ArtFire

In perfect 1950s-cherry crimson and swanky 40s jadeite green, bearing the ruby-red Texaco star and trimmed in silver chrome, the stylish vintage gas pump in this 5x7 retro art photo stands before a filling station that served Illinois Route 66 travellers for nearly seven decades. Now, this pretty gas pump (no, really, there is such a thing-just look at it!) has metamorphosed into an object of beauty for our admiration instead of simply serving out its days as a piece made solely for 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!

The charming filling station where the swell gas pump in this documentary art photo lives 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 (which became a Marathon in later years) dispensed fuel to Route 66 motorists until 1999-after a neatly rounded 66 years of business. Ambler-Becker is one of the oldest continually operating service stations along Route 66. Even after the station stopped selling gasoline, the service aspect of the Ambler-Becker lived on, as cars were worked on in the filling station's bays until as late as 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 5x7 art photo is, as befits the decade of its birth, most stylish, with handsome Art Deco touches. Tall, upright 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-moon-weathered and a bit dinged, but no less fine for its age-surrounds the indicator bulb in the fuel pump's center, just below the star. We can even see the little silver coil inside the glass bulb! Would that today's gas pumps were just as pleasing to the eye, right?

Professionally printed on archival-quality 5x7 photo paper, the image of the Texaco pump itself is bordered in white for ease of framing and to protect it from damage. If you are interested in another size, just send me a note; this Texaco-Route 66 photo is also available in 5x7, 9x12, 11x14, and larger; several of these can be found in my shop already. I sign, date, and number each print before mailing.

It was during my very first road trip on 66 that I took this photo at the Ambler-Becker Texaco/Marathon in Dwight, Illinois. Among many filling stations along the Mother Road, I think this is one of those that really shows us what the old gas and service stations of the 30s and 40s really looked and felt like, thanks to its delightful restored state. To see a gas pump like the one in this 5x7 photo in such fine, like-new condition was a real treat, too.

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