Restoring a 1937 Gas Station

I guess this is sort of a "do-it-yourself" project since I'm doing (have done) a lot of the work so far and plan to until the end.
We purchased an old Sinclair station back in May and took possession in August. The station had, unfortunately, been neglected for many years due to the previous owner's lack of funds. We first spent 2 weeks getting the buildings emptied out so we could get a handle on what was needed for the renovation. The additional building was originally a regional oil distribution center and is probably going to end up requiring more rehab than the station. After emptying everything that the previous owner's left the roof on the station was replaced and when they pulled off the bad roof, 99% of the water damage was restricted to the main office area. So that's been addressed and the roof is all set and no more leaks.


Part of the original tile roof trim was removed years ago, but fortunately the previous owner just left the tiles on the roof. We removed those and are going to re-do the original tile trim, and found a supply for the original 1937 tiles and secured them.


The interior of the station was full of clutter, we have removed all that and have pressure washed the interior bay and the paint is coming off quite nicely with a pressure washer, so plans are to re-paint the bay to the original green/white color scheme.


The one exterior bathroom had been boarded up for more than 30 years. We removed the steel plate, and shoveled out loads of debris. After all the junk was taken out, the majority of the stall woodwork is going to need minimal repair to restore. The door is totally gone, so it's getting replaced.


The interior of the secondary building had been paneled over the years and pulling that out was a pain, but we got down to the original walls pretty quick. Once everything is pulled completely, plans are to go back with runners and sheetrock/insulate the interior. Going to replace the ceilings and sprayfoam insulate the buildings.

Very cool! What are you going to use it for when complete?

Charlie

What is your endgame plan for it? Neat project. My grandfather owned/ran an Esso station in Goldsmith Texas in the late 50’s- early 70’s.

The old windows were in pretty bad shape and I was fortunate enough to find a local guy that had retired with 48 years experience and I enlisted him to replace all the glass panes in the bay and station and bathroom windows. It would have been more energy efficient to go with new double-pane, but I like the old windows and they are hard to find. He did a really fine job on them. The "office" and front windows will be double pane, but we're keeping the original transoms with the ridged glass. They've been painted inside and out and cleaning them is a pain, but they are pretty nice when cleaned.

Before:

After:



One evening I decided to check and see if the canopy wiring was still good. Replaced all 4 of the bulbs (I'll bet they had been burned out for 25 years) and they all work. We decided to leave the tin ceiling under the canopy with it's patina intact. There are a couple of rusted patches that I want to repair to keep out birds and wasps. A guy here in town that has old buildings says you can patch them by taking some strips of hammered tin, then inserting them in the holes and epoxy them in place. Going to spray it with a good sealer.

I spent days cleaning tiles and exposing them in the exterior. I was able to find enough to replace all the broken squares. The 3x6's at the bottom are impossible to find so I'll probably have to resort to painting like most all the other restored stations have done.

Before work got in the way a couple of weeks ago I was able to do some more demo inside and open up the wall between the office and the bay area, and clean out the old office area. The bathrooms are going to be fun to re-do.

I have 2 10x10 insulated glass overhead doors on order to replace the old beater doors. They were just too far gone to deal with.

Not sure yet. The little side building has been various diners over the years, and most recently a beauty salon. I don't want to cook for anybody and I know nothing about hairstyling, so those are both out. The station itself has a lot of potential uses, just trying to figure out the right one is fun and will take a while.

What was the cost to get the under ground fuel tanks out with all the regulations and such?

Zero.
I have looked at a couple other properties that were inactive gas stations that had tanks still in the ground, and did lots of research on tanks/TCEQ/EPA etc.
Fortunately, the previous owner had them dug up and removed 20+ years ago when the big change in how they were treated occurred.

Great project. Can’t wait to see the progress.

Just drove by that on Thursday, nice work! There is another station in Burk that is almost identical.

A true labor of love. Few have the talent or vision to do what you're doing. I think it helps the whole community.

That's so cool................where is the old station?

That is a really nice and important thing to do. Way to go.

Cool. Keep on keeping on. I was one year old in 1937.

Cool project. I was looking at an old gas station in downtown Mesquite, was going to convert it into a VRBO buy keep the original gas station vibe.

