On this day in 1953, the city was drawing up plans to regulate gas stations, in hopes of cutting down on traffic issues.
Gas stations are an unremarkable sight in the city today. But since automobiles first appeared on Edmonton roads more than a century ago, the ways to fuel them have changed over the decades.
Businessman Joseph Henry Morris is credited with owning the first car in the city, after he had it shipped by train from Winnipeg in 1904. Morris's car was not only the first to drive in Edmonton, but also the first to run out of gas. Apparently, the day after the car arrived, it ran dry while on a drive (possibly due to Morris driving it around to show it off to friends). To get it going again, he borrowed some benzene from a farmer (who kept it for cleaning clothes) and poured it into the tank, which was enough to get the motor running again.
Automobile ownership grew slowly in those early years, as cars were expensive to buy and maintain. Still, more motorized vehicles began showing up on Edmonton's roads. And they needed somewhere to buy fuel. Existing businesses that sold petroleum products, such as hardware stores and general stores, were the best bet for motorists in those early years.
Edmonton's first dedicated service stations started appearing a few years later. One opened on the north side of the river, near the corner of 103 Avenue and 102 Street, in 1910. On the south side, another was opened on Whyte Avenue to serve the few drivers in Strathcona. In addition to these dedicated service stations, other businesses would install gas pumps in front of their shops as an additional source of revenue.
These early gas pumps were gravity-fed, which caused a few problems. Chief among them was that rainwater would sometimes seep into the fuel tanks, contaminating the gas. New technology in the 1920s and '30s meant many pumps used electricity to pull gas up from deeper underground tanks, eliminating much of the issue. It was around this time that oil companies such as Imperial Oil became bigger players in the gas station game, building branded stations closer to residential neighbourhoods in Edmonton, rather than clustering them in business areas.
Into the latter half of the 20th century, personal vehicles became the norm in Edmonton, increasing the demand for fueling stations. That was likely what prompted the push for those regulations in 1953.
Edmonton now has hundreds of gas stations within its limits, so they're no longer a surprising sight. What might be a bit more shocking, however, are the prices. Gas prices spiked overnight this week, jumping by 30 cents a litre at some Edmonton stations. Hopefully, anyone paying $1.85 a litre gets only gasoline in their tank, unlike the dozens of drivers who had their cars damaged after filling up with a mix of gas and water at a southside gas station a couple of weeks ago.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.