OT gas station historic research.

So a little historical back story.

My Grandfather had a large multi story at the time Phillips 66 Gas station/garage in the 30-50's in St Louis.
My father worked for him with his brothers. My dad enlisted in the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor, and was B-26 trained in the Tampa Florida area before being shipped to the Pacific.
He was very impressed with Florida.

Phillips 66 made a big expansion push into Florida in the mid 50's.
My dad now married and with kids had a falling out with my Grandfather, and decided to move to Florida when Phillips 66 offered him a brand new gas station.
As the family was moving the station promised in St Pete was behind schedule, so Phillips 66 offered another just being finished station just outside Port Everglades in Ft Lauderdale.
And the rest is history.

Reminiscing at a proper social distance recently with my 92 year old mother, she commented that my deceased dad had opened the first Phillips 66 in Florida.
I had never heard that before.

So I contact via email Phillips 66 and asked if they knew the first stations they opened in the 1950's in Fla.

This is their response:

"Thank you for taking the time to contact Phillips 66 Company. All of our stations are independently owned and maintained. We do not keep record of previously owned stations."

That is FWIW ,incorrect, my dad's station was Phillips 66 built and owned, leased month to month, opened by him when new, and closed by him for good, when Phillips offered him another newer nearby station.

Any ideas on how I could find out if he indeed did open the first Phillips 66 in Florida?

So I attached a pic of the station prior to grand opening, and a pic of my Dodge in HS that got a lot of attention by me inside.

i can't be of any help, however it will be fascinating to me to hear if your search is fruitful.
luck to you on your quest.

Can't help but, cool 62 Dodge


Near where I grew up in South East South Dakota , before I-29 plowed thru the country side , about 2 miles from my home ..was a 66 station , stood on corner .. I remember all the giveaways they had
the red/white glasses were my favorite .

Family's would hang out there in summer time , they had a flat top grill for burgers and sold cold beer , I played on the old neon sign ,after they drug it into the trees often ..

Wonder where it went or if it just went to scrap, the building still stands but, its in rough shape

I wonder if they used the same building design over and over since the is an old station built like that thats been empty forever in a small area of maybe 80 people seven miles from me. I always wanted to buy it due to how its built and all the glass.

I retired from Phillips 66, live in the St. Louis area, lived off MacDill AFB, Tampa in the 60's and I can't help you, LOL.
Maybe listing the address of your dad's 66 station in FL may help others?
Good Luck.

That is very interesting. I can't help you either but would love to hear about what you find out if anything.

it might be tough, but if the CAD records are online for florida, you could go county by county and do searches for people that held the title to the land.
if it was owned by the company, it should show up.

To prove he had the first, that would at least eliminate the other company owned ones.

Or you could try to find the article in the paper announcing the grand opening and see if it called out being the first.

Or a historical society in that area might know as well.

Do you remember the cross street that it was on? I live just southwest of that area , in Pembroke Pines, FL. I'm familiar with that Port Everglades area.

Thanks guys.

Address was 2400 S Andrews Ave, Ft Lauderdale (SE corner of SR 84 and Andrews Ave). After the station was shuttered, it was about 10? years operated as a Van Airport Rental business. It was recently listed for $2.6 million. An adjacent major hotel project bought it, but I believe the project went stale. Not even sure if its still standing.

Always said, I would buy and restore it if I had money left over from lottery winnings.

The building design was a much replicated design for the era by Phillips. The building design had a couple of distinct easy to spot shared features to the discerning eye among other things, the slanted front plate glass windows, the pump roof overhang pillars were tapered steel T beams, the under the plate window sill wall was tan flat layered sandstone.

Are we related?

It's still there. AND it's for sale.

2400 S Andrews

There ya go JCC...maybe you have a chance to get it...looks like a cool building...also love that '62 Dodge! Good Luck!

Who did you contact at Phillips 66? A lot of time it is about finding the right person in the right department. Someone at he Phillips 66 Company Museum is more likely to be of help than the company's generic "contact us" email address.

That is awesome that it is still standing. I work in the cultural resource field, and that building looks very intact aside from the roll up doors. You should check with the local historic preservation society with your story and see if it can be added to the national register of historic places. Florida Division of Historical Resources may also be a help in finding out who to contact about various details and can assist with placement on the National or State Register of Historic Places.

Knowing the exact address, the courthouse should have documents for the land transfers that can pinpoint exactly when it was sold to Phillips 66. In case there is competition with another location in Fl as to being "the first". It can also be useful to know how the company was listed/named at the time in legal documents which can be helpful if you want to dig into it more with local and state newspaper searches.

Neat story and super cool that it is still standing. Let us know what you find.

10 pumps and 2 (visible) work bays wow

Yea, a lot of memories back then.
My dad was originally open 7 days a week, 7-11pm. He gradually cut it back over the years. Since Phillips had a regional office around the corner, and the nearby infamous Pier 66 resort, they were always complaining about his constantly reducing hours.

He offered, when you guys work till 8:00pm, he won't stay open till then. I guess I share a bit of his thinking.
On the pumps, they were the full flow, non cut-off style, no time was ever wasted filling your tank at the full service islands, spilling a little gas at $.21/gal was no big deal.

I haven't been able to find the brand of gasoline that was pumped at the Chrysler dealer building I own. The corner of the building held a gas station under the roof and I don't know when they enclosed it to make the showroom bigger when they stopped selling gas. You can just see the open area on the right in this picture from 1962. The 66 Station looks cool even today, it would be great if it could be restored, but the cost would be staggering just buying the property!

Rhino, your library likely has city directories that list things like that. At least it's worth a try. If the directories don't have the answer, maybe the library can direct you to some local historian that can answer your questions.

I know that area well. That's a good area for buiness. I must have passed by that hundreds of times. It's about a block or two away from my doctors office . It's right by West Marine.
I guess if I'm in that area with my 68 Coronet, I'll pull in and take a picture of the car at the station getting gas.

So Jim, what’s your plan for the building?

Be warned, its not full service anymore.

I know it's vacant. Just saying when I am in the area I'll take a pic of the car up against where the pumps used to be.

Super cool pictures and family history! I hope you find more information, and thanks for sharing!

Still trying to decide what to do with it. I have been thinking about renting or leasing out the main service area for mechanical repairs to pay for the taxes (which are rediculous) and the utilities. I would like to put a Mr. Norms museum in the showroom and keep part of the service area and the upstairs for myself. I really need to figure it out in the next few months...

I live on Florida's west coast. On Friday i needed to run a couple of errands on the east side. One of them was to West Marine across the street from the OT old Phillips 66 station. The For Sale sign pictured in your link, is gone, and there appears to be active Phase 2 test wells being installed. So I guess its in the process of being sold, and after 65 years it might be gone for good.

This morning I was reading the latest HR mag May/2020, on the last page it had an article by contributor David Frieberger reminiscing about his past travels on Old Route 66, and he was sharing his sadness about the loss of 'artifacts" from past eras, like the still hanging "De Soto Plymouth" sign on a long closed building/gas station from 1935.

I can relate.

When I was working at Alabama Power I would get a call asking if we had early billing records maybe your local utilities can help you out. Just make sure you tell them your not looking for personnel records just historical. Good Luck!

i read the same article and can also relate. the old chrysler/plymouth dealership here closed around 1982 or so. the building was transformed into a 7-11, then a health service/doctors office complex.
before becoming a dealership, it was a penzoil gas station/service place.
the local historical committee placed a sign board across the street showing a picture of how the place looked in the thirties, while you are looking at the present building. that board also has text telling of the history of it until today.