College Avenue Car Wash, Corner of College Avenue and Wilkes Boulevard

Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
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This might be the first photo I have shown that was taken on Columbia’s College Avenue. The first house I rented in Columbia was located on College, albeit at the south end. The College Avenue Car Wash was located on the north end of College, a stretch that featured car repair shops, a COLT railroad crossing, tire repair and sales, a building that was reputed to be the former home of the Discwasher company, this beautifully vintage, quarter driven car wash, and what might have been the cheapest, no frills gas station in Columbia at the time. This era was before the CCUA gardens, before Logboat, and before the development of the Arcade District. I’m not really sure what motivated me to photograph the car wash on this snowy evening in January, but it might have had something to do with the juxtaposition of the very basic, black lettering against the corrugated aluminum surface of the structure. The font inspires me with its plainness, and the rigid, linear structure of the building reminds one of a metallic translation of a very subdued form of Brutalist architecture. The glowing domes of the vacuums on concrete plinths was another draw for me…the fact that they were lit and glowing during a January snowstorm was something too poetic to pass up. An amusing but visually compelling mix of irony and loneliness on display on the corner of College and Wilkes.