The Gardner and Tinsley Filling Station, New Cambria, Missouri.Photo byLarry Myhre, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, Flickr.

Around 2015, the historic Gardner and Tinsley Filling Station was relocated to 28251 North Highway 63 in Macon, Missouri.

It was going to be torn down due to new highway construction but was moved by its owner, Tony Levett, to its current location. The station was restored to its original colors and used as a clubhouse for street rod enthusiasts.

The station's original home was south of New Cambria, Missouri. On April 25, 2002, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This historic building, also known as West's Gas Station, was constructed in 1931. It's a small one-room building with a one-room addition. It's considered a Bungaloid-style rural station. It sat on an old part of U.S. Route 36.

When the filling station was nominated for the National Register, it was vacant. The foundation is concrete and the walls are weatherboard. The Missouri Department of Transportation owned the building at the time it was nominated.

Backstory

The Gardner & Tinsley Filling Station was located on old U.S. Highway 36 at the junction of Missouri Highway 149 and south of New Cambria. The small building used to house a Shell gas station operated by R.L. Tinsley.

The Gardner & Tinsley Filling Station is like a symbol of the growth of automobile travel during the Great Depression, World War II, and even further afterward. Imagine the growth of gas stations when more and more people owned automobiles.

Primary facade of station facing south.Photo byV. McDaniel/NRHP Nomination Form (2001).

Reverend H.M. Gardner builds station

The New Cambria Leader reported in February 1930 that Reverend Henry M. Gardner and his wife, Myra Lourela Fullerton Gardner, moved to a new farm south of New Cambria on U.S. Highway 36. The paper also reported the following year that Rev. Gardner and his son-in-law, R.L. Tinsley, planned to build a filling station on the Gardner farm.

In April 1931, the filling station opened to the public. By June, free compressed air had been added to the station's available services. By June 24, 1932, the Missouri Transit Bus Line was using the station as a bus stop.

In the station's early history, a small rear addition was built. Tinsley was the owner of the station into the 1940s. By the mid-1940s, Rev. Gardner and his wife had passed away. After Tinsley, the attendant was Emma West.

Photo byLarry Myhre, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, Flickr.

The building is well traveled. First having been been moved to private property for a number of years and now to it’s current location on Hwy 63 just north of Macon, Missouri. (Source.)

The population of New Cambria, Missouri is 150 according to World Population Review.

Photo byGoogle Maps screenshot.

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