Finding old gas stations
This Gasoline Station AR project was inspired by two old gas stations along the highway between Calgary and Edmonton. One at the Olds turnoff and one beside the Beaver Hills Rest Area, known today for a large sea-can container with “FIREWORKS” written on it. The one at Olds lost its access road from the highway decades ago while the Beaver Hills station briefly becomes another business every five or ten years. The temporary fireworks structure has been there for at least ten years.
When it comes to locating the gas stations we will use in our project, we have relied on personal recollections from on of our consultants, Gerry Straathof, discoveries on digital mapping applications using different forms of ‘streetview’, if available, and word of mouth from those people we contact to get permission to scan these buildings.
In some cases, the building seen on mapping apps is no longer there or has changed so much as to be unsuitable for our purposes. The old service station in Beiseker, is a good example of the changes these kinds of buildings undergo. Gerry remembers seeing it in 2012 or so, with a large red 40’s truck beside it and a cafe inside selling ice cream. Upon scouting it as a candidate for scanning we discovered it had been renovated to become a used car dealership, and was no longer recognizable as a service station. Where it used to have a well-worn aesthetic of surviving different businesses over the years with old gas pumps and wooden doors, it is now a dark blue metal building and all its’ history of gasoline based industries erased under fresh asphalt.
the difference between two maps of the same location in Claresholm.
These changes over time between when the locations’ likeness was captured for digital mapping and the current state of these buildings is an interesting component of their digital identity. Even between apps the location can undergo significant changes. In Claresholm, for instance, there was a drive-in snack bar called Old Fox, with Google Streetview imagery taken in 2018. On the Apple Maps app ‘look around’ featuer it has been replaced by a Sobeys LIquor Store. Even the satellite imagery of the Apple app doesn’t match the scene in the look around view, with the Old Fox still evident.
It became obvious that we could not rely solely on the digital mapping applications available to plan our trips to capture old gas stations, but they could offer clues to where ‘candidate’ buildings might be.
Permission
One of the primary goals of this project has been to gain permission from people to scan their buildings, whether it is the tenant or the owner. In some cases, such as the wonderful brick gas station in Granum that was built in the 20’s, it gets more complicated when there is no evident tenant, and the owner is not known by other businesses in the town. Our usual method of finding owners is checking with local museums, then nearby businesses and finally the town or municipal office. Many times people feel uncomfortable giving contact information, so we must provide our contact details and wait to see if the tenant/owner calls us back.
Brick service station and garage in Granum built in the 30’s. The gas pumps were directly on the street. Owner unknown.
There have been only a few buildings which we have not been able to get permission to scan because of reclusive or non-local owners. For the most part people have been very open to having a record of their buildings created as a 3D model.
One of the benefits of gaining permission is learning about additional gasoline stations which we did not konw about. While talking to the owner of Alec’s Garage in Cayley we were told about wnother old service station in High River. High River had been on our radar because of the old Eamon’s station which had been moved from the Tuscany in Calgary, along Crowchild trail. If we hadn’t talked to the owner of Alec’s Garage, we wouldn’t have learned about these two stations in High River.
Two old stations in High river “near Lois Lanes’ House”
We are still working on finding the information on this owner to gain permission, but one can appreciate the benefits of getting permission for scanning these buildings, from getting additional information and finding clues as to other locations to find old service buildings that are hidden but known by locals.
Next post: Scouting locations prior to photographing.