Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations (Places Along the Way). This item is unavailable.Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations (Places Along the Way)

Step back to the day when a visit to the gas station meant service with a smile, a wash of the windshield, and the cheerful question, "Fill 'er up?" Since their unremarkable beginnings as cheap shacks and curbside pumps at the dawn of the automobile age, gas stations have taken many forms and worn many guises: castles, cottages and teepees, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne, clad with wood, stucco, or gleaming porcelain in seemingly infinite variety.

 

The companion volume to the Wisconsin Public Television documentary of the same name, Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations visits 60 Wisconsin gas stations that are still standing today and chronicles the history of these humble yet ubiquitous buildings. The book tells the larger story of the gas station's place in automobile culture and its evolution in tandem with American history, as well as the stories of the individuals influenced by the gas stations in their lives.

 

Fill 'er Up provides a glimpse into the glory days of gas stations, when full service and free oil changes were the rule and the local station was a gathering place for neighbors. More importantly, Fill 'er Up links the past and the present, showing why gas stations should be preserved and envisioning what place these historic structures can have in the 21st century and beyond.

Jim Draeger is an architectural historian with the Wisconsin Historical Society with more than 20 years of historic preservation experience. From roadside architecture to North Woods resorts, Draeger celebrates the importance of ordinary buildings to our daily lives through his research, writing, and lectures. He shares a historic 1936 International-style house in Monona with his wife, Cindy, and son, Nick.


Mark Speltz is a historian at American Girl and is completing a master's degree in history with a specialization in public history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has worked as an independent researcher on exhibits for museums, including the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and is active with several museums in Mineral Point, where he lives with his wife, Kari.