It’s hard to believe that we’re turning the page to yet another month on the calendar, as April 2021 gets underway. We also find ourselves in a time of year, when the weather gets warmer and we begin to become more mobile As we anticipate a spring and summer that will yield more normal activities, it seems like a good excuse to “travel” back a bit in time, to eras where local service stations offered gasoline at much lower prices than today. Feeling nostalgic yet? Consider that our featured service stations’ attendants actually pumped the gas for you! We’ll start with a look at one of the oldest Lee County service stations on record, operated by the Cox family on Trade Street in the heart of the Jonesboro section in 1929.
Next . . . this is no longer the case, but for much of the 1940s & 1950s, Carthage Street was considered “gas station row” by local residents, with a handful of stations located pretty much right next to each other. Here’s a picture that provides us with a view of 3 different ones side-by-side-by-side.
Here is a view of yet another Carthage station a little further down the street at the intersection with Steele. There’s no gasoline station there presently, but this Esso station, seen here in the 1940s, generated a lot of business in its heyday, largely due to its location at one of Sanford’s busiest intersections.
The road we know today as Horner Boulevard (formerly Endor Street) has also always had a number of service stations. Here we see a Phillips 66 station from the 1950s.
In that same time frame, there was also a Phillips 66 gas station located at 502 Carthage Street. This also seems like a good time to note that these were truly “service” stations in those days. Gas station attendants actually came up to the driver’s window to find out how much gas the customer wanted, pumped the gas, cleaned the windshields and completed the transaction. “Self service” stations didn’t become popular until the 1970s.
As our final pit stop, let’s also make note that baseball season is just about to get under way. This long-departed service station at the corner of Endor (Horner) and Carthage in 1954 won’t look familiar, but it’s owner enjoyed a good deal of notoriety at the time. Hank Nesselrode was a popular player for the Sanford Spinners minor league team. He settled in Sanford and got into the gas station business after his career was over.
Editorial content, pictures and research background, compliments of Jimmy Haire and Images of America: Sanford and Lee County, by Jimmy Haire & W.W. Seymour, Jr, available here for purchase. All book proceeds go to Sanford’s Railroad House Historical Association, Inc.
