5 Responses to Service Stations

1. Tulsa station next to the old fire house in Market Square. Station on op. side next to the diner on Unicorn St. Bossy gillis’s on right side of fire house. gas station and garage at the traffic circle. Sunoco station on corner of Market St on Merrimack St. with the old 1930s car on the roof , lit with neon lights.

   

   p.j. nichypor May 26, 2009 at 10:34 pm Reply

2. Bennetts gas station- by the traffic circle.

   

   smars4444 July 29, 2009 at 5:43 am Reply

3. Just past the YMCA, ( when it was still there… ) was a shabby gas station on the corner of Harris St. on State St.. It was a large “footprint” for such a business. Fenn Motors could be seen at the back of the lot. I had been told that this was where the great Wolfe Tavern once stood. I was intrigued with the idea that something far more significant had occupied this corner at one time. I was equally outraged that it was probably leveled with no appreciation for the heritage of the Yankee City as had been the status quo in the 50’s and 60’s. I’d taken a great interest in Newburyport history, especially the architecture. I saw the downtown in the late 1950’s and recall a living and working center of commerce. I liked the idea that there was a “Unicorn” Street, an “Elbow” Lane, even a “Thread needle ” Alley. Then the stores vanished, the windows got boarded up the signs came down. The bulldozers moved in and so began a program of reckless civic vandalism that would have Newburyport joining the expanding list of cities that were destroying themselves through “Urban Renewal”… Even before the dust cleared from the first wave of architectural “Blitzkrieg”, a model of the future Newburyport was put on display in the street level window of one of the buildings along State St. that would soon become a brick strewn lot. This “Rendition” of a new downtown left me and I’m sure most others who viewed it, with a sick feeling. Downtown was to become a cheap glass and steel “Mall”. Unicorn Street had disappeared. Both sides of Merrimack Street, west from the Square, were without structures, sidewalks lined with steps that ended at nothing. Inn St. was getting a beating too, as was anything along the waterfront that didn’t fit the planned “Wonderland”. You could smell the “Death”, that damp rotting smell of old bricks and ancient timber being pulverised for progress. We all stayed clear of the demolition crews as they toiled on, blindly laying history to waste. It was a trend in Newburyport I’d learned, this disregard for the past. It was part of a pattern of sorts that had begun before I was born. The great Route 1 super highway that cut a wide swath through the city, may have been up until urban renewal, the most blatant and destructive project . The plan by a new owner of the abandoned Lord Timothy Dexter house on High St. was to tear it down. ( ref. Newburyport Daily News archives, May or June 1954). And of course, the mindless destruction of Wolfe Tavern, also in 1954. A gas station was to be built on the grave of this historic structure… The Daily News published photos of the process. One picture was of Phil Corbin, ( the demolition contractor) standing in front of an ancient mural painted on one of the interior walls. The caption referred to it as unfortunate that the work of art would simply vanish when the wall was leveled… The only reminder of Wolfe Tavern is a misplaced plaque on Inn St. that makes a vague reference to the building. The Caldwell distillery, the old Neptunes, The YMCA building, The Marquand mansion on Kent’s Island, the Alms House on N. Atkinson and Low Sts., Bossy’s Gas Station, etc., etc.. The further destruction of the remaining half of downtown ended one day. Somebody had a better idea. But it was too late for “Lost” Newburyport. Enjoy what was left. It really isn’t much. But at least the shells remain. The businesses as they were before progress and urban renewal rolled through Newburyport like a crazed, drunken giant with a “poor” attitude, are gone… As a P.S., think how Brown Square would look if the plans for Garrison Inn were carried out. Just to get a better idea as to the amount of demolition that has gone on in the city, do the following; Walk or drive by the expanses that are most of the current banks and their parking lots downtown. The blocks they occupy are big, think about what used to be there… Yankee City is gone.

   

   p. j. nichypor November 9, 2009 at 10:20 pm Reply

4. I think Checkoway’s on the corner of Market St. had pumps. There was Gig’s gas station on Balch’s Corner on the approach to the old Merrimack River bridge. There was a gas station before the bridge on the right between Rte: 1 and Tournament Wharf.

   

   p. j. nichypor February 4, 2010 at 7:29 pm Reply

5. Might anyone remember a gasoline station circa 1950’s located at 239 Bridge Road in Salisbury? Four gasoline tanks are recorded on a deed for that property. The tanks are recorded as owned by Tidewater Oil Company (aka Flying-A at that time). 239 is now 109 and the property between the former Gallagher’s Furniture building and what Paul’s Sports and Ski.

   

   David Cowie February 16, 2014 at 1:43 pm Reply