Abandoned Gas: Weaver's Automotive - Denver, Colorado


There’s nothing notable about this recently closed gas station, at Evans and Milwaukee. Never once patronized the place in all my years of driving by. My memories of the station were limited to noticing how busy it always was when I drove past. In early April of this year, a routine drive by revealed that it was now fenced off from the public.

That means it will be gone soon...


That means I need to get over there and photograph the property before it becomes condo-licious...

Upon finishing my work week, in the early morning of April 30, 2017, I was going to get pictures of this place before moving on to other usual targets. The night before my planned photo tour, the Denver Metro got a coating of snow. Most of it had melted away by morning, but there was still some left by picture time.


I went back two months later for dry ground pictures. But I ended up liking the snow pictures more... The color and clarity was better in that light. Overcast days are so much better than sunny days for urban decay pictures...


Originally built in 1950, Weaver Automotive purchased this building in June of 1998, and sold it in March 2017. After closing their shop, they moved to a new old gas station building, a few blocks away.


Look at those cute little ancient security cameras... If you haven't noticed, I'm not saying much about these pictures... They speak for themselves... Since I have no personal experience with this gas station, all I can really say is, here it is...


The new owner of the land, RB Observatory Park Two, LLC, purchased the property in March 2017 for $1 million. It’s existence on a busy thoroughfare, crossing a major residential area, makes it a logical candidate for removal...

Surely some luxury apartments would fit right in here…


This sign looks older than the gas station...


Two of the service bay doors were poorly applied by plastic tarps, obviously covering something up... Unfortunately that fence kept me away. I really would have liked to take some through the window shots, seeing as they were uncovered. This story would have been more interesting if I could have...


The underground fuel tanks had been removed back in April, but my pictures of that were just white snow covering the dirt. So this picture is from June 11, 2017.


Here is the west facing side of the building, Back when there was snow...


Another picture from June 11, 2017, taken from the median on Evans Avenue, between traffic. You get a lot of strange looks from drivers when out taking pictures of abandoned buildings...

Screw you, it's art!


Notice the poorly applied tarp had fallen off one of the garage bay doors, so here is what was being covered up... My compliments to the tagger, that's a striking shade of blue against the dingy glass. The fallen Conoco sign peeking through is a nice touch as well...


Safeway is down a shopping cart! This was parked just outside the fenced off entrance. Oddly enough, it had an empty can of RockStar Punched in the top basket. A sugary drink that I'm way too fond of... The nearest Safeway is about a mile and a half to the west, so I guess they needed the energy to make it this far with the stolen cart...


This sign was a little worse for wear...


In addition to being a service center and food mart, Weaver's was also a U-Haul truck rental, and sold packing boxes. With the D.U. campus just a few blocks to the west, I'm sure that was a big part of their business.

As I said, I wish I could have gotten interior pictures from the open windows. If you look closely at the red banner inside, it reads: Cold Drinks Juice Gum Thank You.

I like that...


The east side entrance to the store. Door flyers reading "We're Moving!!!" and "There is NO CASH in registers." That last one always got me. I fully understand the anti-robbery motives behind that message, but a cashier working with a cashless register sounds like the recipe for a terrible shift.

And I have worked MANY terrible shifts in a gas station...


And there you have it. The former location of Weaver's Automotive. I don't know how much longer it will stay here, but as of two weeks ago, it still looked exactly like this...

******

As I was editing the photos for this story, I messed up the cropping on one of them, and needed to go back to the original on my external storage drive. While looking for the picture, I found this blurry shot of Weaver's Automitive, that I took on October 31, 2015.


I'm going to drive by it in a few days to see if it's still standing. After all, I've got several other future stories in the area that I'm keeping my eye on...

Comments

Post a Comment

Someone else liked these...

