Ozzie’s Shell Station | Formerly Rudy’s Shell Station
Advertisement in the Advocate of 24 November 1960, Page 3. [Provincetown Public Library / Community History Archive]
Text last updated on 29 August 2016 | Back in the days when Bradford Street between Alden and Pearl Streets was a regular Automobile Row, a Shell Oil filling station stood on this site. It was opened in the early 1930s by George McGrath (±1884-1953), a native of County Donegal, Ireland, who’d come to town by way of Chicago. “His warm Irish friendliness and good nature made for him a wide circle of friends, and hundreds of annual visitors knew him,” the Advocate said in its obituary. The business passed in 1956 to Rudolph Santos and Tiago Avelino, and was known for years as Rudy’s. During this time, the station became the focal point of an annual “Toys for Tots” drive in which new or lightly used toys were donated for the benefit of “children who have no hope of Christmas.” Austin L. Rose Jr. bought the property from Santos in 1968, after which it was known as Ozzie’s Shell Station — perhaps a diminutive of Austin.
¶ Republished on 27 September 2023.
155 Bradford Street on the Town Map, showing property lines.