When automobiles appeared on the streets of Norfolk, Augustus P. Curtiss converted the
stable housing his horse and carriage livery business on Shepard Road to a garage
stocked with automotive supplies and gasoline. Look carefully and you will notice
Shell’s familiar scallop shell logo on top of the gasoline pump (the shell is now at the
Historical Museum) and the price advertised as 22 cents, the average price of a gallon of
gas in the mid 1920’s. If you think that sounds too good to be true, remember to adjust
for inflation. In today’s dollars, 22 cents translates to about $2.70. The price of gas was
just as much a concern then as it is now. Gas had been 14 cents a gallon in 1914 and
nearly doubled in ten years. The demand for gasoline during World War I and the
increase in consumption by the growing number of automobiles precipitated the steep rise
and fueled fears that the supply would soon run out. On January 6, 1916, headlines in The
New York Times predicted that within thirty years the oil fields in this country will be
facing exhaustion.

Ann Havemeyer