Abandoned Movie - Kitty's South (The Webber Theater) - Denver, CO

Image
When I first started this blog, with the intent of writing stories about abandoned buildings I’d photographed, Kitty’s South was one of the stories I most wanted to write. For whatever reasons, it took me nearly seven years to get around to it. Looking back at my early stuff from 2017 and 2018, I’m glad I let this story marinate for an additional six and half years. Kitty's South - March 22, 2015. Located at 119 S Broadway, Denver, Colorado. I drove past that building hundreds of times in my near 20 years of living around Denver. Any time I drove home from downtown, I had to pass by Kitty's. So it was rather shocking in the summer of 2016, when Kitty's stopped looking like Kitty's.  The Webber Theater - April 29, 2018. After a year and a half of work, inside and out, Kitty's South was brought back to a similar look of its days as The Webber Theater. The interior of the former theater was opened up with some of the space used by the Archetype Distillery. Archetype cl
Read some more »

Our Happy Birfday Fan Zone Fun Time Whatever - St. Cloud MN

Image
At the beginning of last month, Laura and I were trying to figure out a decent, low impact, day trip, just to get away from Crapids for a few hours. This would tie into both of our birthdays, since they are both in March. Maybe see something cool. Maybe eat something different. Hopefully find something to do that doesn't offend either of our mutual interests. How about St. Cloud? It's less than an hour away, we can get Burger Time and look for Justin Morneau cards at Fan Zone? Since that was agreeable to both parties, we made our way northwest, on Saturday March 2, 2024. Fan Zone, St. Cloud MN. But we aren't there yet... Have to leave the general Crapids/Anoka area first.  Leaving this area still remains one of my favorite things to this day! They're building a something, out where the old Anoka Pizza Hut was. The grave of Anoka Perkins next door, remains relatively undisturbed.  But I was saddened to see that another abandoned Burger King has disappeared. This time i
Read some more »

What Happened to Clark's Submarine Sandwich?

Image
Well, they went out of business! Yeah, that's the short answer.  But more importantly, what happened to each individual Clark's Submarine Sandwich store? Once there were 15 of them scattered around the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, but they were all gone by 1991. Clark's still has a small but loyal following around town, and a reputation built off the bread, thinly sliced onions and most important, the sandwich oil that was it's signature. While the chain is long gone, I want to know just how gone is it?  For example, my hometown had a Clark's Submarine Sandwiches, and that building is still standing. Former Clark's Submarine Sandwich Location: 401 Northdale Blvd. Coon Rapids Back in October 2006, the building had long been sitting empty, but was still in good shape. Shortly after I took the picture of the abandoned Clarks/Cousins building, it was renovated and turned into a Dunn Bros. Coffee. But still standing! Clark&
Read some more »

Dinner Break! - Burger King - St. Cloud, MN

Image
When you want to go nowhere for breakfast... Although, I did go through the drive thru at this St. Cloud for breakfast, once. But I was just a spectator. It was far too early in the day to introduce Burger King to my system, without disastrous consequences. But someone driving needed a Croissanwich... I was sitting in the passenger seat of this white molester van. I wasn't drugged, I was just very tired. That van was owned by one Crazy Carl. Who was running Griffy's Old Town Bar & Grill, in Genola, MN, at the time. We closed the bar and cleaned up the place until 3am, the night before. But we were back at Griffy's to get the bar ready to open, the next day. After pounding a bunch of coffee and cigarettes, we were off on a morning supply run to Sam's Club, in St. Cloud. Wasted Quarter issue #58 - Crime Drama! - March 2006 I'd gone up to Genola a few times during 2004-05. Griffy's Old Town Bar & Grill served as a quick vacation away from Crapids, during th
Read some more »

Abandoned Mall: Villa Italia Mall - Lakewood, CO

Image
Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado, opened in March 1967.  It closed for good on July 15th, 2001. I'm not going to get into the biography of the large shopping mall. My experiences there number a grand total of two. Once in June of 2000 (for a baseball card show), and the other in May, 2001, when I took these pictures. Since there was no emotional attachment on my behalf toward the place, I know next to nothing about it. There are a few good sites with real information and more pictures of Villa Italia. Both in it's heyday and in it's depressed run down state. I consulted these for this story. Deadmalls has a basic biography, that is a good starting point.  A link appears at the bottom of the page that takes you to another site with a nice selection of Villa Italia photos. Or you can just click here... So let me add my piece to that total! In May 2001, my mom was in town from Minnesota. She was in Denver visiting my sister (who lived in Lakewood)
Read some more »

