Gas will be gas again, says Stan

By adamg on Sun, 04/02/2017 - 2:30pm

Fans of the iconic gas station on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain grew worried this past week when they saw the pumps fenced off and construction work going on.

Fear not - the beloved gas station is not being turned into condos. It's just closed for six weeks for some renovations, according to the guy behind the counter at the Hatoff's check-cashing place, which remains open behind the old station.

JP has had a Hatoff's since 1924, when Morris Hatoff, an emigre from New York, opened a station near where the current Forest Hills T stop is. Morris died in a car accident in front of the station in 1965 and Stan took over. In 1974, he moved up Washington Street to the current location after the state took the Forest Hills site by eminent domain.

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Comments

Thank you...

By JPMom on Sun, 04/02/2017 - 6:44pm.

for this news because no one else could tell me wtf was going on.

I was like...this is it for me.

I dropped everything ...

By adamg on Sun, 04/02/2017 - 6:55pm.

Well, OK, we'd just finished breakfast, lunch, oh, wait, I guess brunch, and I checked my Facebook feed and there was a post from somebody saying it had shut down, and how could I not rush right over to see what was going on? I mean, given what's happening on that stretch of Washington, how much longer will we see gas is gas, that guy's "air mail" box ten feet up on a pole and the Drinking Fountain (never mind Doyle's and the Midway Cafe?).

Doyle's will survive

By erik g on Sun, 04/02/2017 - 8:06pm.

Based on the Saturday afternoon occupancy I saw there last week, I'd say they've ridden the crest of yuppification to even better numbers than before. Midway will probably survive in a brave new world, because it's just weird enough that the neighborhood will keep it in business. Everything else down there worries me. (Specifically the Drinking Fountain, whose praises I have shouted before. I'll also be sad to lose Burrito's Pizzeria, who recently lost the title of "best Mexican food south of Tremont Street" to Chilacates, and the title of "worst pizza you'll ever suffer through in your life" to the Regal Cafe in the financial district)

This place leaks so much gas you can smell it downwind

By anon on Sun, 04/02/2017 - 7:27pm.

Used to play on the field just down the street and the stench of gasoline was unbearable at times.

That place is a guaranteed superfund site when he goes out of business and the state bothers to do some testing.

Nah

By anon on Mon, 04/03/2017 - 9:08am.

It has been tested in the past...its in the MassDEP database as a release site. It was cleaned up under state regulations and reached regulatory closure in 2008. Which isn't to say there hasn't been/won't be another spill, but MA has a pretty good system in place for environmental cleanup, including a dedicated fund for gas stations in particular. Either way, gas station spills don't rise to the level of federal Superfund cleanups.

If it smells like gasoline

By anon on Tue, 04/04/2017 - 5:13pm.

If it smells like gasoline nearby, my first guess is a failure with the vapor recovery system.