As automobiles became popular and affordable for Bozeman’s middle class in the first half of the twentieth century, a new type of business emerged that changed the local cityscape. Automobile service stations sprouted up around Bozeman – one-stop-shops that sold gasoline and oil but also employed mechanics to keep those cars running. Today, most of us look back on the automobile service stations of the past with nostalgia. Many of these businesses were operated by local families who prided themselves on exceptional service. Customers pumping their own gas was out of the question. Those with a long connection to Bozeman will remember a few of those well-loved institutions – Warwood and Doig’s Chevron, Kilbride’s Texaco, and Swanson’s Mobil Station – just to name a few. Dozens of others live on in memory, and several mid-century service station buildings have been repurposed and today house other types of businesses.

After World War II, Guy Warwood and Arnold Doig opened the Warwood and Doig service station at 106 E. Mendenhall Street. Guy Warwood was born in 1907 at Reese Creek, north of Belgrade. He married Mae Shearer Doig in 1929 and gained a stepson named Arnold Doig. Arnold graduated from Belgrade High School in 1939 and served in the Army Air Force in World War II. Guy Warwood and Arnold’s wife, Edith Miller Doig, established the Warwood and Doig Service Station shortly before Arnold’s discharge from the military in 1945. Their Chevron station was a successful partnership that lasted for decades. Though Warwood retired in 1969, Doig affirmed in a 1971 Gallatin County Tribune article that Guy Warwood continued to stay involved in the business. “He comes back once a week to give us a hand and get a little grease on his hands.” Warwood and Doig’s Chevron closed in 1976 and a parking lot now occupies the space (southeast corner of Mendenhall Street and Black Avenue).

The Kilbride family was a significant part of the local automotive service industry for fifty years. Daniel F. Kilbride opened Kilbride Service Station in the late 1920s on the outskirts of town (at that time), just north of Main Street on North 7th Avenue. The business remained there until it was sold nearly twenty years later. Daniel Kilbride later owned the famous Stockman Bar on Main Street before retiring in about 1970.

Other Kilbride relatives Ivor “Ivan” and Forrest Kilbride also spent their careers in the auto fuel industry in Bozeman, working for the Continental Oil Company. Originally from Missouri, Ivor and Forrest and their family relocated to the Gallatin Valley in 1917. Forrest graduated from Gallatin County High School in 1936 and went to work with his older brother Ivor, who was a wholesale agent for Continental Oil. The brothers ran service stations around town at 726 South 8th Avenue (later College Texaco) and 402 and 549 E. Main. Forrest Kilbride operated the service station at 402 E. Main (southeast corner of Main and Rouse) in the early 1940s and spent the rest of his career as an agent for Continental Oil until his retirement in the late 1970s.

Arnold M. Swanson’s Mobil Station on the northwest corner of Main and Grand opened in the mid-1940s. Arnold and Nora Friedrich Swanson hailed from Minnesota and settled in Bozeman in 1926, shortly after their marriage. Arnold Swanson operated the Standard Oil Service station on the southeast corner of Grand and Main before acquiring John L. Ketterer’s station located diagonally across the intersection at 201 W. Main. In addition to owning Swanson’s Mobil until 1977, Arnold also dabbled in politics. He served as a Bozeman City Commissioner and as Mayor in the 1950s.

In addition to downtown locations, service stations also occupied convenient positions on the outskirts of Bozeman. One such memorable station was the Union 76 gas and service station on the northwest corner of N. Seventh and Durston. This Union Service station was built in 1954, when the expansion of the city to the north and west of historic Main Street was just beginning. In the 1940s and 1950s, what is now known as the Midtown area was made up of private homes, farms, a few motels and a handful of service stations. Traveling further north on Seventh Avenue, one found Ralph’s Food Store, Milam’s Greenhouse, and eventually KBMN Radio Station and the Starlite Drive-In Theatre.

