially thought that was a plowed field in the distance but it's the roof of a building.



I think a sign down the street might says Billiards.


detail

The "Van Fleet and Durkee" branding of the stations lasted from 1929 to 1931. The chain then went under the "Shell Service Inc." banner.



archive.org - los-angeles-times_1931-03-10


If the the company stayed with their numbering system after the rebrand, the station pictured was likely in the general San Francisco area.

A 1933 San Francisco/Daly City directory lists the area's Shell Service Inc. stations with their designated number.

The stations are all in the 400 - 450 range. There is no listing for a 427 Shell station that year. Maybe closed or jumped ship?


I can't find a listing that fits but I think the pictured station may have been somewhere close to the intersection of Mission Street and Hillside Blvd. in Daly City.

You can make out "Mission" at the bottom of the real estate sign to the right of the picture.




The top of the sign maybe referring to the Vista Marina mentioned here.


archive.org - Daly City Record 1932-11-04


There is a Vista Avenue close to the intersection these days.

Back in the early 1930's there was a billiards hall just north of the intersection at 6375 Mission Street.

The area I think it might be nowadays.


GSV


Apologises for all the in the post.