Cool project. Keep up the good work

I'm trying to be a good detective, but I just can't seem to make out what the street signs say, or the FM sign. Seems like I've seen this building but can't put my finger on where.

I love old stuff. A living piece of history. Good for you for saving it!

What a great project, I love historic things like that, and thank you for saving it.

Indubitably

cool deal, reminds me of the ice houses we used to hit on the west side of san antonio.

you can probably have the 3x6 tiles made if you can find someone with a direct connection to a mexican source, used to get some custom kitchen tiles made like that for customers.

That is really cool! Dig the ol’ Toyota as well.

Grampa owned a General Store and Skelly Station. I loved that place.

👍

Thanks. That's my 1987 4x$. Bought it from the original owner in 93, kept it until 98 when I sold it to my Dad, he kept it until 2014 then he got to where he couldn't drive it anymore, so I bought it back in 2014. 145k miles all original.

Man that’s great! I’ve always loved the older Toyota’s as that was what my grandfather drove. I’ve had several over the years. My favorites that I’ve owned are an 85 4Runner and 93 Land Cruiser. Currently I daily drive a 99 Land Cruiser with 315k miles and still going strong!

Love it

cool project! My dad was a Sinclair, later Arco, distributor from the 1950s to the 1970s before retiring.

That's cool. I actually started my career out of college with ARCO- first in Plano, then Lafayette, then Houston, then back to Plano. So it's kind of neat to be able to work on the old "parent company" property.

I was fortunate enough to have a friend that had a picture of the original building. Too bad a camper was parked in front!

Couldn't you make 3x6s by cutting down 4x8s?

Yeah if you could find 4x8s. The 4x4s were 4$ a piece on special and I only needed 52 of them. I need like 100 of the 3x6s.

6" x 6" cut in half?

We still don't know where this station is...

I know exactly where it is, but will let OP reveal location.

No telling how many times I've driven by that place and never really noticed it but the caboose in the pic caught my eye. Nice job and look forward to maybe stopping in one of these days when you're done.

Vernon Tx?

restrooms like that were the reason that Buccee's got in business.

Great building though, looking good!!

Have to get you one of these and a good toilet with a black seat on it.

Heh. The men’s room is pretty basic but I think the sink and toilet and paper towel dispenser are going to be operable.



The ladies room has the old “sanitary napkin” coin-operated dispenser and the paper towel holder that don’t appear to be too far gone to refinish. And the stall wood is really pretty pine with a nice “crackled” green paint. Going to fix the bottom where it rotted and leave the crackle finish.


Got the door installed today and caulked it up- hope to prime it tomorrow after work. A piece of ridged glass is going up in the “transom”.

Every reputable gas station back in the day had one of these also.

Heh. Don't think I'll get one of those- when the door is open all the Mom's picking up their kids from the Baptist Church daycare next door can see right in there.

Awesome looking project.

We could use more problem lovers like you and less politicians.

Thanks, Bill, but I'm not really a problem lover. I just like fixing up old things and preserving some of the old things that tend to go neglected. This is the 4th building I've worked to save and I have one more to go before I retire.

It's killing me not knowing where it's at? It does look familiar.

I think I have an old Sinclair Ladies Restroom sign and bracket to hang above the door. There is no telling how many gallons of Kelly Green paint went to the dump when Acro silver & blue took over the old "Dino" green.

That would be lovely. There are quite a few "reproduction" ones out there, but it's always better to have original....

Keep on keeping on.

I'll see if I can find it ... I thought I knew where it was in the garage but there is too much "Christmas" stuff in that area, I didn't locate it where I thought it was.

Scavenger hunt at PMK’s house....

Bay doors are in! Getting installed Friday...

They’re in- looking good

Beautiful! What a great project!

Love them.

Looks great!

All in. Chain hosts to open and close, really nice job on the fit.

very nice...

Looks great!!!

That looks really nice.

All done?

I'm enjoying see you do this!

Looks good.

Wow! This is awesome!

Doors really "pop" in that style

Very nice. Please keep us updated as you move along.

I may have missed it but where is this?

