The Faboulus Torch and Ovals of Detroit

[mtburb]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...85.11,,0,-3.75

This one is at Schafer and I-96. You can see tarp covering up the "Amoco" name on the streetside sign, but the freeway sign is left untouched. Plus the canopy is in BP colors.

Now click south on Schafer and you can see the Amoco name on the streetside sign clearly and the canopy still in the red, white, blue and black colors. Now go to the south side of the freeway. An old Sunoco freeway sign and a new BP sign in place.

[Whitehouse]

Haven't I seen this junktion before? Wasn't the Amoco station turned into "Obama" during the elections? I remember cause of the gulf oil desaster. The picture of those two stations opposite each other was a way of telling that story of Obama chasing after BP to clean up their act.

Like this one.

[313WX]

What's funny is the Amoco gas station at Chalmers & Harper has been gone [[demolished & everything) for at least 5+ years and until the past month or so the freeway Amoco sign was still up as if nothing changed.

BP finally took the Amoco sign itself down, but everything else [[the stand) is still up.

Actually, according to Google, the location did actually become a BP before closing [[judging from the street sign).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,96.94,,0,2.18

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,45.82,,0,4.58

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...266.86,,0,11.2

[Whitehouse]

Biggest Amoco sign in the world.

Still there. St.Louis, Missouri.

Three gasstations on one crossing was too much competition...
BP [[= Former Citgo) opposite Obama [[= Sunoco) and a third station which is closed [[possibly also BP).


Partytime!

I think they used the Amoco sign to put a BP logo in top.

[mtburb]

What's funny is the Amoco gas station at Chalmers & Harper has been gone [[demolished & everything) for at least 5+ years and until the past month or so the freeway Amoco sign was still up as if nothing changed.

BP finally took the Amoco sign itself down, but everything else [[the stand) is still up.

Actually, according to Google, the location did actually become a BP before closing [[judging from the street sign).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,96.94,,0,2.18

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,45.82,,0,4.58

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...266.86,,0,11.2

Well, this past summer I drove up and down I-94 and at Chalmers I saw the freeway torch and oval and I looked to see if there was a gas station next to it. But there was none! I thought "Weird, there's no gas station there, yet a freeway-sized sign advertised so?"

Click on the first link, the BP sign is still standing. Click eastward and you will be transported to last year and the BP sign is gone!

[mtburb]

Haven't I seen this junktion before? Wasn't the Amoco station turned into "Obama" during the elections? I remember cause of the gulf oil desaster. The picture of those two stations opposite each other was a way of telling that story of Obama chasing after BP to clean up their act.

Like this one.

And to make things more odd, during the spill, BP announced that they were changing their name to Amoco!

[mtburb]

Biggest Amoco sign in the world.

Still there. St.Louis, Missouri.

Three gasstations on one crossing was too much competition...
BP[[= former Citgo), directly across an "Obama" [[= Sunoco) and one station that closed, possibly also BP.

Strange, clicking on either link takes me to the Amoco sign at Chalmers and I-94.

Here's the correct links:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...73.69,,0,-2.15 for the BP and Obama stations. Click on either way and you can see the former as a Citgo station and the latter as a Sunoco station.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...30.8,,0,-10.16 for the largest Amoco sign on Earth in Saint Louis.


http://www.gassigns.org/amoco.htm See more photos of Amoco signs at the link. From here, you can explore the gassigns.org site. It has countless gas station pictures from around the world.


Plus if you take a trip to downtown Durand, there is a BP station that has a Standard sign.

[Whitehouse]

Strange, clicking on either link takes me to the Amoco sign at Chalmers and I-94.

Here's the correct links:

.

I stink! Funny thing is, I search google maps for BP stations. You know how many there are. Hundreds of red dots on the map. And this junktion was the fourth one I picked to see.

Wish I has so much luck in the lottery....

[mtburb]

Partytime!

I think they used the Amoco sign to put a BP logo in top.

Both link to the Amoco station I linked to earlier today.

[Whitehouse]

Both link to the Amoco station I linked to earlier today.

I know... I stink!

[mtburb]

Something odd I noticed while searching for Torch and Ovals in Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...183.93,,0,1.26

Crime scene?

[mtburb]

Found this one near Mount Clemens:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...99.99,,0,-3.74

Look around. You will see a freeway Amoco sign which also advertisies diesel being sold at this station. Then you see a leaning light post, then the up-to-date BP, but the convienence store sign is still Amoco.

[mtburb]

Could this be the last Total in Michigan?

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...141.05,,0,2.89

That is a marina station [[or whatever you call them) on the Huron River near it's mouth.

[Whitehouse]

You'll enjoy this!

[Whitehouse]

Could this be the last Total in Michigan?

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...141.05,,0,2.89

That is a marina station [[or whatever you call them) on the Huron River near it's mouth.

This one is still in basic Total livery.

[mtburb]

This one is still in basic Total livery.

And without the Total name anywhere to be seen. When Total exited the Great Lakes State many became Speedway stations. Today I drove down Jefferson to the Huron River and the Total sign was still there! No wonder why Speedway is refusing to take that sign down.

