Why were early gas stations built to resemble English cottages and Greek temples? How does Teddy Roosevelt's busting of the Standard Oil Trust in 1911 relate to the lack of Exxon and Chevron stations in the Mid-west today? What corporate decisions and economic pressures lay behind the Bauhaus-inspired stations of the 1930s? What have gas stations symbolized in the American experience? Geographer John Jakle and historian Keith Sculle have teamed up to write a unique and comprehensive history of the American gas station - its architecture, its place in the landscape and in popular culture, and its economic role as the most visible manifestation of one of the country's largest industries. This text covers the first curbside filling stations - with their jury-rigged water tanks and garden hoses - the nationwide chains of look-alike stations whose design pioneered the place-product packaging concept copied by motels and fast-food restaurants. Jakle and Sculle begin with a look at how the gas station evolved in response to America's growing mobility. They describe the oil company marketing strategies that led to the familiar brand names, logos, uniforms and station designs that came to dominate the nation's highways. They explain why certain companies and their stations thrived in certain regions while others failed. And they document the reason for the gas station's abrupt decline in recent decades. Illustrated with more than 150 photos and drawings - of gas stations, vintage advertisements, maps and memorabilia. As the number of true gas stations continues its steady decline - from 239,000 in 1969 to fewer than 100,000 today - the words and images in this book bear witness to an economic and cultural phenomenon that was perhaps more uniquely American than any other of this century.