Javier R. Garcia
That's Ethyl on the left
A Sanborn map for Brownsville Texas – October 1926 indicates
there was a “Filling Station” on corner of Stillman (now 2nd St) and
(N Elizabeth) or what we refer to as W Elizabeth St.
A Sanborn map for Brownsville, Texas 1930 September indicate
our filling station in the photo is single-story rectangular brick building with
open service area similar to previous lay-out and a drive-through “Auto Washing”
service within between two brick enclosed structures. My guess is the big circle symbols with “GT”
indicate storage tanks for grease, oil or fuel (i.e. “grease tank”).
This photo was scanned from an approximately 2” x 3” photo from
the Brownsville Historical Association archives. The intention was to one day enhance the
photo using photo editing software to get a better look at it. Someone wrote “1930 – A.A. Burlingham’s
filling station on Elizabeth. This is
now Landreth’s Lock Service” on the back of the photo but it was likely built
in 1930 and photographed about 1935.
County records were not accessed for actual verification.
The corner-lot gas station includes a pump island and signage. There are also oil cans stacked on a display stand and window display. It has all the amenities of a modern full-service station including well-lit canopied service island with free air/water and restrooms. The right interior part of building may be office and store where Shell products such as oil lubricants might be sold and the left area looks like a service bay where vehicles could be garaged and serviced.
The vehicle behind the pumps resembles a 1935 Plymouth Sedan
which is the evidence that the photo may have been taken later than “1930” and on
behalf of “A.O. Reece” who was still listed in the 1940 phone directory
(Brownsville, Texas and other Rio Grande Valley Cities – Telephone Directory
March 1940 – Southwestern Bell Telephone Company – page 8) as “Reece A O serv sta 204 W Elizabeth … 9513”
but that was the only directory resource available to me (1917 and 1948
directories were the only available years nearest to 1940). A “Field
Guide to Gas Stations by W. Dwayne Jones” (availableonline) states that Shell (Royal Dutch Shell founded in 1907) first
entered the Texas market by 1929 which allows us to assume it took Shell a year
to reach the farthest southern point in Brownsville, Texas and gives us a
closer date when the station was built but not when the photo was taken (as the
misleading information on back seems to indicate). The building formation is a simple box form with
two canopies, the second open area being the car wash area referred to on the
clip from the 1930 Sanborn map.
The “Field Guide…” didn’t offer much more information. The Spanish tile seen on this building was frequently
used in southern states from California to Florida during the era. The raised pillars and multi-colored bricks
make this a much more attractive building than the common gas station forms we
are used to seeing.
The right side has been lightened which brightens tiny specs
and scratch marks which will have to be removed. There’s also what appears to be small brick
stairs and white scratch on pillar with signage which is indistinguishable and
will be changed in a revised version.
Two additional sections have been lightened with similar defects
becoming more pronounced. The automobile
appears to have the hood opened which was how a car was regularly checked and
maintained at these old stations. Note
the large older style gas pump in the center.
Additional enhancement and vertical brickwork really bring
out the details of the building which is the main focus of this digitized photo
restoration but rather than be satisfied with the “faded” it also occurred that
with all the resources available on the internet it would be challenging to
search for “parts” to bring out additional details of signage on the building
and pumps and try to find out what kind of automobile it is and try to find a
photo of the same car from the same angle!
Additional frustration occurs when you find a “usable” photo (same car
parked photographed from rear left angle) it has to be large enough to be compatible
with large resolution image.
It would probably be easier to physically find the same kind
of car, get permission from owner to take a lot of photos from same angle with
the right part of the hood opened [a million in one chance?] to use as a
substitute model than it would be to find an hi-resolution photo of a 1937
Plymouth sedan, parked in the same angle with the right half of its hood open
on the internet. Another car was found
as close to the same body style and from similar angle but it had to be skewed
every which way to “fit” over the original car in photo. We’ll see how it looks a few slides later….
Vertical brickwork, while much of it is in dark areas, was
replaced by copying, cutting, resizing and skewed to match size and perspective
of vertical brickwork of the building.
The large pump was removed and bricks were used to “fill-in
empty space. A restored pump was found
online and prepared as a substitute.
Clear glass on pump was made transparent so bricks of
building can be seen through it. The
same technique will be applied to the car.
Pump labels were inserted.
This was done to illustrate the typical corporate brand Shell pump fuel
stationed on an island to supply “Shell [regular], Super Shell and Shell
Premium” brands.
The windows can be revisited at another time to add additional
details and interest but at this point the work might be overkill or better in
the hands of an expert so it was decided the back “service bay” window needed
to be darkened rather than risk overdoing or making it obvious this photo had
been altered.
After the substitute automobile was skewed to fit shape of
original auto, its headlight was pulled back and “hidden” behind the gas pump
but the “new” car gave a tight close fit at other point and the original
headlight was kept. The gas station pump
“island” for curbside service was also emphasized. Additional signage was also filled-in.
Here is the original again for comparison.
This isn’t a photograph that really lends itself to colorization
so we won’t be seeing it again in that form unless I want to make an attempt at
reproducing every nuance of multi-colors of brick (the cover image at top is an
“overkill” version of the photo). The
main objective was to emphasize the brick-work on this li’l gem. The rest of the work was to just dress it up a
bit without allowing all the extra accessories to take over the originality of
the photo or the building itself.
If you found this blog after being one of 13K friends on the
now defunct “Brownsville Station” Facebook page thank you for checking this blog. Feel free to comment “anonymously” in the
comments section if you have any questions or comments but do not want hassle
of creating an account.
The building as it looks today. The fuel pump island is still there.
