The First Drive-In Gas Station
Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
In December of nineteen thirteen, Gulf Refining Company opened a facility at this Pittsburgh address that was among the earliest of its kind: a purpose-built drive-in station designed specifically to sell gasoline, oils, and lubricants directly to automobile owners. Earlier fuel sales happened at hardware stores, livery stables, and pharmacies, wherever you could find a barrel of the stuff. Gulf's Pittsburgh station changed that by treating the automobile driver as a customer who deserved a dedicated service point.
Employees greeted drivers, pumped the fuel, and checked the oil. The model was an immediate success. Within years, competing oil companies were constructing thousands of similar stations across the country, eventually reshaping the American roadside, the suburb, and the automobile culture that defines so much of the country today.
Gulf's first drive-in station opened here, at this corner in Pittsburgh.
