Abandoned Gas - Conoco & Adams Rental - Littleton, CO
So this is the story of two gas stations. Both of which were located across the street, then closed up and demolished within 6 months of each other. One hadn’t been a gas station for decades, though it clearly was one in the past. The other gas station clung to life, years beyond its viability, before ultimately being replaced with a newer version of itself.
Broadway & Orchard, looking south from the sidewalk. Broadway is one of the busiest north/south routes in the Denver metro area, an artery I travelled daily. But not as often to the south. Other than the King Soopers a few blocks away, I didn’t often have a reason to go south.
Conoco/Phillips merger cut back drastically on their corporate run stores. This wasn’t exclusive to them, as all of your major oil refiners dropped out of the retail game in the 1990’s. It was far easier for these massive corporations to simply license their brand, than to try to maintain their own retail stores across the country. Which is why you’ll see a Phillips station become a Shell station for a few years, then it’s a Sinclair for five years, suddenly it’s rebranded back into a Diamond Shamrock.
The oil companies still get their (hefty) cut, without the headaches of having to care about a minimum wage employee fully fitting the “pacesetter look and image”. The CEO of marketing and their entourage of underlings, no longer need to perform a facial hair check at every location nationwide. It’s cheaper and easier to just license the brand, sit in your 37th floor office and count your money.
Adams Rental was a small machine rental/sales company that ran out of an old gas station, that probably closed over 40 years ago. Acknowledged as I drove by, because it was interesting to look at. But I lived in an apartment. Had zero need for a tractor of any size.
A couple years after Laura moved in with me, her new primary doctor practiced out of the Orchard Medical Building, just a few blocks south of our apartment. It was her appointment in February, 2016, that wrote this story…
******
She had driven herself that afternoon, as I was sleeping before my overnight shift. When I woke up, she told me the Conoco gas station at Broadway and Orchard was being demolished, and she took pictures!
That discovery was made as she approached the turning lane on Broadway, accessing Orchard Road. She snapped this over-the-shoulder shot of the station. The pumps and canopy were already gone, as are the mature trees that lined the sidewalk. So at least the destruction can be clearly seen.
Waiting for her appointment, she took a few photos from the third floor waiting room. A number of them were of this cloud over Littleton, resembling a shark head eating a falling piece of toast. Or something like that. Conoco can be seen in the lower left corner of the photo. While the Car Max auto dealership lot occupies the rest of the land shown.
Broadway, south of Belleview is packed with auto dealerships of every taste and brand. Littleton even got their own Tesla dealership (get your pitchforks), two blocks from my apartment, about 15 years ago. As soon as a neighboring property becomes available, these auto dealerships try to snap it up. Then demolish whatever was there, and expand their reach into the newly acquired space. My immediate thoughts of Conoco was a Car Max expansion.
There wasn’t much activity at the demolition site. Guy working the shovel was filling trucks with broken chunks of cement. The full truck had just left. She took some video of the non-activity on her phone, but there wan’t really anything worth uploading the file size. Also, the Orchard Medical Building’s windows were really dirty. Most of her pictures from the third floor window have a dirt smudge filter on a portion of the image. Smearing Broadway, just above the green dumpster, on this one.
After her appointment, she walked over to the edge of the parking lot for some ground level shots. Being February, piles of dirty plowed parking lot snow are melting under the sun. Don’t know how warm it was this afternoon, but it couldn’t have been too brutal. She did walk around the Nelson Animal Hospital, for pictures from that angle.
The far left of this picture has the old Conoco sign still standing. It was removed between her photos and the ones I took after work, the next morning.
Conoco’s lot was cement, from sidewalk to sidewalk, instead of an asphalt combination. Removing it took a bit more work than simply digging up 30+ years of tar. With the pumps and canopy gone, effort was shifted to ripping out the concrete chunks. Taking the retail building down will be a relatively quick task in comparison. The face has already been ripped off, but removal of pavement was the current mission.
The car wash entrance is on the right side of the picture.
By the time she got around Nelson Animal Hospital, a new truck had pulled up for loading.
Between the equipment, glimpses inside the gas station can be seen.
Looks like a possible manager’s office could have been on the far right.
I remember the cashier stand on the left side of the building.
Excavator unmanned at the moment. But over its shoulder is a nice little peek at…
ENHANCE!
The coolers!
