Barnsdall-Rio Grande Gas Station – Goleta, California

NEARLY 90 YEARS AFTER IT was built, a #beautiful #little #abandoned #gas #station waits in Goleta, California, for its fate to be decided.

The Barnsdall-Rio Grande gas station was born of the sudden tremendous success of its namesake oil company and the influence of the civic leader #Pearl #Chase.

Chase was leading the efforts to rebuild the Santa Barbara area after the 1925 earthquake, and favored #Spanish #Colonial style architecture.

When the oil company hired the firm Morgan, Walls & Clements to build its flagship gas station near their oil fields on Highway 101, it followed Chase’s example. The building was small but impressive, with #white #stucco walls, red #mission #tiles on the roof, a molded border for the upper windows, a #domed #cupola on top, and blue and white #tile around the doors and windows on the first floor.

#William #Randolph #Hearst was known to stop there when traveling between Los Angeles and San Simeon.

The gas station survived a Japanese #submarine #attack on the California coast in 1942, but a few years later Highway 101 was rerouted, isolating the little gas station, and by the early 1950s it had closed.

Still #abandoned, its future is uncertain. Residents hope the building will be restored to its former beauty and made into a #museum.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/barnsdall-rio-grande-gas-station