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Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations

Name: Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations
Start: 2021-04-22
End: 2021-04-22
Location: Community United Methodist Church

Apr 22

1 - 2 pm

Elm Grove

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?"

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Event Details

Thursday, April 22, 2021

1 - 2 pm

Part of Speakers Bureau

Location

Community United Methodist Church

14700 Watertown Plank Rd

Elm Grove, WI 53122

ckkorona@yahoo.com

Map

driving directions

About the Event

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The Wisconsin Historical Society Speakers Bureau offers an exciting opportunity for our historians, curators and authors to visit your community and share the stories of our great state.

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. At this event, Jim Draeger, co-author of Fill 'er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations, will provide 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. Draeger will link 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.

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