The Union Service Station’s location at Durston and Seventh was convenient for travelers staying at nearby motels, as well as for locals heading into and out of Bozeman for business and pleasure. Union Service was a small simple rectangular structure with only a couple of bays for car repair and a large, wedge-shaped awning over the gas pumps. Like other service stations, the name changed over the years depending on the owner, although it was associated with the Union Oil Company for much of its existence. In the first two decades of operation, the station was called Scotty’s Union Service, Taylor’s Union Service, Williamson’s Union 76 Station, Pardew’s Union 76 Station, Bill’s Union 76 Service, Dick’s Union 76 Service, North Seventh Union 76 and Myers’ Union 76. The longest-running lessee was likely George Myers, who operated the station from 1969 to 1977. In later years, the building was home to a Sinclair station, Best Rate Towing and Repair, and later a Subaru repair shop. The structure was demolished in 2019 to make way for the Ruh Building currently on this site.

Several mid-twentieth century service station buildings have been preserved and are now occupied by other businesses. Sweet Peaks Ice Cream at 628 W. Main Street was the home of Lovelace Oil Company in the early 1930s before becoming a variety of auto dealerships. Stanley Lemon owned the State Auto Company dealership at this location from 1941 until 1956. In addition to selling Chrysler and Plymouth vehicles, Lemon advertised his business in the Bozeman City Directory as providing “Complete Automobile Service, Gasoline and Oil.” Stan Lemon came with his family to the Gallatin Canyon in about 1920, where they operated a dude ranch. In 1923, he married Ora Michener, whose family also had a long history in Gallatin Canyon. The couple settled in Bozeman, where Stan worked in the auto sales and service industry until he retired in the early 1970s. Stanley Lemon passed away at age 97 in 1997. Later occupants of 628 W. Main Street include D&H Motorcycle Sales and Service, a realty office, and Rocky Mountain Rug Gallery.

Another repurposed service station is on the southwest corner of Mendenhall Street and Rouse Avenue, behind the Bozeman Hotel. This building was built in the early 1940s and for the first decade operated as a gas and automobile service station under several different names, including Tuttle’s, Farnstrom’s and McGahen’s. Robert Braun took over ownership of the station in the mid-1950s and ran the business until about 1962. Originally from North Dakota, Bob and Hazel Braun moved to Bozeman in 1952. Bob owned several service stations during his career and according to his 2009 obituary in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, “was known as Happy Bob and coined the phrase, ‘If you can’t stop, smile as you go by.’” After retirement, Bob and Hazel ran a traveling concession stand called B&H Popcorn.

Interestingly, Bozeman city directory listings suggest the first four families to operate this service station on the corner of Rouse and Mendenhall – Tuttle, Farnstrom, McGahen and Braun – all lived in the large house at 322 E. Mendenhall, located just southwest of the station. This same two-story residence was labeled as “Female Boarding” on earlier 1889-1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. “Female Boarding” was a phrase used for “brothel.” For over forty years, Bozeman’s active red-light district occupied the block and alleyway south of Mendenhall Street between Bozeman and Rouse Avenues. Though the home at 322 E. Mendenhall no longer exists, the former service station on the corner serves as a reminder of the transformation of Bozeman’s red-light district to other uses.

The concept of the service station slowly began to fade in the late 1960s, although several local businesses lasted into the late 1990s and early 2000s, like Hoadley’s at 5 E. Mendenhall, Brence’s at 502 E. Main, and College Exxon at 723 S. Eighth. Several long-time locals remember the first self-service gas station in town was on W. Lincoln Street near the college campus. Bozeman Gasomat opened at 1216 W. Lincoln in 1965 and remained open until at least 1980.

As full-service stations closed their doors, large chains and convenience stores began to take their place. Motorists switched to pumping their own gas and washing their own windshields. However, another novel automotive service made its debut in the 1960s. In June 1967, the first automatic car wash in town opened at College Texaco at 726 S. Eighth. The two-minute wash cost seventy-five cents, or one dollar to add wax. College Texaco’s owner Emil Aderson explained the novel technology in a Gallatin County Tribune article in 1971. “Hurricane car wash is a pressure type car wash, using soap and hot water at 800 pounds pressure.”

Though today many are gone, several full-service station buildings remain part of Bozeman’s cityscape and are easily spotted if one knows what to look for. Memories of them, and the families who brought them to life, will always be a treasured part of our community history.