1st Drive-In Filling Station
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
At this site in Dec. 1913, Gulf Refining Co. opened the first drive-in facility designed and built to provide gasoline, oils, & lubricants to the motoring public. Its success led to construction of thousands of gas stations by different oil companies across the nation.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In December 1913, on this Pittsburgh corner, the Gulf Refining Company opened what is generally recognized as the first purpose-built drive-in gas station — a facility designed from the ground up to sell gasoline, oils, and lubricants to a public newly in love with the automobile. Before it, motorists bought fuel in cans from hardware stores and pharmacies. Its success set off a nationwide building boom, as rival oil companies raced to line American roads with thousands of filling stations.
Why it matters
This unassuming corner marks the birth of an institution that reshaped the American landscape and made mass automobile travel practical, seeding the roadside culture that would define the century.
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