First Texaco Station in St. Louis

Automobiles have played an outsized role throughout Pipes Family history. When cars were just becoming a common sight on the streets of St. Louis, our ancestor Charles Martin Burmeister opened one of the first service stations in the city. The original building (pictured above, lower right) was later expanded to include a garage that offered repair services in addition to storage (because almost no one had a garage of their own at that time).

His ambitions didn’t end there, however.

Charles Martin’s parents, William Augustus Adolph Burmeister and Elise Siemsen, lived in St. Louis at the time of his birth, however, he was actually born in 1887 in Altona, Germany (a small town on the Elbe River on the outskirts of Hamburg), as his parents were visiting relatives there at the time. The family eventually took up residence at 1521 Bremen Avenue in North St. Louis, directly across the street from Hyde Park. Charles Martin was the middle son of three boys (older brother John Friederich and younger brother William Jr.) and he walked each day with his brothers to attend Bethlehem Lutheran School on Salisbury St.

Upon his graduation from Bethlehem School around 1902, Charles Martin became an apprentice typesetter at the St. Louis Republic newspaper (in print from 1888 to 1919), followed by several years at the St. Louis Times (in print from 1900 to 1932).

Charles first met his wife Dora Twillman (daughter of Freidrich Herman Twillman and Frances Prigge) in 1904 after he and a group of teenage friends had spent the day at the St. Louis World’s Fair. During their courtship, Charles eventually tired of the long streetcar rides to her house in Spanish Lake, and his desire for one of the new automobiles grew. He and Dora were married 2 Jun 1909, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (1120 Trampe Road). Charles and Dora attended Markus Evangelical Lutheran Church (N 22^nd St.) and would eventually have three children (Alvin, Dorothy, and Charles).

In 1919, Charles could no longer resist the call of the automobile, and with capital that came from Dora’s inheritance, he opened the first Texaco-branded filling station in St. Louis at 4101 Angelica. The business grew rapidly, followed by expansion to a second location soon after. In 1925, Charles was featured in the Who’s Who in North St. Louis and was a notable member of the St. Louis Business Men’s Association. He was also invited to serve on the Board of Directors of Roosevelt Federal Savings & Loan Company. In 1926, he purchased partial ownership in a property known as the Riverside Hotel.

In 1928, his business grew even more as Charles Martin followed his entrepreneurial spirit and signed an agreement with General Motors to open a Pontiac dealership in an opulent new building on Grand Avenue.

The timing of this venture was unfortunate, as just a year later the stock market crash of 1929 dropped the country into the throes of the Great Depression. His business suffered tremendously during this period, and by 1936, Charles Martin had taken a job as a salesman at Bilgere Chevrolet just up the street, but automobile sales had stalled nationwide. By 1940, he was back down to a single filling station (which his son Alvin was helping to run). Despite some very lean times, our family owned and operated the station until 1948. Although it has long since been abandoned, the building still stands at the corner of 21st and Angelica Streets in North St. Louis.

In March of 1941, Charles Martin began working as a timekeeper at the newly opened McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (employee #1674). But his career in aerospace was to be short-lived. Charles passed away in 1946 at the age of 59. He is buried in a family plot at Bethlehem Cemetery along with his parents, his wife, and his daughter Dorothy.