Swanson Service Station
Known Name(s)
Swanson Service Station
Address
H'way 12 & Main Sts. Aberdeen, SD
Establishment Type(s)
Service Station
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
On the 1923 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, this lot had a wood-frame filling station and auto supply business. The east part of the building had an open first floor where vehicles could pull up to the gas pumps. Additions for tire sales and "auto greasing" had been added to the west and south of the lot by the 1929 Sanborn map.
Source: Sanborn Fire Insurance Co., Aberdeen, South Dakota (November 1923), sheet 3, and (July 1929), sheet 3.
Detailed History
The Swanson Service Station was featured in a 1926 panoramic photograph, and a 1935 advertisement had the station’s address at 602 S. Main (the SW corner of Main and US 12). The same address was still associated with the Swanson Service Station in 1950. The location operated as the Standard Service Center in 1952, Kirschman Standard Service in 1954, and Kusler Standard Service in 1956. The gas station operating at that location was still known as Kusler's in 2022, although the building from in the 1920s is now gone.
Source: The Exponent (NSU), March 28, 1935; Troy McQuillen, Aberdeen (Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2013), 96-97; Polk's Aberdeen City Directories from 1950 to 1956, South Dakota State Archives, Pierre..