Complete with a hanging “DA”, behind the broken glass doors. I’m assuming the first two letters of DAIRY.
Couldn’t make out what the black and yellow sign on the wall represented.
Before she called the mission complete, it was rounded out with ripped out cement chunks leading up to the car wash entrance.
As mentioned, she showed me her pictures before I left for work. This took place on a Friday, so I would work my shift from 5pm to 6am, then take my own set of photos, early Saturday morning.
******
But we’ll get to those pictures in a bit…
Next up, I’m going to cross Orchard Road to the south, for a look at the old Adams Rental building.
Starting in the parking lot of the Orchard Medical Building…
On April 28, 1994, I had driven Laura here to pick up a prescription, on our way to somewhere else. While she was inside, I snapped a few pictures from outside the car. Looking down the hill, there’s Nelson Animal Hospital on the right, with Adams Rental on the left.
Unfortunate that I never took any more pictures of Adams Rental when it was still open. This is one of my only photos, where it is open. So it deserves a zoom-in. It was a memorable property on South Broadway, because of the scattering of light construction equipment around the property. It was place you remembered seeing on that route. You knew you were approaching Orchard, when you saw construction equipment standing high above acres of parked cars.
Photo from May 23, 2015. Adams had already left the property, some months earlier. Couldn’t find the date they left, but I think this was the first time I noticed it.
Adams Rental operated out of this former gas station for a long time. You can tell it’s been sitting on this corner for at least 50 years. Pavement in front of the building shows scarring from the removal of pumps and islands, many years ago. The first time I would have driven past, would have been late 1996. I don’t think it was a gas station even then, but I’m not certain…
Behind this building was a fenced lot with some covered bays. I don’t have a better picture of them. This area was used for equipment storage, etc. The white painted wall on the far right is part of the McDonald Automotive complex. Didn’t know it at the time, but they were the beneficiaries of Adams closure.
From the Googles, September 2014. Something I saw a lot of, when driving north on Broadway.
Conoco sits on the other side of Orchard Road, joined by several U Haul trucks. Note the Conoco sign does not say Conoco. It’s just implied via brand familiarity. Looks like a Conoco, so it must be a Conoco. Well, it was on the rare and distant occasions that I visited.
February 2015, I snapped this picture of McDonald Pre-Owned Automotive’s old building through the windshield, while making the Orchard approach. Doing so meant I didn’t have enough time for a decent shot of Adams Rental. Which was still open in early February, 2015. So that builds the case for that…
McDonald would tear down this McDonald, to build a much more McDonaldy McDonald. Just north of a McDonald’s, and about eight blocks south of another McDonald’s. A McDonald’s that was demolished to become a Starbucks, in 2019.
There will be a test later.
On July 14, 2015, I walked around Adams Rental, as the property was being demolished. Laura tipped me off this was underway, so I went with on her appointment. She visited with her doctor while I went for a walk. Starting at the southwest corner of the Adams lot.
The main Adams Rental building was still intact, but the outdoor storage area had been removed and in the process of getting scraped up. Also missing, the McDonald Pre-Owned Automotive building. Another clue there may be a link here…
Hope someone thought to save those blinds, inside the windowed over garage doors.
Still working out the whole “avoid the chain link fence” shot.
That’s better.
After Adams left the Broadway and Orchard location, they moved to a somewhat unique building at 4500 S Federal, in Englewood.
Googles drive by from September 2015.
This building stood out on drives up Federal. Those two windows sticking out on the second floor, caught my eye when driving past. For whatever reason, Adams walled over those two windows, shortly after moving to the new place.
Which was about two blocks south of Abel Convenience.
You can see their sign and canopy, next to the speed limit sign.
Still a convenience store, but no longer a gas station today.
(This was taken in 2016…)
The new Adams Rental location looks like it had closed by January 29, 2017, when I drove by. All of the equipment usually decorating the property lines are gone, with the exception of a few trailers behind the building. “Future Home of Adams Rental” banner STILL affixed to the walls.
Googles drive by from November 2018)
Much prefer this building with the two windows sticking out of the walls. Adams Rental on Federal is now known as Arapahoe Rental. Not sure when they took over (or if they did). Hinted at, but my patented half-assed research couldn’t confirm any details. I’m not prepared to defend this in court.
Let’s take the Googlesmobile back to Broadway and Orchard…
The Adams Rental rear building, in November, 2011.
