Self-Service Station Sat on Gilmore Site
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Roger Vincent’s colorful background on the historic uses of the Gilmore property at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue (“Gilmore Completes Farmers Market Addition,” Dec. 30) omits a historic use in the early 1950s: what was probably Los Angeles’ first self-service gas station.
The Gilmore station offered gas at a discount by letting customers fill their own tanks and then pay one of several attractive young women on roller skates.
To counter this cut-rate gas outlet, major oil companies brought pressure on fire authorities to shut it down as a fire hazard. I think of this every time I use one of today’s self-service stations, supported, of course, by the major oil companies.
Martin A. Brower
Corona del Mar
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