Fuel Up At America's Coolest Gas Stations

Sometimes you build an airport and have some pieces leftover. Sometimes those pieces become the roof of a gas station. Jack Colker's Union 76 has one of the most dramatically stunning roofs ever put on a gas station thanks to using parts originally intended for LAX. They're still open, too, with many full-service pumps like the good ol' days, just beware they charge a pretty penny for these feelings of nostalgia.

Sure, the novelty of a gas station shaped like a teapot is cute, but the backstory is even better. The Teapot Dome Service Station was built to poke fun at President Harding's Teapot Dome Oil Scandal. The little station has been moved several times over the years, and lovers of the teapot are still trying to preserve it.

Cloquet, MN is home to Frank Lloyd Wright's only gas station. R.W. Lindholm's children studied architecture and encouraged him to have Wright design his home, and a few years later, he had Wright create this gas station concept as well. Based on Wright’s futuristic Broadacre City plan of 1934, the gas station was a nice place to work in Wright's ideas for a new decentralized urban landscape.

Shell built eight of these kitschy, shell-shaped beauties, and sadly the one in Winston-Salem, NC is the only one remaining. Thanks to Preservation North Carolina, we have this Shell restored to its original glory for taking all the photos your tourist heart desires.

Two brothers coupled their love of airplanes with the automobile boom to create this roadside relic, a plane-shaped service station in Knoxville. Although rumors circulate about the plane having crash landed and turned into a filling station, truth is the brothers built the "plane" to take advantage of a recent widening of U.S. 25 and all those new motorists. Today, fans of the site are trying to save the plane.

There's not much to Shamrock, Texas, except that Route 66 once ran right through town. That was enough to inspire the Tower Conoco Station (and U-Drop Inn Cafe). The Great State of Texas is now working to turn the place into the coolest retro rest stop ever. (And be honest, you knew you recognized it from the movie "Cars".)