Cornwallis Service Station (Gone)
Carthage, NC Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
The giant Coca-Cola mural at Cornwallis Service Station gives this Carthage building an introduction you can hardly overlook. Paired with the old filling-station architecture, the colorful advertisement makes an appealing roadside scene along Highway 24/27. There’s plenty here to examine before deciding which part deserves the photograph. 12-07
The building’s earlier layout included a broad canopy where motorists could pull in for service. Although gasoline sales and automotive work ended, the structure retained enough of its original form to explain its past. It belonged to the practical roadside landscape of small stations serving residents and travelers passing through the North Carolina countryside.
Cornwallis Service Station
Carthage, NC Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Artist Louis Grady Jr. painted the Coca-Cola mural in 1999, giving the retired station another recognizable feature. Its traditional advertising style suited the older building without pretending to be an untouched original sign. The artwork supplied a new reason to notice a property whose working service-station days were already over.
UPDATE: A thrift shop occupied the building around 2014, enclosing the former canopy area as part of its adaptation. The Coca-Cola mural remains associated with the Moore County Mural Trail. The station’s appearance has changed, but the building and artwork continue together in a different roadside role. 08-26
Old Gas Station
Denton, NC Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
This Old Gas Station in Denton found a different way to fuel its customers. When photographed, the former filling station was serving coffee as The Buttercup Cafe. Its wide canopy still advertised the building’s earlier purpose, making it easy to picture cars pulling beneath it for gasoline rather than customers arriving for breakfast. 12-07
The conversion kept a recognizable roadside building useful without disguising its origins. Former stations can offer practical spaces for small businesses, and here the canopy supplied a particularly distinctive entrance. The change from gasoline to cafe service gave the property another role in town while preserving the feature that made it identifiable from the street.
UPDATE: The Buttercup Cafe has closed, but the former station building remains standing on Main Street. Its later use has not been confirmed. 08-26
Delta Oil
Ruby, SC Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
The Delta Oil name made this closed station in Ruby, South Carolina, worth a closer look. It was a departure from the familiar national brands encountered along most highways. The weathered building and surviving identification preserved the appearance of a smaller roadside fuel business after its working days had ended. 01-08
The photograph offers a glimpse of the varied names that once appeared above local gasoline pumps. Without a confirmed operating history, it’s difficult to establish when this station opened or how long it served the community. What remained was enough to identify its former purpose and distinguish it from an otherwise anonymous roadside building.
UPDATE: The Delta Oil station was already closed when photographed. Its current condition and the survival of its branding have not been confirmed. 08-26
Mt Croghan Service Station
Mt Croghan, SC Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
The Mt. Croghan Service Station recalled the years when a small community could support several places to buy gasoline and have a car serviced. Its modest building looked suited to local trade rather than a stream of interstate traffic. By the time of this photograph, the pumps were quiet, but the station remained recognizable. 01-08
For many years, the business operated as H and H Service Station before its owners retired in 1989. That name supplies a useful connection to the people and work behind the surviving structure. Beyond selling fuel, a service station could provide repairs and regular contact with neighbors, making it part of the town’s everyday routine.
UPDATE: The station’s operating history ended with the owners’ retirement, according to the earlier account. 08-26
Gulf Gas
Tazewell, TN Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
The vintage pumps at this Gulf Gas Station in Tazewell looked as though they were waiting for another customer. Standing outside the weathered building, they preserved a complete enough scene to make the station’s former purpose immediately clear. Sometimes a few surviving pieces of equipment can tell more than an empty building alone. 01-08
Tazewell’s position along the U.S. 25E travel corridor connected local traffic with motorists heading through east Tennessee toward Cumberland Gap. Smaller stations served that mixture of residents and travelers with gasoline and automotive services. Here, the Gulf pumps supplied the strongest visual link to those working years, retaining the brand identity after activity at the property had ceased.
UPDATE: The station was documented with its old Gulf pumps still in place, but its current condition has not been confirmed. 08-26
Gulf Gas
Tazewell, TN Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Gulf Gas view from across the street
Tazewell, TN Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Cornwallis Service Station (Gone)
Cornwallis Service Station
Old Gas Station
Delta Oil
Mt Croghan Service Station
Gulf Gas