Very cool

Finally some major progress. Work, Snowmageddon, materials availability and grandkids have been in the picture but last couple of weeks everything has been ramping up. We're making really good progress recently. Electrical is partially done in the station, met with a plumber yesterday and we got everything lined out. Met with a concrete guy Monday and he's going to start in 2 weeks. Lots of effort has been going into the accessory building which is really good because I was thinking we would do the station first then work on the building next door. It's really coming together now.
ADA-compliant bathroom is a pain. The size is ridiculously large and we probably were grandfathered in from needing to do one but I did not want to have the city come in after construction and say we had to add one...

Interior front- the previous owners had covered a portion of the windows with cinderblock and brick veneer and boarded up the transoms and let them rot.


Glass out and cinderblocks ready for the taking.


Inside back window that was completely rusted out and blocked in- removed and then we moved the adjacent window into the slot and are going to cut a door to the courtyard in place of the window where we removed the good window. Only cracked one pane getting it out.



All the storefront and frontside windows/transoms ripped out and framed in. Glass man came by and measured for the replacement windows/transoms/front door.

More pictures.

Bathrooms gone and ready for revision.


Interior bathroom demoed and plumbing ready to remove.


Front after removing the crappy cinderblock work- they had the row of green tiles covered up!


Storefront windows and new door are on order. Today should be spent cutting out the window that we're converting to a door and then start building all the walls inside. Plumbers are supposed to be here next week to re-do the plumbing in both buildings. Also finally located someone to replace the tile portion of the roof and he should be out next week for a look-see.

A long labor of love. Thanks for the updates. Not everyone has your vision and few understand the satisfaction of bringing something back like you are.

Thanks. It's really exciting to see the progress increasing. It's hard to explain but I find it more fun to figure out how to get the old, neglected buildings back to life and updated while trying to keep as much as possible original or at least similar to what it was supposed to be.

Glad you didn't throw away any old lumber.

I really like these old buildings.

Good stuff. Drove through there on Sunday and looked great!

Man this is too cool. I appreciate you doing this and envy your vision!

Been addressing the interior ceiling/roof this week. Every one (almost) of the rafters were rotted along the ends thanks to years of leaking roofs and termites. After a little experimentation we figured out how to replace the ends since they were built around with the walls/mortar. Here's what we were facing.


Concrete quick saw and the old window is now completely turned into a new door to the courtyard.


Next outside is removing the crappy roof on the back 'add-on". When the previous owners added on, they didn't move the electric meter. They just built around the feed from the power pole. It's a miracle the whole roof wasn't a shock hazard. I pulled out a wad of screws and the metal will be removed, the feed re-routed and a new meter placed on the outside pretty soon.


And every time I think I've seen it all, another example of poor-boy ingenuity crops up. Vent drain leaking? Cover it with a cut-off drink bottle!

I was called pre war when I was growing up. Some touted it as better. I liked the new stuff with 16 inch centers.

There's a section of Hildebrand (street) in San Antonio that needs you badly! It was run-down when I was a little boy. Now, you'd swear you're in Mexico. (Actually you are; just an "annex".) It's where the "lower tier" attorneys have offices.

Put in a 28' I-beam and a 12' Gluelam this week to completely level and support the center of the building. Not going anywhere now.

First batch of windows are in. They really make a difference in the building.


Started ripping off the old tin to get ready to re-install the original tile roofing. Hope to get that going by next week...

This is great! Well done sir.

took some looking and digging but I found it finally ...

Nice! I'll PM you about it...

Another update- hit it pretty hard last week. Going to pull the roof off the add-on because the previous owners had put a roof on top of a roof. And not your typical "roll-out-another-layer" roof. The original roof was 3/4" decking with shingles. That had some rotten spots, so they built an angled roof on top of it with 3/4" decking and tin. Since we're putting the AC compressors up on it, I wanted to remove the weight and rot of the old roof(s). Whenever the rain lets up that should be torn off and re-framed and re-roofed.


Friday and Saturday we pulled out the old windows and transoms. I wanted to save them but they were too far gone and they had termites in them. Got the exterior and the interior ones re-framed and the glass man came by Monday and measured for the new glass. Going to go with the double-pane like the other building.

You designed soffits under your roof line?

There's no soffits, eaves or roofline. If you look at the actual pictures in the thread you can see that there is no overhanging roofline anywhere.

Good stuff, was through there again today and saw the boards up on the windows.

