GC Murphy Building

Little did you know that the American National Standard anticipated the internet 20 years ago and had set out teams of photodocumentarians who scoured the streets of Washington DC to record the fading world of the past for future consumption. Our lead photographer Ed Porter took this shot of the GC Murphy building near 9th and G streets NW Washington DC in 1986. As is typical with this type of photography, the GC Murphy store closed not long after this image was taken.

Gas Stations and Taxi's

Ponder the fate of the mid-century metal-wrapped building. Perhaps the classic American diner is the best example of this phenomenon of combining sanitary surfaces with streamlined eye lines. Metal-wrapped buildings are all but gone from today's contemporary commercial landscape. Lost are the days when one could pull into a nice brightly lit Midwestern gas station and be greeted by a crisply starched uniformed attendant who cheerfully would top off your tank, wash your windshield, and check your oil.

By the mid 1980's many of these wonderful edifices to American can-do mercantilism were either abandoned or re-purposed such as the taxi cab depot pictured here. Somehow in its decrepitude there is still a faint allusion to the ordered harmony of what was once a bustling, trim , and efficient petro-chemical transaction. We pause and tip our hat to the clash and harmony of the random color tones of this scene, and find nothing out of place, while the photographer pauses in entropy.