Cecil Proffit's Esso Gas Station Museum

Windsor, Virginia

An old Esso gas station appears out of nowhere in a neighborhood of nice homes and tidy lawns. That's because it isn't really old. It was built in 2005 by the couple that owns the house next door, Cecil and Barbara Proffit, as a way to store their sizable collection of pop culture memorabilia and share it with the public.

Cecil, a retired auto mechanic, has outfitted the gas station with three hand-operated pumps and usually parks one of his restored antique vehicles under the overhang. The interior is packed with vintage mid-20th century treasures such as a pinball machine, jukebox, Coke-branded everything, store displays, signs, bottles, clocks, toys, a cigar store Indian, and a working 1930s moonshine still.