One of the auto service stations doing business along Main Street at one time or another was located for at least 30 years in the middle of the block between Middle and Vine streets, adjacent to the Reynolds/Rogan house. It was an odd, cramped little place that crowded the Main Street sidewalk In the 1940’s and 1950’s. The gas pumps were so close to traffic that motorists had the option to stop in the street for a fill-up or pull in on the sidewalk on the other side of the pumps for fuel and service.
The station was operated during the 1940’s by Montevallo native, Eddie Mahaffey, and was an agency for Gulf gasoline and oil products. Mahaffey was known as a real go-getter and he and his employees did oil changes and greasing, washed and waxed cars, installed new tires, and fixed flats. In addition they pumped gas, checked fluid levels, and kept tire pressures optimized.
Mike Mahan went to work as an after-school laborer at the Gulf station when he was 13 years old and goes into considerable detail about his experiences and the lessons he learned working as a grease-monkey for Eddie Mahaffey in his memoir, “No Hill Too High for a Stepper."
Mahaffey gave up his interest in the station in 1949 when he opened a new Western Auto store a half-block to the east on Main Street. When the station re-opened under new management, the Gulf brand had been replaced by the Cities Service brand of petroleum products (Citgo today) and was initially managed by Floyd Lovelady. He was followed in 1952 by Thomas “Doc” Bearden until 1956 and then S.P. Harrell, who had run the Pure Oil Station across the street, managed the business until its demise in the early 1960’s when the construction of the Whaley Shopping Center necessitated the demolition of the convenient little gas station situated right in the center of Montevallo on Main Street.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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