Business Records Preserved at Special Collections Library

31-W Garage, Bowling Green, Ky.

31-W Garage, Bowling Green, Ky.

For most of the 1950s, the 31-W Garage stood at 95 State Street, providing auto parts and service to Bowling Green motorists.  During 1950, owner Andy Raby kept an account book recording his daily receipts.  This account book is now housed in WKU’s Special Collections Library, along with many other collections of records, clippings and photos that document the history of Bowling Green businesses.

As the 31-W Garage account book shows, gas prices in 1950 were about 27 cents per gallon – Bowling Green resident Duncan Hines (yes, that Duncan Hines) paid $2.70 for just over ten gallons.  At first glance, this seems like a real bargain but, adjusted for inflation, works out to about $2.39 per gallon at today’s prices.

A finding aid for the 31-W Garage account book can be downloaded here.

2 Comments

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

2 Responses to Business Records Preserved at Special Collections Library

  1. How would it be to still get gas for .27 thats just crazy how much it cost back then.

  2. So much of price difference compared to current prices.