Gas Station, Sumter Highway @ SC-764: 1980s(?) 3 comments
I noticed this abandoned gas station a few weeks ago coming back into town on the Sumter Highway. It sits where US-378 (The Sumter Highway) and SC-764 meet at a fork in the road.
I'm sure that the painting on the facade is sufficient to identify what brand of station it was, but I'm drawing a blank on it right now, and as often as I have driven (or ridden..) that road since the 1960s, I'm almost certain I never stopped there.
These pictures were taken about 5 minutes too late -- Just before I got to the area, the sun had broken through the storm clouds for that glorious late-afternoon-post-storm light you get sometimes, but by the time I started snapping, the clouds were already rolling back in. I wish I had the honey-suckle pumps in that light..
3 Responses to 'Gas Station, Sumter Highway @ SC-764: 1980s(?)'
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tonkatoy
19 Apr 12 at 6:41 am
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I don't recall this ever being a "name brand" gas station, just some generic brand.
Tom
21 Apr 12 at 5:26 am
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might have been abandoned in the late 80s or early 90s but I am almost positive it was Hurricane Floyd in 1999 that destroyed the canopy over the pumps. Was at Coastal Carolina and we had to come up here because we were evacuated. Was so thankful to be from here. Didn't have to stay in a hotel.
chris
22 Apr 12 at 4:12 pm
Yeah, IIRC, this place was a victim of the LUST (Leaking Underground Storage Tank) Act. In late 1989 a law was passed that basically said all USTs had to be replaced with ones that couldn't leak, or were less likely to...mainly plastic tanks.
Many stations couldn't afford the upgrade and the property was abandoned. This is why you see so many abandoned rural service stations--they couldn't afford to replace the tanks, but the tanks must be replaced before the property can change hands.
So, in a classic case of good intentions/unintended consequences, we have, as a nation, a bunch of abandoned properties because of a federal law that put great financial burden on owners. And, abandoned property that may or may not be generating tax revenue.
May or may not be the case wiht this station, but it explains a lot of the dead stations you see.