Historic Gas Station in Orange Stays Put After Development Dispute
Updated: Dec 2, 2021
A small Storybook-style building residing on an Orange street corner has seen better days. Its windows are boarded up. Patches of grass and weeds sprout from broken concrete. And the grounds have been dormant for years since last seeing business as a flower shop.
Still, the slim, two-story edifice’s blue-trimmed, steep-sloped and curved roofs remain whimsical enough to attract curious looks from commuters on Main Street.
Nearly a century ago, the former gas station would have invited now-classic cars to pull up to fuel pumps off of what was once was a stretch of Highway 101, an arterial road connecting Los Angeles to San Diego through Orange County.
That the longtime gas station, which first opened for business around 1928, is historic and charming is no haggle. But property owners and preservationists have competing visions over its future — and how it gets there.
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