Beam's Shell Service Station and Office, Historic service station and museum in Cherryville, North Carolina, United States
Beam's Shell Service Station and Office is a 1930 building with Spanish Colonial Revival style located at 117 North Mountain Street in Cherryville. The original station displays stucco walls and tiled roofs, while an adjacent museum building from 1987 contains transportation history exhibits and a vehicle collection.
The station opened in 1930 as a Shell Oil facility and served as the starting point for Carolina Freight Carriers Corporation, which operated until the 1990s. The property gained National Register status in 1997, securing its place in the region's transportation history.
The museum houses a collection of historic trucks and tractors that reflect the region's transportation heritage from the freight carrier era. These vehicles show how commercial transport shaped local economic development.
The site displays its original pumps and is easy to navigate on foot, allowing visitors to see both the historic station and museum exhibits in one visit. The grounds are generally open during daylight hours, making it a straightforward stop for those interested in transportation history.
The original pump island from the 1930s remains intact, offering a rare look at how drivers fueled their cars during that era. This preserved detail shows how quickly gas station design changed over the decades that followed.
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