ArtFire

Cherry red and jadeite green, bearing the Texaco star and trimmed in silver chrome, the stylish vintage fuel pump in this 11x14 retro art photo served Illinois Route 66 travellers for nearly seven decades before she was 'retired' and morphed into an object of beauty instead of utility. You can find this pretty, blushing old filling station gas pump at the Ambler-Becker Texaco in Dwight, Illinois-sitting right on the Mother Road, Route 66!

This classic filling station was built in 1933 as a Texaco; thus the restoration of Ambler-Becker pays tribute to Texaco with the green-and-red star motif. The Ambler-Becker Texaco (it became a Marathon in later years) dispensed fuel to Route 66 motorists until 1999-after a precise 66 years of business. The Ambler-Becker is actually one of the oldest continually operating service stations along Route 66. (Service work was done on cars here until 2004!)

The service station underwent a restoration during the mid-2000s after Mr. Becker donated it to the city; the charming station now serves as a visitor center for those travelling Route 66 and visiting Dwight. Even before the restoration, though, the wooden green-and-white cottage style 1930s filling station was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It now appears much as it did during the 1930s and 40s, and fits right in with the neighborhood around it.

The filling pump in this documentary art photo is, as befits its era, quite stylish, with handsome Art Deco touches. Straight and tall cherry-red shoulders curve elegantly where they meet the red circle bearing the scarlet Texaco star resting on its Jadeite-green field. A silver chrome half-monon-weathered and a bit dinged, but no less fine for the years-surrounds the indicator bulb in the fuel pump's center, just below the star. Would that today's gas pumps were just as pleasing to the eye!

Professionally printed on archival-quality 11x14 photo paper, the Route 66 image itself measures 11-1/2 by just under 7-3/4 inches, bordered in white for ease of framing and to prevent errant fingerprints from marring the photo. If you are interested in another size, just send me a note. I sign, date, and number each print before mailing.

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When I visited the Ambler-Becker Texaco and photographed this terrific red and green gas pump, it was the perfect April day: sun shining, a gentle breeze, and a few bees buzzing about the windowboxes beneath the filling station's canopy. I couldn't have asked for a better day to document the station!

Vintage filling station fixtures and tools like this gas pump are very popular with collectors and even interior designers for their great looks and vintage provenance. I've seen even rusted, weathered fuel pumps go for astronomical amounts of money. I wouldn't mind having one or three myself, but in the meantime, I do have photos, and you can too.

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