Shuttered BP Gas Station in SoHo is Boarded up
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The now-defunct BP gas station on Lafayette Street is completely encased in perimeter plywood. Signs posted to the boards indicate that the business has “moved” to the sole east side location – 23rd Street and the FDR. More like “consolidated.”
BP ceased operations last Thursday ahead of a new commercial development poised to rise here (300 Lafayette Street). The Porcelli family, landowner forty years running and founder of the Gaseteria chain of gas stations, is the developer constructing the seven-story, 80,000 square-foot property.
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Rendering via COOKFOX
Its closure marks a milestone for this property. There has been a gas station on this spot since the mid-1930s, ever since the city widened East Houston Street in the early 1930s. (Except, preceded for a brief period by a used car lot.) The thoroughfare, previously a narrow roadway, went under the knife during construction of the Sixth Avenue IND subway line. The resultant demolition of tenements on both sides left several vacant parcels, most of which have been re-developed or transformed into community gardens.
There is now only one gas station still for drivers below 14th Street – the Mobil at 13th Street and 8th Avenue.
And how about this flashback to May 2010, shortly after the BP oil spill (Deepwater Horizon) in the Gulf of Mexico. There had been a protest onsite.
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This image has been archived or removed.
Protesting BP, May 2010
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