Gasoline station morphology on Virginia’s Eastern Shore

Abstract

Gasoline stations are a ubiquitous component of the modern built environment. Gasoline stations are largely included within people’s daily spatial routines given the nature of modern transportation, particularly in mobile societies like the United States, and represent a material infrastructure that underlies and facilitates daily economic activities. As such, gasoline stations are generally relegated to the background of contemporary cultural landscapes because the action of obtaining gasoline for one’s vehicle has become such a routine and mundane activity that it is hardly given any forethought. Yet, the changing form and function of gasoline stations (hence the term ‘‘morphology’’) along with changing technologies in transportation and transportation infrastructure has rendered many gasoline stations obsolete. Utilizing nearest neighbor analysis, this paper identifies and documents changing spatial patterns and functions of gasoline station locations throughout Virginia’s Eastern Shore by decade and documents changing cultural and economic uses of recycled gasoline stations.