Ghosts of Riverdale Past - Coon Rapids, MN

Image
Recently there’s been a lot of chatter amongst the townsfolk about the retail abomination known as Riverdale. Another round of store closures has people talking about what a massive failure this shopping cluster has always been, and why retail is the way it is, and who's to blame and all that kind of stuff. Bottom line being, more stores that people liked shopping at are gone. For whatever reason. Which made me wonder, how many former businesses in Riverdale did I manage to get pictures of over the years? As I started going through the Riverdale picture folder on my external drive, I found far more than I'd expected. This is by no means EVERY former business that didn't survive the ridiculous conditions of shopping in my hometown, but it's an interesting peek into some of what didn't work. I didn't live in Coon Rapids when Riverdale was built. When I moved back in 2003, I was horrified that the western sky now had a brilliant orange glow in the middle of the nig
Read some more »

Grumpies... The Coolest Coon Rapids Has Ever Been!

Image
"Dood, this is the coolest Coon Rapids has ever been!" I'm most certainly not talking about this place...  Though I am talking about a specific event that took place inside it's walls. Today, the bar known as Willy's has been closed for over 6 months.  After numerous incidents with patron fights and gun violence, the owner called it quits on the bar and closed the doors for good. And the city is much better off for it! But we'll get to that soon enough... My absence in blogging lately is due to returning to my sleepy suburban hometown after a (give or take) 22 year absence. Where I have to deal with a lack of internet connection, and a whole lot less quiet me/writing time... (You can add Laura and I to that population now...) I was born in this town, grew up here and stayed to the age of 21. Then I packed the Vanilla Honksicle (second of three Fort Escorts I've owned) and headed west for Colorado. That was in 1996. Oth
Read some more »

Abandoned Retail - Target - Coon Rapids, MN

Image
Target T-42. The 42nd Target store in the world, was located in Coon Rapids, MN. Until it was replaced by Target T-1144, a mile or so to the north, 26 years later. Coon Rapids Target opened October 19, 1972, and closed October 6, 1998. Living on the north side of town in the 1970’s and 1980’s, big box retailers like Zayre and Kmart were more frequently visited, since they were closer to our house. Target was patronized less often, and usually paired with grocery shopping at Red Owl. Complete with video games while my mom shopped for food. And copies of Mad magazine slipped into the cart when no one was looking. Downtown Center, anchored by Festival Foods, opened in 1987. Sitting at the corner of Round Lake and Bunker Lake, in Andover, that shopping center was now more convenient for weekly groceries. Subsequently, Red Owl's visits started declining, just due to Festival. Riverdale WalMart opened November 14, 1990. For better or worse, that siphoned an even more significant chunk of
Read some more »

Abandoned Retail - Brookdale Mall, Sears & Perkins!

Image
Visiting Minnesota in September 2011, my dad told me that Brookdale Shopping Mall was being demolished, and we should check it out. Brookdale opened in 1962, as one of the "Dales." A series of suburban metro area shopping malls designed to syphon retail dollars away from the traditional downtowns of major cities. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, Brookdale was in Brooklyn Center, Rosedale was in Roseville, Ridgedale in Minnetonka and Southdale in Edina. Back in the day, needed housewares, "important" clothes for school and other reasons, and whatever other supplies the family had to buy, usually came from the mall. Brookdale was a constant. Rosedale as well, but that mall is currently thriving today, and thus far off my radar. Northtown mall was the closest to us, but it was a second tier mall without the top drawing anchors. Northtown has seen a little hint of a resurgence after losing it's long string of anchors and a series of renovati
Read some more »

Abandoned WalMarts over Apache Plaza

Image
Check out that sweet label scar!  WalMart closed their St. Anthony store on April 8, 2014. Hours later, the new WalMart Superstore in Roseville, less than three miles to the southeast, held their grand opening. WalMart decided they could get a much better deal from the City of Roseville. Less than a decade after opening the St. Anthony location, WalMart left a big empty building for the city to deal with. Breaking a 20 year lease in the process. For what it's worth, this is one of the nicer looking abandoned WalMarts I've seen in person. Originally signed on to anchor the south end of the new Silver Lake Village shopping complex. Which was to be built on the land previously occupied by the Apache Plaza shopping mall (1961-2004). This store opened in 2005, and did good numbers during it's life. Providing easily accessed wares to all the nearby residential neighborhoods, both old and new.  But it's location was also it's undoing... Silver Lake Village is anchored on t
Read some more »