Yep. Waiting on doors and windows. Concrete work supposed to start tomorrow if the rain holds off. Found a plaster guy last week and he’s supposed to be out pretty soon and start patching/fixing whatever.

I gotta know. Is the driveway service bell still there? Had an uncle who owned a station in Bangs many moons ago and I can still hear that "ding ding". Gotta have one!

Bell is long gone- if it was there. There were enough air pipes coming through the wall and outside that there might have been one there somewhere but who knows.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324657008001?hash=item4b9710cd81:g:V0kAAOSwKuRguDDO

When I was a kid, I would try stomping on the hose to make the bell ring but never could.

Me too. Local station epoxied a quarter next to the airline by the front door and no telling how many times I tried to pick it up.

More progress in the last couple of weeks. Plumbers finally had some time and spent the better part of 2 days sawing and jack-hammering the concrete floor out to replace and re-run and add drains for the new toilets and sinks. The concrete was thicker than they thought it would be so it was slow going.

New toilet drains and tie-in to outside sewer.


Where the kitchen sink and handwashing sink are going.


The station windows and the secondary building doors came in and they were installed. The installers shattered one of the interior pieces of the double-pane window and had to order a replacement. The windows really look good.

Courtyard door- still waiting on the sidelight glass.


Windows in for the station. Will be trimming them out pretty soon, hopefully.

Prep for the concrete work is in progress. The plumbers should be out today to replace the main supply and run whatever is needed before the forms and rebar are laid.

Ripped off the rest of the rotten wood and now we're waiting on the tile guy to come line out what they need to have built as a substrate for the tiles.


Spent about an hour on a less-visible location tile that was busted to see how that process was going to go. Hammer and chisel up on the ladder and an hour later it was chipped out with only minimal plaster sacrificed. I figure the plaster is a lot easier to fix than another busted tile. Cemented the new tile in place with some tile set adhesive and it looks pretty good and from a distance you can't tell which tile is new too easily.

Why do the lady's have separate bathrooms?

And the say there are no STUPID questions, well we have a winner that can be taken to the bank.

Back in the day the gas stations only had one washroom

Update time. Plumbing mostly in, electrical in progress. Lots going on.

Got the west parking area poured and completed Friday while dodging rain showers. The concrete guy did a really good job. Now all the concrete work remaining is the "courtyard" area and he should get to that this week or next, hopefully.


We got a lot of work done this weekend. I spent some time up on the ladder replacing broken tiles. My legs are still rubbery from going up and down the ladder. Each one of the tiles has to be chiseled out by hand so the surrounding plaster/stucco doesn't suffer too much damage.


I think I'm done on the west side- all the tiles that I am going to replace are replaced. Still have to go back and grout them. I think they look pretty good, 4 on this side had to be replaced.


The roof over the addition to the secondary building was was a disaster. The original roof didn't have enough slope, and it was rotted. Then the previous owners added another roof over it, and it rotted. So they shaved 2x6s and put tin over the whole mess, and it leaked. All of the old roof was ripped off and a new roof built. It was made heavy-duty since the AC compressor is going on top of it.

New roof coming up...

I spent all day Sunday in the bathroom. And no, it wasn't due to bad burritos for lunch. The wall between the interior men's room and the exterior ladies room was a water-damaged, termite-devoured mess. A sledgehammer, couple other hammers, grinder and shovel and wheelbarrow and the wall is gone. Going to re-frame the wall and foam insulate it.


All gone now.

Was able to salvage the original sign for the men's room- the varnish/paint on it cleaned up nicely.


Hope to get the windows and doors that are remaining in sometime soon. The HVAC equipment that we ordered is in and at the shop, ready for installation when it's time. The interior bathrooms in the secondary building are framed and electrical is in process. I'll get some photos of the framing when I get by there today.

I've learned a lot on this reno. Mostly, though, I've learned don't say what you're going to do until after you've done it. Every step of the way things change for a variety of reasons and what you thought would do changes. But overall, it's been a blast.

Keep on keeping on.

Really nice

Project is outstanding, keep up the good work!

I bet 60 or 70 years from now no one will be restoring Bucees.
Brings back memories.

Happened to drive by your place on my way home from a dove hunt today. Said to my buddy, 'I'll be damned. That's the gas station on THF."

