"Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan" Berenice Abbott (1936) |
Auto Camping and “Gypsying” Across America
A word might be said here about the
“gypsies” that journeyed via the automobile during the first few decades of the
twentieth century.31 Beginning around 1915 or so, gypsies in their
cars traveled throughout the U.S.A., setting up camp by the roadside. During
summer nights, their campfires dotted main routes. They pitched tents on
private property, often angering farmers who were typically far from
hospitable. In an effort to maintain order and promote this inexpensive
tourism, around 1920 communities through which many of these gypsies passed
began setting up free camping facilities near towns. Enterprising individuals
saw the commercial possibilities in all of this, and by the mid-1920s private
campgrounds were established, along with the first tourist cabins.32
The tourist
cabin, the size of a small shed with perhaps a cold water basin, bed, night
table and dresser, characterized the American roadside before World War II.
James Agee, writing for Fortune,
described these temporary domiciles as “curious little broods of frame and log
and adobe shacks which dot the roadside with their Mother Goose and Chic Sale
architecture, their geranium landscaping, their squeaky beds, and their
community showers.”33 With a rate of perhaps $2 a night, and the
fact that the owner cared little about names and who stayed in these
structures, fears of the “hot pillow” trade surfaced.
The
contemporary traveler on U.S. 40 or 66 has to look hard at the roadside to find
these cabins, once a place of rest for those who had made 300 miles a day and
were weary, hungry, and ready to stop for the evening. Later that night male
travelers would gather outside the cabins and compare notes about road
conditions and weather, while the women would congregate in one of the units
and chat. Only recently-married couples darken their cabins at an early evening
hour.
Fill’er Up
Of all the
roadside structures erected during the golden age of two-lane highways, perhaps
the most significant was the gas station. Gas stations and their architecture
and design developed in a competitive market with the hopes of attracting the
consumer through brand association. Indeed, the architecture of the gas station
played a vital role in attracting the consumer.
Initially,
gasoline stations did not exist in the sense of featuring a curbside pump.
Rather, workers filled gasoline containers and later transferred the gasoline
to the automobile by hand. In 1905, a revolution took place in terms of
gasoline dispensing as the Shell Oil Company opened its first true filling
station in St. Louis, using a gravity-fed tank with a simple garden hose
attached. In a few short years, the development of pumps made possible the
first curbside stations. In their earliest years, these stations primarily
existed in front of groceries, hardware stores, and other commonly-frequented
businesses.
Following
the early success of the curbside pump, the gas station evolved into a
dedicated structure featuring a shed-like profile. The shed housed offices and
supplies, but this was anything but an aesthetically pleasing structure, and a
call went out by civic-minded citizens for a more pleasing building. In
response, houses developed as a compromise.
These
house-type stations, frequently prefabricated, were large enough to contain an
office, storage rooms, and restrooms. They were made of brick, stucco, and
galvanized steel, and thus were relatively easy to maintain. And they were very
much characteristic of the new gas stations of the 1920s. For example, in 1922,
more than 200 of the 1,841 Shell gas stations included common design aspects,
and these 200 stations accounted for 40 percent of Shell’s business.
During the
1920s the house and then the house with canopy style became popular. By 1925,
most gasoline stations were equipped with grease pits and car washing
facilities. These bays allowed the station to offer an increasing number of
services, mainly minor repairs. Thus stations added to their business, and the
filling station was transformed into a service station. Houses could easily be
adapted to accompany one or several bays.
The house
gas station design suggested a bond with the American family, and Pure Oil
Company capitalized on this notion. Pure designed a cottage-type station
complete with a chimney, a gabled roof, and flower boxes on the windows.
Perhaps the
most influential gas station design appeared on the scene during the Great
Depression. This design, called the oblong box, developed as companies searched
for functionality in station design. This layout gave the company the ability
to sell tires, batteries, and accessories, referred to as the TBA line.
Generally,
this design featured a flat roof, plate glass, and an inexpensive porcelain
enamel-looking facing. The design was a loose example of the International
style, inspired by Walter Gropius and his Bauhaus School in Germany after World
War I. Most notably, Walter Dorning Teague, a designer hired by the Texaco
Company, made the oblong box a feature found in virtually every corner of
American life. The Architectural Record reported
that Teague’s stations featured “certain primary functional requirements [that]
were obvious, such as trademark and color standardization, efficient layout for
sales and servicing, adequate office and restroom space.” In sum, the oblong
box design met the physical need of adapting a structure to a variety of lots
and the primary psychological needs of comfort and convenience to the customer.
The house and oblong box gas stations characterized one facet in the
development of roadside structures prior to World War II. Certainly the
appearance of tourist cabins and then motels would reflect another view of
changes in structures just beyond the highway.
Road Food
In addition
to the camps, cabins, and gas stations, restaurants were also integral to life
along the road. It was in these distinctive eateries where bad, good, and
indifferent “road food” was served, often with regional flavors and dishes.
Many hungry travelers during the 1920s and 1930s gobbled hot dogs (frankfurters
were the term preferred by hot dog king Gobel), Bar-B-Q sandwiches, Good Humor
ice cream and Popsicles. If ever there was a food that typified America and its
restless citizens on the go, it was the humble hot dog.34
And while
the hot dog remains a popular meal at truck stops across America, where one can
purchase jalapeno, regular, ballpark, or corn dogs, with the rise of the
divided highways slowly but surely the distinctive meal was supplanted by chain
restaurants and fast food. How that transition from the two- to four-lane
highway happened in America is an interesting story. During the interwar years,
most construction consisted of two-lane highways like Route 66, as seldom were
divided highways even thought of. But between the wars, innovators began to
articulate ideas concerning the advantages of divided highway designs.
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