Despite the construction of a four-story, four-unit building at 1100 Potrero Ave., the historic gas station on the premises will be rehabilitated and preserved in its current location. The former filling station is clad by smooth metal panels with a sliding steel door entrance and fixed, steel-sash windows. A gable roof extends from the front entrance to create a covered passageway for vehicles.

Numerous possibilities were explored for the gas station after it was granted Category A historic status by San Francisco’s Historic Preservation Committee, including angling it parallel to Potrero Avenue and moving it to the roof of the building. The many planning changes led to delays in the new construction planned for the site, which has been in the works for almost ten years. 

“It has taken lots of time because planning will allow things and then get more restrictive,” said Mark Topetcher, owner and lead architect of Topetcher Architecture, who is handling the project.

Determination of historic status for buildings can be a very subjective process according to Woody LaBounty, Vice President of Advocacy and Programs at SF Heritage. “When they survive and when they don’t depends on how strong the voices are in the neighborhood around it,” LaBounty said. “Even though planning has all these ordinances and standards and methodologies, it’s really about who has the loud voice to get those things saved.” 

The prefabricated gas station was made by Michel & Pfeffer Iron Works and constructed in 1925. It had been used as a filling station and later as an auto repair shop operated by Marion Toich and his son Nicholas Toich. Regulars may remember the friendly head mechanic Ulysses, who offered repairs at a fair price. 

“People have an attachment to these [gas stations],” said LaBounty. “They represent a different time, and I think everybody enjoys that sort of time travel feeling. They are becoming rare and unique. When one’s lost, they’re not going to build another little tiny former gas station,” he continued.

The early 1920s saw an explosion of filling stations. Cars became more affordable, leading to a surge in demand for petroleum. The first drive-in gas stations looked like a basic shed, with pumps positioned adjacent the structure or separated by a small lot where cars could park to gas up. 

“In the early days, when everybody started getting automobiles, it was described as a plague of oil stations and gas stations and service stations all through the city, popping up to service all these new cars people were getting,” LaBounty said. 

According to Chester Liebs’ Main Street to Miracle Mile: American Roadside Architecture, the surge of stations raised alarm for the City Beautiful proponents who claimed that the structures — many little more than shacks — did not belong in residential areas. These complaints led to gas stations being designed to look like homes in an effort to blend in with neighborhoods.

The station at 1100 Potrero Ave. represents the transition between these two historical moments; not quite shack, not yet home. ”It’s like a little house with a front shed where you can imagine hillbillies living in there,” LaBounty said. “That’s where they would have the front porch with the rocking chairs.” 

Given that the filling station at 1100 Potrero was purchased from an ironworks catalog, it would have been easy to assemble and construct, which is fitting for the era it was constructed. “They weren’t really regulated for a long time,” LaBounty said, speaking of the early gas stations. “They just went up wherever they wanted, and they were independently owned.” 

The historic gas station at the corner of Potrero Avenue and 23rd Streets in 2018. Photo: Julie Zigoris

The station at 1100 Potrero Avenue is situated at an angle, allowing for entrance and exit in one straight line. This fluid motion would have been important for early automobiles, which lacked the type of reverse capabilities we have today. While the structure may not have the unique architectural elements that characterize other stations at the time — such as Art Deco chevrons and fins — it does feature a gabled roof, an attempt at making a utilitarian structure feel more homey.  

Prominent intersections such as Potrero Avenue and 23rd Street made sense for filling up cars. “Oil companies wanted to sell gas, and the greater visibility they had on the newly developing roads the better,” said Mark Kesssler, Professor of Design at the University of California, David, and author of The Early Public Garages of San Francisco: An Architectural and Cultural Study 106-1929. 

“The city was a hub, a kind of base, from which the world geographically expanded,” Kessler said. “First with the railroads, then with cable cars inside the city, and then eventually with cars overtaking. And the cars had to be serviced.” Car registrations more than tripled in the 1920s, reaching 23 million by 1930.