Definitely regret not taking a decent picture of that unique Adams Rental sign.
Just use the Googles time machine, and pretend I did, back in September 2012!
You’d have thought they could come up with a better replacement R, than the one they used here. New R is longer, half as wide and nowhere near the same color. Looks like it has been that way for years. Minimal effort really takes away from what should have been a really cool sign…
Zooming out and stepping back on the same day for a look into the Adams Rental back storage area. All sorts of stuff back here, with a big Propane tank in the middle.
Adams Rental’s rear building, already scraped to the foundation. With just a small pile of debris left.
The McDonald Pre-Owned Automotive building notably absent behind the excavator. You’d think they would have gotten rid of the ratty old, vine covered fence behind it, first.
Looking over to the back of Adams Rental. The last of the outdoor shelving is standing behind the building. Next to a pile of bent and twisted steel, removed from the buildings surrounding it. So it has to know what’s coming...
Adams Rental’s public restroom sat on the north side of the building. Took me a few seconds to realize the mirror in the ladies room wasn’t a large hole in the wall, looking clear through to McDonald Auto.
ENHANCE!
That mirror is actually looking all the way across Orchard Road, at Conoco’s front door.
And that is my elbow in the mirror as well, holding the camera up to take this shot.
Just to the right of the restrooms, sits sunglasses goatee guy in his white truck, glaring at my the entire time I was walking around the building. I never left the sidewalk, so he wouldn’t have had to get out of his supervisory truck, to actually do something other than glare. Weak intimidation skills… Still, I wanted to remember him!
Still mad bro?
One final look at Adams Rental, from the corner of Broadway and Orchard.
And now… What replaced it…
(Googles drive by from May, 2025.)
Within two weeks of Adams Rental’s demolition, the land was paved over and littered with McDonald Pre-Owned Automotive inventory. Their new three story McDonaldland McCarplace sits on the south end of the property.
******
So what happened to Conoco?
Close up of one of Laura’s pictures from the day before. Wanted to show the peeled open interior from her picture, taken at a later time in the afternoon. Being lit up by the sun, you could see the cooler doors. You can also see… Wait…
ENHANCE!
Excuse me, ma’am… The restroom is closed… Yeah, the building is currently being demolished!!!
Actually, this morning, the restroom is gone…
When I came by the next morning, the sun had barely cleared the horizon. Making my pictures very dark. And the excavator was moved to block my view from this angle. Better shots will come later, I’m planning on parking and walking anyway…
According to what I found online, this was known as Conoco K & G. Looks like a corporate owned Conoco build from the early to mid-1980’s, but I wasn’t able to find anything meaningful about the place. However, this isn’t like any of the Conoco station I’ve seen. They typically had the car wash separate from a store under the pump canopy. This is a relatively small plot of land, so it looks like it was adapted to fit. And the retail space definitely suffered by this layout.
The building is 50% car wash, which is just ridiculous. You enter the store with the cashier on your left, and a wall of coolers in front of you. Narrow shelves lined up under the windows and that’s it. Not much room to move around inside. Don’t know what city codes they were up against, but it seems like this could have been better planned out.
Maybe someone will do a better job, some day…
This was one of many Conoco stations up and down Broadway, 30 years ago. Just two blocks to the north, at Littleton Blvd., there was a Conoco station on the southwest corner, AND the northwest corner. The one on the northwest corner closed in the late 1990’s, and became a Chipotle. The southwest corner Conoco was rebranded as a Loaf n’ Jug, in the 2000’s. Then joined forces with the King Soopers, in a renovated Littleton Square.
February 3, 2015. Slow traffic morning, I have my shot all set to go as I coast into the red light. Thinking I’m about to take the best shot of the gas station, just a few more feet… This stupid red car pops up out of nowhere in my shot.
I was disappointed there weren’t any more online reviews for this Conoco, before they closed.
This was the only one. And one of the more mild negative reviews, as far as Yelp goes…
Yelp - May 14, 2011: “This place will not take Conoco gift cards even though they are a Conoco station. The clerks have a huge language barrier, are not friendly or helpful in any way. Their price on their sign states one price and in very little letters, it says - with car wash purchase. If you drive by the gas station at a normal speed, you can't read the tiny letters under the price. The place is very dirty and musty smelling.”
