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Embassy
Gulf Service Station Washington DC
Location: 2200 P St., NW, Washington, DC
The Embassy Gulf Service Station, designed in 1936 by
Gulf Oil Corporation architect P.L.R. Hogner, was conceived and sited to complement
its setting as part of an aesthetic directive by the Gulf Oil Corporation to construct
a gas station with details, materials and massing more commonly associated with
the mainstays of the communities such as banks and libraries. More than 170,000
gas stations were doing business in the United States by 1933.
By 1937, Gulf Oil
corporation alone boasted 60 service stations in Washington.
The construction of the Embassy Gulf Service Station was
part of Gulf's corporate expansion in Washington, DC. The exacting reviews and regulations
in Washington necessitated that most of the Gulf stations designed for the city
required further adaptation from their original designs. The sitting of the station
adjacent to Rock Creek park triggered a review by the Commission of Fine Arts, as
well as review by the National Park Service and the National Capital Parks and Planning
Commission. The Embassy Gulf Service Station is an important symbol
of Gulf Oil's
commitment to developing gas station architecture as community assets worthy of
praise and preservation.
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