Roadside wonders

In 2001 we wrote a piece about the old Beacon Oil gas stations, which once dotted our New England landscape. The company's gimmick, during an era when you lured a buyer from the roadside, was to build their stations to resemble the golden domed State House.

Only a handful of the stations survived, including the wonderful Dairy Dome in Stoneham, a converted Beacon station now serving homemade ice cream. There's also a pizza place near the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Another in Malden, also a pizza place. The only working Beacon station left, to the best of our knowledge, is in Woburn. We'll add the 2001 piece once we find a link.

This site has some pictures of the old stations, while this (downpage) has some wonderfully old Beacon Oil maps, including a larger version of the one above.