You know, I haven’t seen the gift card this Yelper was using, but I can almost guarantee there was some fine print somewhere on the card, noting something to the effect of “valid only at participating locations”. Conoco is a corporate entity that licenses its brand and identity to all sorts of different gas stations, nationwide. So it’s not unreasonable a “Conoco” station (that took Conoco off their main sign) isn’t the same as a corporate franchise.
As far as their other complaints go, I could see it… The car wash pricing is shady, yet not surprising. Dirty and musty smelling? Possibly. I’m sure the car wash and retail area share the same HVAC system, so years of accumulating car wash ick will have penetrated the store, without a doubt.
There are many other places in the area to stop for gas. Before demolition, this was one of the gas stations that appeared to be less than optimal in terms of what you may be wanting. Whatever may have been in the fine print on the sign from the road, what you can see of the station itself, implies there are better options nearby.
Unless the lure of 3 cents cheaper, per gallon, is really that strong…
Yes, I know… It’s the principle…
(Imagine me making the “jerk-off” gesture as you read that last line.)
After parking the car at the Orchard Medical Building, and walking around Nelson Animal Hospital to Conoco. Freshly cut tree stumps mark a previous property divider. Most of the concrete drive has been removed from the pump area.
Getting closer to Orchard, the concrete is also gone.
Though it’s somewhat flat and sandy, now being used for construction parking. Compared to the still chopped up ripped out canopy area. And it looks like someone has dropped a book…. Probably a Bible.
People like “dropping” those around in public to make themselves feel like a missionary.
I stand corrected… It’s a book about the United Nations.
I didn’t pick it up to look any further into what you see here. So I won’t spoil the ending.
Someone else is already going to do that...
While the workers didn’t completely tear out the retail side of Conoco, they committed more demolitionism after Laura left yesterday.
The old Conoco sign has been removed and thrown on top of the recyclable metal pile.
Not much else is recognizable.
The car wash looks open…
Still sporting a nice label scar…
All this gas station demolishment is becoming a little too intense for me.
******
I’m going to cool things down with a little voyage east on Orchard Road.
Orchard Medical Building, on an early December 2017 morning. Again, low light caused the blurry and grainy look of the picture. Always wish I notice these poor shots before it’s too late. Going back for a second attempt would be a pain in the ass and just not worth it. Only including this picture, because of the truck parked behind the fence. We’ll look at it on our way back…
The other reason for this photo is to show the decent sized, and fairly steep hill as you pass the medical building. Giving it enough of a high point, they are able to lease parts of the roof for cell phone antennas.
That significant grade can be seen on the equally blurry and grainy, south side of the Orchard Medical Building.
If you can read through the blurriness, next to the street number, 191, is the word Pharmacy.
Gem Pharmacy specifically, which has been here since 1982.
The medical building itself dates back to 1966, so it turns 60 this year!
Throw it a party!
Frustrated with the local Walgreens, Laura opted to use Gem Pharmacy for prescriptions. It was easier to get to and you always got a free Jolly Rancher with your pills! I keep a souvenir bottle of Ibuprofen in the bathroom drawer.
Behind the medical building (at the top of the hill), is New Beginnings Recovery Services Inc. Mary’s Hope Sober Homes. Operating out of what appears to be a slightly newer, but similar looking, extension of the main building to its left.
A few blocks east of here was a crusty old house. Mostly obscured by trees, at Orchard and Grant.
I got a relatively decent shot in early April, when the trees were leafless.
Took a relatively decenter shot on the way back…
As I was putting this story together, I wondered what happened to this house. Did they ever tame that unruly tree cluster weaving its way around the power lines?
To the Googlesmachine!
Oh…
Demolished (in 2022) for a row of townhomes…
A few more blocks east is the intersection with Clarkson Street. But it only goes south. I lived off Clarkson and Kenyon, but Clarkson didn’t go all the way through, this far south. It ended two blocks north of here, so a bunch of rich people could have a bunch of land for their horses. This was before Highlands Ranch was invented, and the richer people moved there. Leaving a bunch of faux-rich people, that spent too much on their mortgage, and they couldn’t afford to tip on their pizza delivery.
At least that was how it went in the late 1990’s.
The restricted bridge is at the bottom of the hill ahead, but I’m just going to turn around and go back. It’s not late 1996, and I don’t need to take a right turn on University to get to the Cherry Hills 66.
