The first drive-through gas station opened in Pennsylvania in 1913. Like the gas stations of today, they were pagoda-like in design, allowing for drivers to be sheltered from the elements when refueling their cars.

Gas stations were an opportunity for owners to profit off other services like pumping tires, cleaning vehicles, selling road maps or car greasing that this station offered for an affordable 75 cents.

This H.C. Bohack Co. Service Station is an example of the grocery store's expansion into the gas business. By 1920, the chain had over 150 stores and service stations in the city, on Long Island, and in sections of Westchester and Connecticut.

Ira and Ida Sobol were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York in the early 20th century. Working in the new and booming car industry, the family was able to purchase a gas station. The business was a success, and Sobel Brothers became a chain of service stations in the five boroughs, though perhaps most concentrated in Flushing, Corona, and northern Queens. This small plot, a triangle between Broadway, Wadsworth Avenue and 174th Street remains a gas station.

Shell's name originated from Marcus Samuel senior's business of selling antiquities and exotic seashells in the late 19th century. His sons, whom he passed his business on to, began investing in kerosene and oil. They named their business Shell Transport and Trading Company.

This iteration of Shell's logo, as seen on this gas station in 1975, was designed by Raymond Loewy in 1971. The design was simplified over the years from a black and white mussel shell to the red and yellow scallop we recognize today.

This Texaco station was shuttered sometime before this photo was taken in 1980. Today, there are about 13 gas stations in Manhattan that are south of 96th Street.

The fact of the matter is that the land gas stations sat on is far more profitable for use as apartment buildings, offices, or retail stores in Manhattan. A developer in 1985 was quoted in the New York Times, saying he'd only purchase "warehouses, garages, parking lots, industrial buildings, gas stations, vacant apartment buildings, and vacant land," because the demolition of these types of buildings does not elicit protest.

The Mobil Station that occupies this triangular lot is the last gas station left south of 23rd Street. Its owner is Athasios Hondros, who operates a Mobil station on the property, with no plan of closing anytime soon. In an interview with the New York Times, Hondros says: "if I close, where are they going to go?" referring to his constant line of customers (mostly cabbies) who wait up to 30 minutes for a turn at the pump.

Little is known of Hullen's Auto Service, the gas station that existed here in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. In recent years, the lot has been used by a limousine company to store Lincoln Town Cars before it was put up for sale.