Place looks like it's coming along.

Yep. Lots going on and good progress made in plumbing, electrical, HVAC work. I’ll get some updated pics soon.
If your place is up this way u you probably saw more gas stations than you did dove. They seem scarce this year.

Your place is about half way. I'll stop by for a bio break and a soda next year's trip.

And no, it was not a good hunt. Killed more beers than birds.

Sorry so long for the update but we've had lots going on. Progressing on the buildings and started working on another one as well- and old oil/tire storage place I'm making into an office/studio apartment.
All the windows and doors are in and the windows skinned out. Foamed in both buildings but still have the bay ceiling to do.
Got the tile run over the bay doors installed finally. Took forever to get the only guy within 300 miles that knew how to do it out there.

Had a bright idea one day so I brought the tractor into town and wanted to see if I could move the lift. Voila it came up and then I chocked it and had a local metal man come out and cut off the ends and then I spent a couple hours with the grinder. Had a bunch of bridge beams I bought on here years ago at the ranch so I found another local guy to plane them, join them and epoxy coat them and we're going to make a 10' long pub table out of it in the bay.

The foam and sheetrock is done and man it really helped quiet down the inside.

This week the tin ceilings are being put up. Took forever to get the tiles in but they are going up now. Doing black in the main area and white in the bathrooms.

Been trying to work all this in with full-time regular work and emptying out and selling two houses in Dallas. The best thing about leaving the metroplex for good is being 15 minutes from the ranch now so that's where I go to recharge.

Lots more to do but the HVAC is 3/4 finished, electrical and plumbing is more than 3/4 finished, hope to get ready to start painting before too long.....

I've redone three, hundred plus year old, residences into commercial space and from here, what you are doing is truly impressive.

Looks great!!

Thanks for the update on your progress. It looks great and turning the lift into a pub table is a great idea. Are you going to try replace seals and try to get the hydraulics working? It would user cool to be able to just raise the table up, out of the way when needed.

Not going to mess with the hydraulics- the lift was disconnected and not used for probably 30+ years. I am going to try and seal around the piston once we get the braces welded on to keep any oil from seeping out. When I first lifted it with the tractor you could really smell the hydraulic oil.
It's going to be 10 feet long- that's why I had to take 3' off each end- 16' would have been too long to maneuver around easily.

Signs are shipped and I’m going to get them next week. They turned out really nice. Porcelain on steel so they should last longer than I will…

Getting close. Paint almost done. All Electrical and HVAC in. Final plumbing coming after paint. Ready to start on the covered area between the two buildings as soon as my welder breaks free....

Coming along great….

I'll miss the updates when this is done.

Couldn't resist- I had an old set of horns so I gutted them and turned them into a light fixture for the station...

Outstanding job so far. Going to have to have a THF get together there when you're done.

Looks terrific! Lots of skilled hard worm.

(I have finally figured out where it is)

Reminds me of my youth. Looks like the old gas station in keys Oklahoma

Henrietta?

Saw it in person last week. The pics don't do it justice. It shines like a diamond in a goat's ____.

Thanks! Still waiting on the sign install and the courtyard framing. Welders up here are busy and working until 1 pm then quitting for the day because it’s so hot!

If you get in a jam, I can bring the welding rig. I am 8A to 6P no matter the weather.

Might need a place to stay a couple of nights.

Lookin' mighty good!

I'd love to see this place in person but haven't found an address in this thread, or I've missed it I guess. It looks familiar. If it isn't a problem and owner doesn't have any objections, can someone shoot me the address in PM. Just love to see it in person. Such awesome work.

Wow heck of a restoration, looks great Another one for I guess I missed the location, would you share that please.

Henrietta, TX.
Got the signs up Tuesday….

That looks amazing!

Awesome job. Thanks for all the pictures

So bad [censored]!!!!!

Got started on enclosing the patio between the two buildings this week. Going to make it look like another bay- with a roll up door like the other 2.

You’ve done an amazing job with that place….

Incredible! As someone stated, I’ll be bummed when the updates cease

Reminds me of a better time in life,just a kid early 70s listing to a baseball game and the old guys telling about the greats of that era.

Drove by there a few months ago. Great looking place

any updates? lace looks great.

What the final product going to be, sports bar?

