DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the A.J. Head Service Station in Garland, Texas. Now, before there were interstates stretching horizon to horizon, before GPS told you when to turn, there was the Bankhead Highway — America's second east-to-west transcontinental highway — and it ran right through Garland, Texas.
The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 and the formation of the Texas Highway Department set things in motion, and what came out the other side was Texas Highway 1, the Bankhead itself. Cities along that route didn't just sit and watch the cars roll through. They grew.
They boomed. Garland's economy rode that highway for decades. And right there along the Bankhead, in 1947, a man named A.J.
Head opened a filling station. Now, A.J. didn't think small. That station of his — the A.J.
Head Humble Station, as it came to be known — housed a tire shop, an auto repair shop, a bail bond office, a welding shop, and a discount retail store, all under one roof. If you were rolling through on the Bankhead and something went wrong — or if something had already gone very wrong — A.J. Head had you covered.
The building itself was something to look at. Designed by Robert Otis Lagrone and built in the Streamline Moderne style — popular in the 1930s and 1940s — the two-story brick structure was all smooth surfaces, horizontal lines, and curved corners. That curved brick wall and the original metal canopy weren't just decorative flourishes.
They were the whole point of the style, whispering of speed and motion to every driver who pulled in off the highway. The canopy at the front has since been removed, but the steel and horizontal lines still carry that industrial aesthetic forward. Head sold the business in 1957 — and by then, the Bankhead Highway's importance was already fading.
Ten years he'd run that station. Ten years of tires and tune-ups and bail bonds and welding sparks flying into the Texas night. When he walked away, the road that had made it all possible was walking away too.
But the building is still standing. Still at its original location. Few significant changes over the years.
It outlasted the highway's golden era, outlasted the canopy, outlasted the bustle of drivers who needed everything A.J. could offer. The A.J. Head Humble Station is Garland's economic and industrial story written in brick and steel — a Streamline Moderne monument to what it meant to sit on the right road at the right time.
What the marker says
The Federal Aid Road Act (1916) and the formation of the Texas Highway Department resulted in the creation of Texas Highway 1, or Bankhead Highway. The Bankhead was America's second east-to-west transcontinental highway, which went through several Texas cities, including Garland. Commercial growth and a boom of businesses along the highway boosted Garland's economy for decades. A.J. Head, the original owner of the A.J. Head/Humble Station, opened a filling station in 1947. It housed many businesses to serve Bankhead Highway drivers, including a tire shop, auto repair shop, bail bond office, welding shop and discount retail store. Head sold the business in 1957, coinciding with the decreased importance of the Bankhead Highway. Still at its original location, the station has received few significant changes over the years. Designed by Robert Otis Lagrone, the two-story brick building was built in the Streamline Moderne style, popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The style emphasized smooth surfaces, horizontal lines, and curved corners. The curved brick wall of the building and the original metal canopy illustrated important characteristics of the style. While the canopy at the front of the building was removed, the steel and horizontal lines emphasized the style's industirual aesthetic. Because of its important place on the Bankhead Highway, the A.J. Head Humble Station shows its important role in Garland's essential economic and industrial growth in the 1940s and 1950s. (2018)