Tioga St., Spencer, N.Y. 14

Tioga St., Spencer, N.Y. 14

Street scene showing a modern (for the time) gas and service station in a residential area of this small town near the Pennsylvania border. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to New England or upstate New York. The glass plates would be sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. The Wells and Son Garage seen here was a relatively new building type and a popular subject for the Eastern photographers during the first couple of decades of the 20th century. This subject category often came with multiple advertisements making it clear the business worked with multiple brands; As seen here: Socony gasoline, Fisk and Firestone Tires,Willys-Knight and Chevrolet vehicles, among others. Of note is an early gasoline tanker truck parked at the far left. Next door is a modest house with an unexplained clutter of Texaco gas pumps and pushcarts in front. A man up on the roof works on the chimney.