Back in fall of 2020, I took a long overnight trip down U.S. Route 11, which runs parallel to Interstate 81 through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. At least, that was the stretch of these long north-south highways I stuck to.

Along the way, I spotted lots of neat old buildings from the 20th century’s road-trip days, some pre-WWII and some from the postwar decades. I pulled over for countless photos, but one building in particular eluded me. I was on the wrong side of the highway and there were trucks parked in front of it, making a good shot pretty difficult. It was an auto garage/gas station building, with a Streamline Moderne look, and a tower with glass blocks in the middle, over a door.

I originally thought it was one of these vintage Gulf garages. Here’s an image from Chester H. Liebs’s excellent Main Street to Miracle Mile, which I had just read ahead of my trip, and a photo from eBay:

I figured it would be easy enough to locate on Google Maps, or find it on Flickr or some such, but I was unable to find it again. But in 2021, my wife and I spent a weekend in the Staunton area, and we took Route 11 to avoid the truck traffic on I-81. I knew this neat auto garage was somewhere between Winchester and Staunton, so I was looking forward to stopping for it this time.

I found it, I was on the right side of the highway, and there were no trucks. I pulled in for a shot. But I’d either misremembered the building, or come upon a second and very similar one. It wasn’t quite what I remembered seeing, but maybe I just had those Gulf images in my head.

It’s obviously a former auto garage/gas station, but it’s also been heavily modified. On the far left, the building has been expanded with a new garage bay; the former garage bay in the middle has been covered over; and the right-hand side, once a glass window, has been turned into a wall cladded in siding, and with residential-style windows. (Also notice the TV antenna!)

Despite the very close similarities, however, it is not a Gulf. The glass tower and overall dimensions are just a bit off. I can say that because I know what it is—if I hadn’t figured it out, I would have assumed it was a slightly different version of the Gulf structure. Here is how this window company office started life:

This image is from a Virginia state government page on the rehabilitation of historic structures. Look at how many of these 1950s Streamline Moderne Amoco stations you can find just in Virginia. Especially along older highways outside of high-growth areas, you can spot a lot of this stuff, sometimes restored, sometimes abandoned, and sometimes informally repurposed. These erstwhile brand-centric designs become the raw material of small businesses and the public domain of the built environment.

Most of these buildings in higher growth areas have either been remodeled completely or the properties redeveloped. Driving away from the city is like going back in time. And Route 11 is like a time machine.

Related Reading:

A Small Virginia Market

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #22

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