Between 1917 and 1922, Joseph F. Kuntz of the Pittsburgh firm W. G. Wilkens and Company designed for Atlantic no less than 16 of these gas palaces in Philadelphia. These polychromatic terracotta “temples” were lit like beacons. They flattered and pandered to the new urban driving breed. Atlantic appealed to “automobilists, who find considerable pleasure touring over its smooth and well-kept roadways and bridges.”
(via A Temple to the Gasoline Gods at Broad and the Boulevard)
