Ambler-Becker Texaco - Dwight, Illinois - Route 66
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Ambler-Becker Texaco - Dwight, Illinois - Route 66
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The historic Ambler-Becker Texaco gas station is located along Route 66 in the Village of Dwight, Illinois.
The gas station built in 1933 by Jack Schore was a cottage-style station with wood clapboard siding and an arched roof. Residential windows with shutters and flower boxes underneath gave it a homey appearance, and a canopy extending out from the office sheltered the three Texaco gas pumps. Mr. Shore also had an ice house on the property at the time.
In 1936, Vernon Von Qualen leased the station, changing the name to Vernon’s Texaco Station. Over the next two years, Qualen purchased the station from Schore before selling it to Basil “Tubby” Ambler in 1938.
Tubby Ambler owned the station from 1938 to 1966, changing the name to Ambler Texaco. He added the concrete block service bays to the north side of the building in the early 1940s, following the national trend to provide a full-service garage.
Phil Becker, the last gas station owner, lived six houses down and started working for Tubby Ambler as a young child running errands. By the time he was 14 or 15 years old, Tubby had hired him to watch the station on Sundays so Tubby could go to gun shows. Becker continued to work at the gas station through its subsequent owners, Earl Koehler and Royce McBeath, before purchasing the station from McBeath in 1970, just a month after getting married.
Phil Becker’s operated the station for over 26 years, first as a Texaco and later as a Marathon Gas Station. Becker stopped selling gas in 1999 but continued to run it as an auto repair shop until 2002. After closing the station he gave it to the village of Dwight. When the gas station closed, it was the longest continuously operating gas station along the Mother Road.
Dwight restored the station to its former glory. Restoring the gas station and office to the 1930s and the service bays to the 1940s. In 2007, the station reopened as a Route 66 Visitors Center.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Copyright 2024 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
October 6th, 2022
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