“A Brief Moment in a Pizzeria"
Most of our customers may not be aware that our little pizzeria was a gas station during the mid 1900’s. However many of our longtime regulars do indeed know about the former Sinclair gas station that used to operate right where we now make pizza. This is a short story on the history of 600 Pittston Ave. -- home to Sinclair Gas Station and Vince the Pizza Prince.
On a winter morning and an early summer afternoon, I spent a few hours having two separate, and very nice, conversations with two wonderful people. The first occurred in February 2024 with Agnes Gilroy of south Scranton. And it was very informative.
Agnes Gilroy is still a resident of south Scranton as of 2024. Her dad worked for the Carbondale Coal Company around 1920-1921 when he was 13 yrs. old. His name is Jim Gilroy, originally from Carbondale. He drove the coal truck for the company (you read that correctly) but eventually got a job at Briar’s Sunoco on Moosic St. Jim drove the coal trucks from the mines to the breakers. This was circa 1915. The style of driving those trucks was very complex yet Jim managed to handle it quite well at age 13. When he got the job at Briar’s, he managed and did the books at the station, which had a 3 bay garage. He would become an accomplished mechanic at the station, which was a top spot in the city in those days, doing over $1 million a year in tires alone. Now, a few blocks down on Pittston Ave. was a Sunoco station which had an outdoor lift. And another block down from that was a gas station with an indoor lift, at 600 Pittston Ave. Eventually her dad left Brier’s and started working at 600 Pittston Ave., leasing the operation from Sinclair gas. She states she is not sure who had the property before her dad moved in. Agnes and her sister, Margie, were frequently seen in their dad’s garage on 600 Pittston Ave. Agnes would be seen in the office, especially on Saturdays, since the garage was closed on Sundays. They would bring sandwiches in for lunch. She would read books and do homework while watching the building for her dad. It was common for their dad to be across the street at Tony and Mary’s bar (then known as a “beer garden”) having a beer, while one or both girls kept an eye on the gas station. When someone would pull up to the pumps for gas, Agnes would have to run across the street and get her dad out of the bar to operate the gas pump. There was no cash registers, all the cash was kept in dad’s pockets. Her dad’s friend and former employer, Bob Brier, supposedly always had a big roll of cash in his pockets at all times. That was the thing to do.
The station had a pit under the lift for working under the cars. Eventually however, pits were banned from service stations due to vapors collecting causing gas/oil fire hazards. (in those days the mechanics smoked while they worked). She recalled one fella named Ronnie Fawcett who was a car racer and hot rod guy who worked at the garage.
Agnes attended Marywood College and got a degree in English literature in 1963 while her mother worked at Notari’s drugstore. Agnes was finishing high school around 1918-1919 when her dad took over the gas station.
The sign outside the gas station advertised gasoline at 12 cents per gallon in the mid 1950’s eventually up to 39 cents per gallon by the time the station closed. After the Sinclair closed around 1963/1964 Agnes’ dad went back to work for Briars until around 1975. Agnes knew Briar personally and states that he developed a bad cold, got a flu shot and eventually died of the swine flu in 1976.
One notable occasion Agnes recalls is the drive-by from a famous personality. In October of 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy drove right past the gas station on a campaign trip to Scranton. He gave a speech downtown at the Armory. In those days a high-ranking VIP would be escorted thru the populated areas such as south Scranton, making their way to and from the airport. A Google search has provided an exact date of October 28, 1960.
Agnes’ brother Joe Gilroy worked at the gas station. Prior to that, he was adventurous, working as a lifeguard in Atlantic City as well as being a roadie for the pop group Herman’s Hermits.
If Agnes provided lots of great historical information and novelty, her brother Joe would be a treasure trove of even more information on the gas station. And then some… Read on to discover more fascinating and definitive facts about the history of today’s pizzeria.
Joe was more involved in the gas station as a young boy growing up in a world where boys still had dirty jobs and girls didn’t “do that sort of stuff”. He was 7 yrs. old when he worked at Brier’s Sunoco station sweeping floors. As a 13 yr. old he would work for free at his dad’s Sinclair station, pumping gas and installing winter chains on car wheels. He would also clean windshields, check tires, oil changes, tune ups, wash the cars, clean spark plugs, and fix flat tires. In those days the cars would run over rubber hoses on the ground, ringing a bell in the station alerting someone to go out and pump gas. And Joe brags he even fixed transmissions! He learned the mechanics craft from his Dad, how to fix clutches, transmissions, tune ups for different cars including adjusting carburetors.
Joe graduated from Lackawanna Junior College in the early 1960’s eventually ending up in the US Army in Missouri in his mid 20’s.
He states that 600 Pittston Ave. was owned and run by the Friedman Brothers, who had the Jermyn Mill and Grain company. This was before it became a gas station and according to Joe had operated for around 100 years! They happened to be a wholesale distributor for the Sinclair gas company. Eventually the site was built into a gas station. Joe’s dad, Jim, came to the location because of Sinclair, which provided an interior car lift. This was preferable to the outdoor lift that Sunoco had a block up the street. Having an interior lift to work on the cars was a bonus, an absolute plus in those days.
Joe remembers his dad spending much “quality time” across the street in Tony and Mary’s bar. His dad owned a 1958 Plymouth and Joe would often have to drive dad home “drunk”. He states his dad was a polite man who would eventually stop drinking cold turkey at age 55 towards the end of the Sinclair gas station era when Joe was a freshman in high school. His dad closed the garage in 1963 and went back to work for Brier’s on Moosic St. circa 1969-1970.
Joe has three sisters; Agnes Gallone, Margie Quinn, and Elene Evans. He states Margie was sort of her dad’s favorite and always wanted to pump gas. His dad would say “girls don’t pump gas”.
Joe states he was not fond of the gas station business and eventually married, and got a job with Ingersoll Rand selling air compressors and car lifts using his technical knowledge gained at the gas station from his dad. He would go on to work at Francis Smith and Sons and become general manager. Note: Francis Smith and Sons was a petroleum products distributor located in Scott township. He ended up at a company called Tokheim which would be the largest gas pump manufacturer in the world. He worked as a production manager. He knew the people who developed the modern gas pump credit card reader in the mid 1980’s. He travelled all over the country and was very involved in the gas pump business. He states that in the 1980’s a gas pump would cost $900. In 2001 gas pumps were selling for $15,000 each. A Google search shows the 2024 cost of a card-reader gas pump to be around $22,000 each.
Eventually Tokheim faced bankruptcy circa 2003 with an uncertain future. Joe ended up, of all things, in the field of education. He began teaching business courses at Lackawanna College, specifically economics. He would become the chair of the department of business and economics. Joe retired in 2013 and as of 2024 still teaches as a substitute for grade and high school at Lackawanna Trail.
This project was very fulfilling and I’m grateful for Agnes’ and Joes’ time spent talking about the former gas station. I thank both of them for their enthusiasm in telling their stories, which mean a lot as far as our pizzeria history is concerned. Both Agnes and Joe are wonderful souls full of spirit and it was an honor to sit with them and listen. History is important indeed as it helps us understand human evolvement. More importantly, history provides insights as to what our future can become.
Vince Cianfichi, Jr.
Vince the Pizza Prince
