Vintage gas station displayed in Orland

Motorists driving by the corner of Colusa Street and Pabst Avenue may be doing a double take these days because an old gas station has popped up at that corner.

Insurance agent John Noffsinger recently purchased the 1932 structure and plans to put it on display within a couple of months outside his office at 724 Pabst Ave.

The foundation is ready but he still needs to get the building  moved on to it and do some things with the city, he said, before it is ready.

This gas station will be for display only, Noffsinger said, and will not have water or air hooked up to it.

It used to sit at the corner of Tehama Street and Highway 99, he said, when ‘99 was really popular. Then, it went out to a private owner’s parcel on Road 200 for 20 years or so until he bought it.

Noffsinger and his family are into antique and classic cars, he said, which is what attracted him to the metal gas station.

He intends to power wash the building and repaint it and its signs so it will look fresh again. Noffsinger added he will put three antique gas pumps outside it for display as well. “It will be 1932 again,’” Noffsinger said.

“Antique and classic car owners can drive in and get a picture of their car with it,” he said. “It is a nice corner on the way to the fairgrounds.”

As a past president of the Drifters Car Club in Chico, Noffsinger says he, his son, Chuck, and brother, Jess, own 10 antique or classic cars between them.

“We have all kinds of cars,” he said. The oldest is a 1936 Ford pickup and the newest is a 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle convertible. He added they have a couple more pickups, two more convertibles and a couple more cars as well.

“The price on one of them is 16 cents a gallon,” Noffsinger said. People used to pump the gas up into the glass top then it would gravity flow through the hose into their gas tanks, he said.

A reproduction pump sits in the office by Noffsinger’s desk, and the walls surrounding it are covered with pictures of vintage cars reflecting his interests.

In the meantime, visitors can watch the station’s progress when they stop by or drive past the insurance company.