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Community
PETROLIANA
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Bristol’s Museum Of Petroliana, Russ Hertrich.
Russ was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in May of 1953, the first child of Millie and Al Hertrich. Later, a sister, Eliz- abeth, was born. Young Russ was an industrious child earning money by collecting used news- papers and carting them to a junkyard where, once weighed, they would earn the young en- trepreneur a few cents. Russ at- tended public elementary schools in Methuen, MA, and then went on to Austin Prep for his sec- ondary education. Suggestive of things to come, Russ worked as a gas station attendant in his teen years, proudly wearing the dis- tinctive shirt from a “Men from Texaco” uniform. As a young man, first he attended Lowell Tech but transferred to Boston College, where he majored in Economics. A motivated entre- preneur, Russ founded a roofing and gutter installation company. Although he enjoyed the new business, the real love of his life
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would be a young woman named Kristine. They married in 1975 and have raised two children, a son, Christopher, and a daugh- ter, Amy. As a youngster, Russ had spent summers at Newfound Lake. He became enamored of the lake and had a lifelong dream of owning property and possibly investing in Bristol. The dream was realized as he began buy- ing buildings in Bristol a decade ago. Two of those buildings now house a remarkable collection of American memorabilia well deserving the appellation of a ‘Museum of Petroliana”.
It is no overstatement to say visitors will be enraptured when entering each of the Lake Street Museum facilities. The multitude and variety of gas station artifacts are presented artfully. Dozens of the gas pumps on display trace the evolution of their design and efficacy, beginning with the self-measuring pumps from the advent of the 20th century. (De- scendants of Sylvanus Bowser’s kerosene pump.) Other vintage pumps include pre-visible hand crank pumps of the early 1920’s, as well as the visibly reservoired
geographic distribution of fuel brands. The artifacts illustrat- ing this are huge signs. Many of Petroliana’s signs are 72 “ in di- ameter. Some of these are inter- nally lit double-sided porcelain signs made to be seen from miles “down the road.” Even detached from their support towers, the signs are impressive to behold. Also, Russ has collected many signs still attached to towers. These can be seen in his “lol- lipop garden” behind the 150 Lake Street showplace. Some are on view at the 865 Lake Street facility, as well.
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hand crank pumps in use later in that decade. The cultural ex- pression of art deco prevalent in the 1930’s is evident in the de- sign of many Wayne clock meter gas pumps that were added to the museum collection. Numer- ous pumps of “our generation” are on display as well, including
many diverse ex- amples of the his- toric Tokheim gas pumps.
The Bristol Mu-
seum not only traces
the evolution of gas pumps, it affords a look
at the national breadth and