Shell Service Station

In 1930 Winston-Salem got a filling station built in the shape of a giant shell. The station at East Sprague Street was one of eight erected around the city that year by the Shell Company and its local affiliate, Quality Oil, according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Its design was modelled on the logo of Royal Dutch Shell Oil. The state blog says the structure was built by first boxing in the interior office and then adding a wire frame in a shell shape. It is the only one of the eight still standing, according to the state. The station later served as a lawn mower repair shop and fell into disrepair; the same source says Preservation North Carolina raised funds to bring it back to its original condition in the late 1970s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 13 May 1976. In November 2025 a WLOS report called it the last shell-shaped gas station in the United States and said it is preserved in perpetuity.