Flying A Gas Station

The first operators were Malcolm Miller and Harry Bain with Miller running the station and Bain the garage. John Biasotti had taken over both by 1934 and his sister, Mary Purbaugh ran some kind of store in the building. After WWII the garage became Henson's Garage. A long time employee of Henson's was a fellow named Delmar Leist who had started there in 1952. The business became Del's Auto Repair in 1969 when Henson retired and Leist took over. Leist's nephew, Dale Smith took over the business in 1983, and renamed it Dales Auto Service. He eventually bought the property from Biasotti and Purbaughin in 1985. He closed the gas station in 1987 but continued operating the garage for many more years.

The station is part of a larger building and during WWII the large garage part of the building was used as a warehouse for an unrelated business.

Three vintage Bennett gas pumps stand on individual little concrete islands between the columns supporting the canopy. The pump on the right isn't labeled, but shows a price of 31.9 cents per gallon. The pump on the left is labeled Flying A Gasoline where the logo is the "A". The Bennett pumps replaced the original "visible" pumps that were installed when the station was new.

The center pump is labeled with the Flying A logo and "Ethel Gasoline"and shows a price of 33.9 cents per gallon. Dale Smith was an avid fan of the Mother Road and had hoped to establish a small Filling Station / Route 66 museum here to display his collection of memorabilia, unfortunately he passed away 2018 before accomplishing that goal.

Photo(s): 2013