Star of the Ozarkian Road

When road trips were still an intensely human and mechanical experience, service stations were an essential part of the motoring landscape. Stations cultivated an image of confidence, a flair, to attract a road-ready public. The rock stars of modern architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Norman Foster, Albert Frey, and others - all tried their hand at penning humble gas stations.

[Top 15 Mid-century Modern Stations @ Oobject]



Conscious of my grandfather's career with Esso Oil, I find a quick and visible charm in service station architecture. In examples throughout the Ozarks, one can still see the span of history as styles evolved.


"House" style station on Arkansas 7 in Jasper, bungalow on Missouri 59 in McDonald County

Stations first modeled themselves after cottages and bungalows that mimicked the quaint atmosphere of early suburbia.


Southwestern flavor near downtown Neosho, MO

The petroleum industry has been a titan of commerce for over a century, and corporate branding efforts grew with America's increasing post-war mobility. One pattern was a Southwestern revival, invoking the freewheeling romance of Westward expansion.


Plate glass and sharp angles in Rogers, AR, and Carthage, MO

Eventually, modernism fostered buildings in blunt contrast to their surroundings, rather than cottages in native form. Sharp, steeply-raked angles of glass and steel marked the peak - literally and figuratively - of service station architecture.


Straight edges in Powell, MO, Neosho, MO, and Harrison, AR

Ultimately, cars became less maintenance-intensive and more economical, and gas stations changed their profit focus from the automobile to the consumer. Today stations are little more than miniature grocery stores. Razor-thin margins on fuel sales leave little in the way of extravagances or enthusiastic help. A filthy squeegee well on the side of a trash can, watery pay air compressor, and self-serve fuel pump are all that remain. Modern convenience stores are rarely eye-catching, and contribute little to the attraction or passion of contemporary automotive travel.


Repainted Phillips station in Noel, MO

The shuffle of time has left most of these vintage structures to the elements, so they must be enjoyed while they stand. Some of the more iconic structures, like the Phillips 66 cottages, have been fortunate enough to attract historic preservation. A few structures live on as something even more.



One great example is Laurel Kane's D-X Station on Route 66 in Afton, Oklahoma, just a shout from the Western edge of the Ozarks. She revived the classic station and filled it with a trove of Route-66-a-bilia, including a collection of Packards and other timeless American iron. Laurel maintains a blog to put faces to the travelers and assorted, ahem, characters who pass through the station from points all over the world. Worth a read:

[Ramblings of a Route 66 Business Owner]



Like old service stations, Route 66 encapsulates my fascination with car culture, the open road, and uniting sense of American mobility. The Mother Road just glances the Northern edge of Ozarks, an area that has revealed a surprising wealth of unique drives and discoveries on its own. More than I could ever find the time to write about, even. Take that to a macro view, and you have the eight-state epic that is Route 66. Literature, television, and a litany of song covers have fostered an international allure and push to embrace motoring yore. Laurel's enterprising preservation of a piece of Route 66 history could be well applied to the less traveled corners of the Ozarks.

So put a tiger in your tank and check out these classic service stations.