We came across these beautiful photographs on Flickr and had to share them with GoDCers. It appears to be an old car getting in need of some repairs after an accident. The vehicle appears to be a Dodge (anyone able to identify the model?). Also, we’re trying to dig through old archives and advertisements to see where this might have been. If you think you know, please post in the comments below.
Source: Radio Rover
The service station is Cities Service, which was the precursor to Citgo.
UPDATE: According to a kind comment below, it appears that this is in Northeast DC, Woodridge to be exact.
Think the Cities Station is going to be 3101 Rhode Island Ave NE (at Newton) with the Triangle Motors Used Cars in the background at 3010 Rhode Island. The red brick building on the left is still there or at least on the last Google street view.
So, not DC? In MD?
Yes, DC, just inside though, maybe by a block.
And this is a 1948 Dodge D-24 “Deluxe.”
Oh. Also, just as a little factoid. The tall brick building in the background is the “Hedin House” built in the International Style right after the war as Rhode Island Avenue was expanding out toward PG County. I have a postcard of it if you’d like a picture.
The phone numbers on the tow truck – assuming the truck to belong to the station – affords a couple of clues. Those are the “Columbia” (265) and “Republic” (737) exchanges in DC. I wasn’t able to find anything on the web to reveal what central offices those numbers were associated with back in the day, but phone numbers with those prefixes today may still be clustered in and around the general area (like, 244 is upper northwest and 332 is Georgetown). Just judging by “Columbia”, I’d guess that the station is somewhere along 14th or 15th St. NW around today’s Columbia Heights.
May be corner of Georgia Ave and Missouri Ave NW ?
This is the corner of Rhode Island and Newton, NE, in Woodridge. The Cities is now a Shell station. In the background you can see the only identifiable landmark, the “Hedin House” apartments originally built after the war as an extended stay hotel.
Patrick,
I am currently working for the company renovating the Hedin House apartments and I was wondering where you got that information and if you could direct me to it. I would love to locate some old photos of the building as a hotel if possible.