Corner Gas

Not surprisingly, gas stations readily adopted the Moderne style. Not only was it a new jazzy thing about the time gas stations were proliferating, but the style also conveys a message worth sending.

Moderne, or Machine Age, streamlined styling suggested speed and was perfect for making the customer feel part of the modern age of autos, airplanes and steamships.

Moderne architecture incorporated design elements like rounded corners, bands of windows, smooth white surfaces, flattened pilasters at the corners and flanking the central bay, flat roof. And yes, no historic detail.

This service station in Fort McLeod Alberta even adds in the exotic Art Deco stepped Ziggurat shape - an easy enough adaptation of the false front on many of the frame buildings in that town's centre.


The badly deteriorating artwork in the large shop window, from a period when the structure housed the bus station, is an essay on the Art Moderne aesthetic. Have a close look.


Well done Fort McLeod (which has a well-preserved and well-curated historic downtown; here's a link to a post about our walking tour day there.

corner windows, Belleville

Surprisingly, I have captured only a few. of these wonderful gas stations.


So by way of consolation, a few other Art Moderne examples from my travels.

curves and glass block, Picton

curves, glass block and neon, Nipigon

neon in Nipigon