How to find local guides for gas station preservation

What to take away

• The people who know these sites best work in state environmental programs and local redevelopment, not tourism.
• Ask about a specific site rather than for general help. Specific questions get answered.
• Owners of adapted stations are the most generous source there is, and the easiest to reach.
• Nobody will take you onto a closed site. Do not ask them to.

Filling stations sit in an unusual gap. They are architecture, so preservation people care about them. They are also regulated sites, so environmental agencies hold most of the records. Tourism has barely noticed them at all.

That means the good contacts are in offices, and reaching them is easier than it sounds.

State tank programs hold the records

Federal rules for underground tanks are largely implemented by the states, and those state offices know which sites in a county have been closed, cleaned or are still open cases.

The Environmental Protection Agency maintains a directory of state underground storage tank programs, which is the fastest route to the right office. Records are frequently public, and staff are used to enquiries from prospective buyers.

For a visitor rather than a buyer, the useful question is narrower: which sites in this area have been through the program and been reused. That produces a list of exactly the places worth visiting.

Redevelopment people know what is happening next

The other half of the picture is who is putting these sites back into use.

The brownfields program supports the assessment and reuse of properties whose redevelopment is complicated by contamination, and small former filling stations are a classic case. Local and regional bodies administer much of this work, and the coordinators know every stalled and completed project in their area.

They are also usually pleased to talk about the successes, since demonstrating them is part of the job.

The other useful people

• Owners of adapted stations. The single best source. They dealt with the tanks, the agency and the building, and most will tell you the whole story over a coffee.
• State preservation offices, for what is listed and what is eligible.
• County historical societies, for photographs of the site when it was trading.
• Local historians of the highway, who usually know which brand was where and when.
• Environmental consultants, occasionally, and usually only if a personal connection exists.

How to ask

One specific question, your dates, and what you are doing. Name the site if you have one. Offer to come at a time that suits them.

Do not ask anybody to let you onto a closed site. It puts them in a difficult position, and the answer is no for reasons that are about liability rather than unfriendliness.

What good looks like

A useful contact can tell you what happened to the tanks, when the site was cleaned, what the building was, and what it is now. They will also say plainly when something is not known.

Somebody who tells you a derelict site is perfectly safe to wander around is not a good contact, whatever else they know.

Fitting it together

Two or three emails a couple of weeks ahead will usually produce one conversation and a list of sites. That is a better trip than any amount of driving around looking.

The safety reasoning behind all of this is in the packing list, and what the preservation work actually involves will make the conversations far more productive.

Common questions

Will a state agency really answer a member of the public? Yes, for records questions. Keep it short and specific, and expect a week or two.

Is any of this information public? Much of it. Availability varies by state, and the office will tell you what is and is not.

Can I hire someone to take me round? Occasionally, through a preservation organization. It is not a developed market for this subject.

What is the single best contact? An owner who has converted one. Everything you want to know, from somebody who paid for the answers.