That trip, I stopped at a BP at Detroit and Alexis in Toledo. Driving back home I came across an Admiral at Telegraph and Seventh Street in Monroe and on Monroe Street north of town I saw an Exxon station. That was the first time I saw an Exxon station in my home state!

See the Exxon station as a Sunoco here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...309.64,,0,1.39

[Magnatomicflux]

O/T really quick, sorry folks. Can anyone tell me what these are? Look like some kind of lamps.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,0.097332&z=13

[mtburb]

This Speedway's canopy is still in plain Total red: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...70.75,,0,-2.71

[Whitehouse]

O/T really quick, sorry folks. Can anyone tell me what these are? Look like some kind of lamps.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,0.097332&z=13

Looks like air pipes. As you can see there are caps in the pavement. This was the filling spot for the filling station itself. There are underground storage tanks there. I guess they didn't remove the whole station. Over here in the Netherlands these underground tanks in private hands have been disabled. In days gone by homes that were far away from the grid used to have their own heating oil supply and storage.
The tanks are sometimes taken out of the ground but sometimes they are also emptied and filled with sand. In this case maybe there was a financial motive not to remove those tanks. It could mean that there's an environmental hazard here.

Are there more brands in Detroit that are gone now? I can't find a Chevron station.

[313WX]

Are there more brands in Detroit that are gone now? I can't find a Chevron station.

Remember 76 [[Union 76)?

They are/were known for the signs featuring a big orange ball with the numbers 7*6* painted on them in an indigo color.

They used to be all over Detroit 15+ years ago, but good luck finding one now [[ironically most of them were initially converted to BPs). Besides that fact, when the corporate merger with Chevron took place they replaced the orange ball at the remaining locations with a regular sign.

Exxon recently marked its presence in Metro Detroit [[though I only know of 2 locations).

Then of course about 15-20+ years ago there was this gas station chain known as "Total" around Metro Detroit. There's another Total brand that mainly has its presence in Europe, but I'm not sure if it has any connection with the american brand.

I also know the gas station on Van Dyke across from Perfecting Church about 10 years ago was a Texaco [[I'm not sure if there are/were any other locations in Metro Detroit).

Then of course there was a chain way back in the day known as Arco [[the only ruins I can find of it to this day in Detroit is a former location on Mack & Beniteau, the sign is still there). It was brought out by BP as well. It still exist however in other parts of the country.

Clark used to have locations all over the city as well, but in the past 5 years [[I'm wondering if it had anythigng to do with the oil crisis) most of them have been converted to either independent gas stations or other chains.

Finally Valero has opened numerous locations around Detroit in the past few years.

[econ expat]

Then of course about 15-20+ years ago there was this gas station chain known as "Total" around Metro Detroit. There's another Total brand that mainly has its presence in Europe, but I'm not sure if it has any connection with the american brand.

"To-tal is here, the international gas-o-line"
[[slogan used when Leonard service stations were converted to Total, and convenience stores) Total WAS here. Then was bought out in MI by Marathon. Marathon already owned Speedway and decided to expand the Speedway brand by converting the Total stations.

[Whitehouse]

then of course about 15-20+ years ago there was this gas station chain known as "Total" around Metro Detroit. There's another Total brand that mainly has its presence in Europe, but I'm not sure if it has any connection with the american brand.

If there isn't an American/Europena connection between the Totals, the was a connection in the past. The lone Total sign found in the Detroit area was also used in Europe.

We never had Exxon. We do have Esso, which is a direct decent of Exxon. One gasstation made it's way into a museum. This gasstation was designed by famed Dutch Architect Willem Dudok. Check out the wikipage for more great creations of him.



This gas station used to stand along the motorway A2. This motorway was widened in 1994 from 2+2 to 3+3 lanes in 1994. This year the same motorway [[between Amsterdam and Utrecht) was reopened as a 5+5 motorway.\

Nice one for you all: it was moved with American Power!



The oldest Esso filling station still excists. It was build in 1993 and is now preserved as the entrance of a museum[[!!!)


I didn't know that this was an old gasstation but I've seen it myself. There were two ambulances vandalised over there.





[[Turned out, this was part of an art project....)

[mtburb]

"To-tal is here, the international gas-o-line"
[[slogan used when Leonard service stations were converted to Total, and convenience stores) Total WAS here. Then was bought out in MI by Marathon. Marathon already owned Speedway and decided to expand the Speedway brand by converting the Total stations.

When Total was replaced by Speedway in Michigan, some of their stations became Rich stations. The only such case I know of in the Detroit areas was the former Total at Eureka & Allen in Taylor.

[mtburb]

Are there more brands in Detroit that are gone now? I can't find a Chevron station.

I cannot find a Bonded or Boron station in Detroit.

Have you ever seen a Fuelman sign at a Detroit area station recently? What are the reasons for such signs?

[Magnatomicflux]

Looks like air pipes. .

Thanks Whitehouse.