Standard Oil Company Service Station, 1010 North Tryon

The Standard Oil Company Service Station faces west, adjacent to North Tryon Street, just north of the CSX Railroad tracks that define the northern edge of the Uptown area.  The neighborhood is now distinctly commercial and industrial in nature, with small warehouses and business in one-story buildings separated by overgrown lots.  When it was built however, the station was surrounded by blocks of small mill houses and duplexes, and busy railroad sidings and spurs. But it was not the immediate neighborhood that attracted the service station. The Standard Oil Company Service Station occupied a prominent position along what was then one of the state's  busiest road.  Not only was Tryon Street one of the city's original defining roads, but it was also part of the first system of paved highways that connected the cities of North Carolina. 

The one-story, frame and masonry station consists of a retail office and a deep two-bay wide garage attached to the north side elevation of the office.  The station is covered with stucco, and its most distinctive feature is a single square concrete post, centered in front of the retail office.  The post flares into a concrete beam and supports a hipped-roof, half of which acts as a canopy that once afforded protection to customers and their cars, with the other half protecting the principal section, the station's retail office.  The hipped roof is covered with pressed metal shingles, formed to resemble clay tiles. 

While difficult to categorize, the ca. 1927 building is definitely reflective of the popular styles of the early twentieth century, and shows that influence of the eclectic nature of the Craftsman Style bungalows being built throughout the city.  The tile roofing itself, commonly employed in exotic revivals such as Mediterranean, Italian, and Mission,  is one such eclectic element.  The form of the building, with its prominent but low-pitched  roof, echoes the engaged front porch of a bungalow.  The flaring of the center post recalls the form of Craftsman Brackets.   The retail office sits on a concrete slab.  The base of the retail office is formed by a low brick wall, upon which the wall framing rests.  A replacement door is topped with an original four-light transom, and the store-front windows appear to be original. 

The concrete block flat-roofed garage is set back slightly from the retail office.  A shallow pent roof shelters a pair of 24-light overhead doors.  The garage extends from the rear of the building and is accessed by a recently added or replacement overhead door on the north elevation.  The south elevation features a pair of 20-light metal frame windows. 

As of 2004, this was the only other gasoline station dating from the 1920s in Center City Charlotte.  Now Demolished.