From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
LB2010.9.122092
View of Peterson's roadside gas station, lunch room, clam shack and campground in North Gray, Maine. The combination business offering tourists refreshment and even a campsite became a fairly common sight along New England routes that became popular in the days of automobile driving vacations. Although it didn't appear to have neighboring competition, Peterson's set out anyway --in an example of early 20th century highway commercialism-- to make sure passing tourists would not miss their store or any of its multitudinous offerings. The ramshackle array of wooden buildings, one a lunch room and the other an early fast-food snack bar, are festooned with striped awnings and numerous eye-catching signs. A couple of early style Socony Motor Gasoline pumps stand out in front, beneath a display of signs advertising "Ice Cream, Lunches, Sodas, Overnight Camps." Stray signs out closer to the road read "Candy", and "Fried Clams" and "Pastry". Chicken, Frankfurters and Ham are also alotted signs. The visually aggressive spectacle includes stretches of tall picket fencing, lamp posts, spires with brass ball finials and an American flag.
