A Full-Service Gas Station Still Thrives In Chicago

CHICAGO — The Beverly-Mt. Greenwood-Morgan Park neighborhoods at the far southwest corner of Chicago have been known as "time capsule" neighborhoods for a number of reasons. This area of the city is the only place in Chicago where you'll find a real castle, a farm and... a full-service gas station.

Attendants at the Kean Bros. gas station at the northwest corner of 111th and Talman not only pump your gas but wash windows, check oil levels and bring out store items so drivers don't even have to get out of their seat. It's "full-service" in the fullest degree.

Third-generation family business owner Raleigh Kean says he doesn't know of any other gas station that still offers full-service anywhere else in Chicago or elsewhere outside of Oregon and New Jersey where pumping your own gas is against the law.

A number of others who know the Kean family closely also say this is the last remaining full-service gas station in the Chicago and the nearby suburbs.

"When all the other stations were changing to self-service, we decided to keep it full-service," Kean said. "We wanted to have out niche."

To this day, anytime drivers ride up to a pump at Kean an attendant will come out and pump their gas and ask if anything else is needed. In the West Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood where the station is located, it's less of a novelty than business as usual.

"95 percent of our customers are neighborhood residents and regulars," Kean said. "They know the drill."

Kean has been at its current location since 1975 and at the corner of 111th and Talman for almost 70 years. The station was at the plot of land across the street from where it is now before '75.

It was Raleigh Kean's grandmother who was first adamant about not switching to self-serve when most every other station did so before the mid-1980's.

"Her friends were elderly, so she wanted to make sure we were still pumping the gas for her friends and others in the neighborhood who weren't able to," Raleigh said.

Since then, and before, the Kean family has given many a neighborhood teenager their first job. Most of their employees work part-time and Raleigh said they work around high school students' school, sports and second ob schedules.

In the community, the family is frequent supporters of charities like "Get Behind the Vest" and Special Olympics Chicago.

"Police officers and firefighters are big in this neighborhood as everyone knows," Kean said. "So we support them as much as we can."

The location on 111th Street is the only Kean gas station in existence now, but in the late 20th century the family had owned up to 18 stations in the city and suburbs at one time until most were sold in 2002. They still own and lease out a Mobil station near Midway Airport, Kean said.

In Beverly, Kean says the station has become known for more than just the place that will pump gas for you, however.

"It's the kids' hangout before and after baseball games in the summer, and our customers know all of our names," he said.

"It's a community store. That's what we always wanted it to be and that's why we kept it."