If you ever find yourself driving through Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and need to fill up with gas, the Shell Service Station at the intersection of East Sprague and Peachtree Streets won’t be able to help. However, once you’ve got fuel in the tank, you might want to check it out.
Although the filling station hasn’t pumped gas for seven decades, it’s still worth a visit as the only remaining scallop-shaped gas station in the United States. Reflecting the popularity of novelty architecture and literal advertising in the 1920s and 1930s, eight filling stations were built in the shape of seashells in the Winston-Salem area. The one on the corner of Sprague and Peachtree was erected in 1930 by Quality Oil, the local Shell distributor. It has a wood and wire frame covered in stucco and formerly housed the service station's office and bathroom.
The small size of the building limited the amount of services it could provide, and it stopped operating in the 1950s. Unlike the other shell-shaped stations in the Winston-Salem area, this one was saved from demolition when it began housing a lawn mower repair business in the early 1970s.
The scallop-shaped building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, becoming the first individual filling station to make the list. It was restored to its original appearance by Preservation North Carolina, revitalizing the bright yellow-orange color of the shell; the trellised area for repairing and washing cars was reconstructed; and replica gas pumps and lamp posts from the heyday of the station were erected in front. It is now a small museum for Preservation North Carolina, and although you can't go inside, it makes a great photo-op.
"Fill 'er up!"
- Shell can trace its origins to the UK-based Shell Transport and Trading Company, set up in 1897 by brothers Marcus Samuel, Jr. and Samuel Samuel (yes, really), originally to export kerosene to Asia. The name “Shell” was inspired by another company, owned by Marcus Samuel, Sr., which was involved in the seashell trade. The Shell Transport and Trading Company merged with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in 1907 to become Royal Dutch Shell.
- The first Shell logo, used in the early 20th century, depicts a black-and-white mussel shell. It was updated to a scallop shell, specifically the Pecten maximus (giant scallop). The yellow and red colors in the logo were likely chosen because of their use in maritime signaling and to visually contrast with the blue used by Standard Oil on kerosene cans in the late 1800s.
- Today, Shell is the world’s second-largest investor-owned oil and gas company, behind only ExxonMobil.