Enjoying this thread a lot.

Will be driving by it tomorrow.

Definitely the coolest project I have seen. Love the old Sinclair stations and have seen many in my 66 years. The work you have done is excellent and whoever opens a business there will do very well. Love the idea of the pub table from the lift. looking forward to seeing the inside finished. If I ever get to Henrietta again, I will have to drop by. We used to live in WF and Dad used to be the VP of Piggly Wiggly Western Division....one of the stores in his division was there.

OK time for an update. Pretty much done with everything major- now it's just finishing up the enclosure and figuring out what we're going to do with them both....

Picture dump follows....

Outside the station.



Front of the second building


Nice long white wall- going to have an "Instagram-type mural" painted here probably...


West side of the station

HVAC bank and back of the station


Covered area- sliding door and wood accent wall going up there in the back of the framing


Front room of the station


Back room where the coffee bar should go

Front bathroom


Back room looking front


Back room


Looking into the bays

Looking from the bays back into the office/front area


Secondary building bench


Counter area


Coffee bar I made

One of the bathrooms


Looking back to front


Storeroom/washing area- waiting on sink and equipment, refrigeration, etc. depending on use



So that's about it- easing into usage and working several different angles.
And also looking for the next project- maybe another station....

Man that looks great! Great job!

Holy smokes you did a fantastic job on that! What’s the end game for the building? Coffee shop? Pub? Event venue?

Not sure. I’m talking with some folks that are interested in opening something in the second building. Leaning towards coffee shop/hangout/venue on the station.

Such a cool and historic project….

looks good! no natural gas in the building?

Very very impressive!

Absolutely outstanding! You have done extremely well sir.

Gas lines in place for possible corner fireplace in the secondary building, line is run for griddle/etc and the furnace is gas. The station has a large gas line run along the outside back wall that’s terminated at the canopy for possible use with some overhead heaters. That line is also split off into the station bays for potential fireplace in there. I haven’t had a meter placed for the station yet because the gas bill for commercial buildings is crazy- think 90$ a month even with 0 usage…

There is an old station in Gainesville that was converted into a bar type restaurant and was operated a couple years as such. It then closed and has been for sale. It would be cool if someone "un-converted" and restored it as there is a fully restored GULF station across the street.

Fantastic job The old Sinclair gas stations use to have the Green dinosaur, any plans adding one?

The style of sign you have in your post wasn’t used until later on- I think in the 60’s or so- I tried to keep this one true to its age….

Thanks for the history lesson on it.
Since I was born in the mid 50's, by the time I had a clue what was going in the world the sign with the dinosaur is all I remember.

SWEETTTTT!

Excellent work!

Yep, excellent job! Glad to see our town getting some much needed building restoration!! Can't believe I haven't seen this thread before now (or if I did, I forgot!ha) I've been driving past that station for nearly 40 years and it looks awesome now!

yep, the brontosaurus logo came along in the early to mid 1960s. My dad's first Sinclair delivery truck that I remember was a mid-late 50s Chevy, painted Kelley Green with the single strip lettering like on the photos above on this station. He updated his truck mid-late 60s, still Kelley Green but had the larger logo with the dinosaur. He updated all his stations around that same time.

I still recall mid 60s as a young kid going to the Texas state fair where they had these machines that did injection molded 3D images of various dinosaurs and the brontosaurus was Kelley Green and my dad bought dozens to put in all his stations to show off the new logo design.

then early 70s, Atlantic Richfield bought out Sinclair in most southern states and changed their colors and logo to ARCO, truck went to silver with a blue logo

Nicely done! Looks great.

Congrats on making your community a better place! Beautiful work!

Man alive!! I am going to have to make a special drive up to check it out. Outstanding job and loved the progress pictures! Can't wait to see what you move to next

This is in Henrietta?

Let me know if you head up….

Yep

Getting ready to start another project- I’ll make another thread soon- I’m a sucker for old stations, I guess😊

Ever think of making a YouTube video? Kind of like This Old House.

Your new thread had me look this one up since I never saw the finished product. Looks great.

I know of one old gas station that was converted to a bar. It was originally named “The Filling Station” and stayed packed wall to wall. It wasn’t any bigger than what you have here and had 3 distinct areas, one quiet one between two loud ones.