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A Strange Circle K

Circle K

Station Information:

Official Name: Circle K
Address: 1451 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33612
Station Decor: Current Circle K decor

Hello! We’ll be checking out a gas station in Tampa today. If you haven’t noticed already, this is only the second gas station I’ve posted about. I’m going to be using gas station posts mainly for when I am trying to get a post up but don’t have time to write a full-length post on a grocery store. If you are wanting more gas station posts, I recommend reading the Sing Oil Blog while you’re waiting for me to write another fuel post.
This station is special because it is one of the few stations left to have a 1960s-1970s Gulf Oil Tri-Hex canopy. This canopy design consists of three hexagons joined together with a vertical support pole at the center of each hexagon. It looks very odd.
Let’s go.

There it is. The Tri-Hex.
The road sign. The prices are there, but the sun was very bright, and the numbers were very faint, so you can’t really see them. I believe the price was 3.89/gallon.
Another view of the Tri-Hex.
Pump #7. Even though this pump says 2x cleaning detergents, Circle K is not Top Tier certified. They used to be, though. I’m not sure why they were removed from the list.
The convenience store.
It was a bit hard for me to take photos in the C-Store, as there were at least three people right by the door.
Along that same aisle, just facing the other way.
The small unrefrigerated drink selection.

Circle K brand one-gallon bottles of water? That reminds me of the time when I was in a RaceTrac and saw that all of the bottled water and chips said “Distributed by RaceTrac Petroleum” on the back.

You can kind of see the drink fountain here.
The checkout counter.
A bit of a higher view.

I couldn’t get a photo of the door from the inside, as there was a man fixing it and another man talking to him. The C-store was one of the smallest I’d ever been in, and I didn’t want people to get suspicious. (I’ve read the Sing Oil Blogger‘s stories about that before. This post contains one of them).

Going back outside, here’s a straight-on view of the Tri-Hex.
A close-up of what the underside looks like.

With my photos out of the way, we’ll turn to Google Earth for some aerials.

Here’s our fancy aerial.
Circle K (2023)
Circle K (2010)
Circle K (2006)

That yellow rim on the 2006 image may be from Shell, but then this station would have gone Shell, Circle K, Shell, Circle K, so that seems unlikely.

Circle K (2002)
Circle K (1998)
Circle K (1995)

Here’s the Historic Aerials link. According to those aerials, this station was built in the 1970s or early 1980s.

This station was a random find. I did not plan any long road trip to this station. I just happened to see it out of the window and decided to do a post on it. For some reason, I cannot find any photos of old Tri-Hexes with Gulf branding.
This Tri-Hex was a great find, and I’m happy that I was able to photograph one of these rare stations. I photographed a supermarket in this area, too, and that store will be going up in the next few months.

I’ll be back in a few weeks. Until then, read one of my Step Back in Time posts (SBiT 1) (SBiT 2) or check out one of these other blogs that I follow:

The Albertsons Florida Blog
My Florida Retail
The Sing Oil Blog
Grocery South by Sing Oil Media

Until it’s time to return,

Mr. Rejoice Retail

2 thoughts on “A Strange Circle K”

  1. Albertsons Florida Blog
    Reply

    Neat, this is the funky Circle K built in front of old Albertsons #4321! I didn’t get a picture of this place when I photographed the Albertsons, but did see it on the way out. I always thought this style of gas station was originally a Shell design, as most of these I’ve seen were Shells at one point, like this one (it was a Shell as far back as the 1980’s from what I’m gathering on newspapers.com). I posted a photo of a similar gas station in a different part of Tampa a number of years ago and most there concurred it was a Shell design too: https://flickr.com/photos/113856435@N07/12333146995/

    I’m not super familiar with Gulf designs, but Gulf pulled out of Florida so long ago maybe these were short lived Gulf stations from the 1970’s that were all bought by Shell perhaps?

    1. Rejoice Retail
      Reply

      I originally thought it was a Shell design, too. According to Google AI, Shell used a hexagon-shaped canopy design as well, but I’ve never been able to find one. When I saw this station, I decided to photograph it because I figured that the canopy must be some kind of known vintage design. I guessed Gulf, and I was right! Gemini (different from Google AI) says that the way to identify one is to make sure that the support pole is right in the center of each hexagon. Apparently, there are versions of the canopy with only two hexagons as well.
      Gulf does exist in Florida again after a long hiatus (RaceTrac owns them now), but they’re definitely not as common as they used to be.
      I found two Shell stations with the same style of canopy branding as the one in your photo just a few days ago in North Carolina. I photographed one of them but only had time to take one picture of the other.
      Thanks for reading!
      WJL (Mr. Rejoice Retail)

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