Hail Mercedes, Full Of Gas

What Do You Think You're Looking At? #146

You’re gonna miss it when it’s gone:

Look at the bottom closely: there’s a gas station, complete with a price sign, in the space underneath this church in Rosslyn, a heavily built neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia.

Apparently, at least according to this Catholic blogger, the name of the car manufacturer Mercedes actually refers to the Virgin Mary, under the title “Our Lady of Mercies”:

The name Mércédès is of Spanish origin. Mércédès refers to Our Lady of Ransom, whose Spanish title is Our Lady of Mercies. Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes or La Virgen de la Merced in Spanish and French, respectively.

You learn something new every day.

Unfortunately for the sake of consistency in references, this is a Methodist church, none of which to my knowledge are named after “Our Lady Of” anything. You try writing a headline every day.

Here’s a better image than Google Maps, from Flickr (credit JoshuaDavisPhotography/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED):

This cool landmark is going to be demolished; a demolition permit was granted in December. It’s one of the older of the modern buildings in Rosslyn, if that makes sense: it dates to the beginning of the area’s build-up to a quasi-big-city environment, where before it was basically just typically suburban and, as I understand it, somewhat run-down commercial space. It’s a curiosity that Arlington now has more of a skyline than D.C., such that a visitor would probably think he was looking at D.C. upon seeing Arlington in the distance.

The structure dates to the early 1970s, built alongside the office building there now:

The founders wanted to establish an urban ministry. A local lumber company donated the land. When they built the structure in 1971 it had to fit within the confines of what was available, a small, irregular plot in the middle of a busy commercial district. To their credit, they understood the value of their location and used it to create a steady income by renting out the bottom floor to a gas station. This creative idea allowed the church to minister to the surrounding community without financial worries.

Part of this development has already been demolished, in fact, and the whole lot will be rebuilt. However, the redevelopment will include the same church and gas station, newly (re)built! Here’s a rendering from a presentation by the developer. Look at the small text at the bottom:

You’d think this was quite odd if you saw it for the first time in a new building. Only the old-timers and the built-environment folks like me will know it’s carrying on a quirky little tradition.

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