I was most likely listening to the Cranes…
Baaaaaaaauaaaaaaaaaa…
Four months later and I’m back in the Orchard Medical Building parking lot.
And that Wheel House Gifts truck has not moved from behind the dumpster house.
Understand the concept of a food truck completely. But the concept of a gift truck escapes me. Does it just drive around to places and parking lots, hoping to cheer people up? Is it a coincidence that it stays parked between a medical center and a veterinary clinic?
“Your grandmother has cancer and you just neutered a puppy, time for a candle with a teddy bear inside!”
There’s Nelson Animal Hospital. Tree is blocking the view behind the medical building’s dumpster house, so I don’t know if the Wheel House Gifts truck was parked there in February of 2016.
But you know what was parked at the Conoco behind me, just two years earlier?
U Haul trucks and vans!
So many U Haul trucks and vans… I’d assumed the (not) Conoco closed and the land was being borrowed by U Haul, until something better would come in. Looks like the station is still open though, as people appear to be filling up with gas. Hope they bought a car wash so they don’t feel ripped off…
Well, U Haul eventually left, but I’m still not certain the gas station was open much longer. It definitely wasn’t in February 2016, because it was busy being torn down.
Like this…
Standing at the Orchard entrance, looking in at the gas station remains.
Zooming in for not a whole lot recognizable.
For some reason, I imagined a destruction worker becoming upset that USAgain hadn’t shown up to collect their used clothes, before demolition started. So he just kicked the donation box over, yelling: “F—- THESE CLOTHES!!!”
Well, it amused me.
Shattered pieces of Conoco sign. Ripped apart when the support poles were removed and thrown on the recycle pile, in front of the store.
Making my way up the Broadway sidewalk. A good amount of large cement pieces are strewn about the lot. The excavator’s new position blocks more of what the recycling pile already covers up.
Kind of see a little bit of semi-intact cooler doors, at the end of the dumpster.
Funny how they took this much off the front of the building, but left the rest of it over the weekend. Wouldn’t it have been easier to knock it all over on Friday, then concentrate on the clean up and clearing on Monday morning. Whatever their reasons, I’m glad they left this much for me. A pile of unrecognizable rubble would make a far less interesting story.
Car wash exit door was partially raised. Wish the truck would have backed up a bit before parking, so I could see inside. It was probably really cool!
Wonder if they remembered to pick up the piles of crusty, dirty snow?
One last look at what’s left of Conoco, before heading back home.
In the lower right corner of this picture has one of the old Conoco sign pole anchors.
So that’s…
A thing…
Time flies…
Not long after Conoco was demolished, a banner announcing the arrival of a brand new 7Eleven was attached to the chain link security fence. Because there are nowhere near enough 7Elevens in the area… Or Conoco labelled gas stations… Apparently Littleton needed another one. After all, there’s probably only four of them in a one mile radius of here.
The new 7Eleven would occupy a triangle shaped retail store, with a sort-of home plate shaped canopy design over the pumps. When I complained about Conoco’s previous usage of the limited space, this doesn’t seem to be a whole lot better.
There’s no car wash because there doesn’t need to be. Doubt the space required for a car wash at these small gas stations justify the income they generate anymore. Not when larger scale car washes do a better job at a similar price. Survival of these small gas stations depend on highly marked up retail merchandise. The more crap you can cram into the place, the better for margins. But you have to get people to continue coming in to buy it.
Reading the online reviews of this newest Conoco/7Eleven didn’t paint that favorable of a picture. Perhaps it’s time to pull the plug on the idea of a convenience store at this address. I only stopped by once before moving to Minnesota. They were sold out of my chosen brand of cigarettes.
Once you do that, you’re out of the rotation.
The old 7Eleven, three blocks north on Powers, was always more convenient anyways…
Yaaaaaaaawn…
Yeah... This was a boring story.
Kind of needed it to be.
******
For those of you who read my love letter to cigarettes a couple weeks ago, and would like an update…
Now 27 days since my last cigarette.
I still really miss them, but I’ve saved over $365 to this point.
Seems worth it.
Guess I’ll continue not smoking.
Very impressive chronology of South Broadway’s gas/convenience store sites. I live in the neighborhood southeast of Broadway/Orchard regularly bought propane @ Adams Rentals. Good establishment and I was happy dealing with a small, local business instead of a corporate chain while saddened when they had to make the mice to Federal.
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