Old Rundown or Abandon Service Stations

[Charles (in GA)]

Thought I'd post some pics of an old service station that is a few miles from my house, on a fairly well traveled state highway. Its located in a small community that used to be incorporated, but dwindled away till it lost its municipal charter. Just a convenience store and a couple of other buildings now.

Charles

 

[autoist]

Sad, but they're all over the South in little dying towns.

 

[1984GMC]

shame, If I was a single guy I'd love to buy something like that and restore it.

 

[Thumper]

Oh man..... fire up the weedeater and break out the paint.

Sad to see them in that shape. I watched a 2 bay station/shop fall in over the years from neglect on a main highway.

 

[Joel 67]

How long has it been closed down? Looks like 20 years or so?

 

[Joe B.]

Nice to see nature taking over the mess left by people.

 

[MN BIANCHI]

I looked at the pictures before I looked the the posters ID. My first thought was "Must be in Georgia" Is that Kudzu growing on the walls etc?

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

WOW. You would never see anything like that here in Sonoma County... I am impressed.

Adam

 

[mrb]

thats pretty neat. looks just like one of the computer animations from that Life After People show on the history channel.

 

[gorilla]

WOW. You would never see anything like that here in Sonoma County... I am impressed.

Adam

Check out the Shilo road exit west of 101 or Petaluma Hill Road south of Cotati

 

[35mastr]

Is that place For Sale? If so, What is the asking price?

Curious as to what a shop costs like that after being closed for all those years.

Would make a great hot rod shop. For building your own cars.

 

[BackAgain]

Is that place For Sale? If so, What is the asking price?

Curious as to what a shop costs like that after being closed for all those years.

Would make a great hot rod shop. For building your own cars.

It would be different all over the country. From a real estate point of view, the building is probably worthless, and the only value would be the land.

Though, if I was close enough to something like that to take pics, I'd be finding the owner and giving them a call. Probably something they want to get rid of. Somebody has to be paying the property taxes...

There's an old Texaco station for sale here but the shop isn't much bigger than a 2 car garage and they want $350k.

 

[djjsr]

I was considering buying an old gas station a few years ago but found out I'd also end up owning the responsibility for cleaning up any contaminated land. That can be a huge expense. Probably one of the reasons there are so many abandoned stations across the country.

 

[sixball]

I was considering buying an old gas station a few years ago but found out I'd also end up owning the responsibility for cleaning up any contaminated land. That can be a huge expense. Probably one of the reasons there are so many abandoned stations across the country.

+ 1 on that, the price for the testing of the land before and after the "cleanup" as well as the cleanup would be close to 3 to 5 times the ammount of what the land/structure is even worth.

I often see those old stations and think of all the cars that were serviced in there. All the old metal oil cans that were opened up .....

 

[bazzateer]

There was a thread on Retro-rides.org last year with pics of old UK and European garages. I'll see if I can find it and link to it later when I'm home. I think I've got a couple on my photobucket account too.

 

[lilredex]

I was considering buying an old gas station a few years ago but found out I'd also end up owning the responsibility for cleaning up any contaminated land. That can be a huge expense. Probably one of the reasons there are so many abandoned stations across the country.

Very true. Around the corner was a Petro Canada station that was ready for a new life after going downhill for a number of years. It was torn down, tanks removed, then a hole was excavated "half way to China" to get rid of the years of built up contamination. Answers to my question to who was paying for that deed was answered when they built a new Tim Horton's (coffee and donuts, for those not familiar with this operation).

Can't help wondering what overpass approach received that mess. Did the problem soil really go away??

 

[KELLHAMMER]

I love old buildings that are all over grown. That's something you just don't create

 

[bazzateer]

Not exactly old and run down but it is old:

Old Lodge spark plug factory now an apartment block

I thought I had more pics but it seems not.

 

[bazzateer]

This http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=68331 thread has a few interesting photos of abandoned delaerships, garages and even a racetrack, some in the USA, others in Europe.

Another: http://www.flickr.com/photos/super2cv/3196534800/

 

[Bib Overalls]

Can't help wondering what overpass approach received that mess. Did the problem soil really go away??

The dirt is usually "burnt" in a special incinerator. Expensive.

There is a microbe that can be injected into the dirt that actually eats the old oil based contaminates. It is occasionally used to treat in place. But it can also be used to treat excavated dirt. But I don't think it would be used in construction unless it was certified as clean.

 

[buildyourown]

Can't help wondering what overpass approach received that mess. Did the problem soil really go away??

If it's really bad, the dirt gets incinerated.
Otherwise, it's gets landfilled somewhere equipped to handle dirty waste. ie, lined, sealed, water capture and treatment.

Don't ever buy anything that used to have either underground storage tanks or an in-ground lift. If either of those have leaked, it's 6 figures min to clean up.
If the tanks are bad, you're looking at 1 mil plus.
Even if it's been "cleaned up", you can be on the hook or have to spend lots of money on legal fees to back sue.

 

[ihredo4]

These old garage/shop threads bring me so many memories. I have uncles on both sides of my family that had stations. I worked for the one uncle in his in Mississippi in 86-87. Keep posting more and more of these. I love them and may own one someday myself.

 

[lilredex]

If it's really bad, the dirt gets incinerated.
Otherwise, it's gets landfilled somewhere equipped to handle dirty waste. ie, lined, sealed, water capture and treatment..

Even those seem to be unreliable at best. Nobody in the lower portion of this province wants anything to do with dumpsites. We are so paranoid we ship (most) of our garbage to Michigan as do other local municipalities.

The latest one to be turned around is known as "dumpsite 41". The story is here:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=dump+site+41&meta=cr=countryCA&aq=0s&oq=dumpsite+41

 

[jteck75]

An excavating company that I used to turn wrenches for,got the bid on one of those clean up jobs in Tenn. As it turned out,the service station had been demolished 40+ years ago,and an old out of buisness coffee shop sat where it once stood. Somehow the EPA got wind of what used to be there and the new property owner got to foot the bill for the cleanup. We dug up and hauled away an acre of ground 6 feet deep. We then had to backfill it with compacted sand,adding a layer of lime on top of each layer of sand. I always thought that EPA stuff was hogwash until I had to work on a dozer down in the bottom of that pit. Forty years later and that ground reeked of oil so bad I couldn't hardly stand to be down there.

 

[ihredo4]

Sad but here in Idiotnoise there was a site I am aware of that had a tank found under the sidewalk in the city. As soon as that was found the job was shut down and diverted the project. That town disserves what it gets when the time comes.

 

[Lippyp]

Lots of old petrol (gas) stations shutting down here in the UK, mainly due to the supermarkets selling cheap fuel and also cars going much further on a tank now than they did 20-30 years ago. I can get all the way from Lancashire to my house in south west France on a hair over 2 tanks of diesel. Its can be a bit difficult to get fuel now if you travel away from the motorways/A roads now as most village fuel styations have closed.