ErikDavid found it for sure, well done sir! I found an aerial from 1957 and you can see the gas station still there, by the early '60s it was gone.

There's what appears to be a large pipe on the small bridge just left of the Esso station that looks very similar to this one on Google Maps.

On the left side of the photo there is a policeman standing at a traffic signal control box. He has a key inserted in the front panel that likely allows him to control the traffic signals to help prevent gridlock. Vancouver, B.C., had old relay signal boxes like this until 1984 when they were converted to digital signalling. I once saw a motorcycle cop ride up to an older non-working traffic signal, kick the box with his boot and everything started functioning again.

... are indeed at Spring Garden.

If you click on Marjory Collins' name above the photo and scroll down to Second Shift: 1943 from a decade ago, you'll see another shot probably on the same day; I made extensive comments then that I won't repeat here.

That Esso station is long gone. I started to work down here in 1970; the Esso site was a vacant lot even then.

Would those gasometers (center frame, in the distance) be the still-standing ones at the BGE Spring Gardens plant?

Edits:
Thanks Olde Buck.

Angus J:
Funny story about the motorcycle cop kicking the traffic signal box. Reminds me of old tube TV adjustments.

I'd say the cop in this Shorpy image is also a motorcycle cop: Sam Browne belt, knee-high leather riding boots, and baggy riding breeches (with vertical stripe slightly visible). The left arm patch is probably a motorcycle/highway patrol patch; too bad it's too small to see clearly. Also too bad his motorcycle isn't in the image!

That shipyard had a lot to do with victory in WWII since between 1941 and 1945, the Fairfield yard built a total of 384 Liberty ships, more than any other shipyard in the nation.

On the other hand some of those signs had to do with my early life in Baltimore.

Pepsi was my family's choice of colas while I held out for RC Cola.

According to my mother, a shot of Maryland Rye, maybe even the Sherbrook pictured here, was given to each member of her family on Saturday night during the Spanish Flu epidemic by Grandfather Streb, and maybe because of it all survived. If anyone had a fever they got at least two shots and were sent to bed and covered with enough blankets to make them sweat. In the morning they were weak but flu free.

There was an Esskay plant on Belair Road (pronounced Blaroad) within walking distance of my home on Elmora and we always could smell the hams baking. Some days Arrow Beer about four blocks away would roast hops and we would get another pleasant odor day. On another odor note there was a time when McCormick had a plant in the inner harbor and that threw out fantastic various cinnamon flavored odors all the time.

Ah, Balmer, I remember your good smells to this day. Hey do you smell some Old Bay goin' on steamers?

cheaper. I just now checked Gas Buddy, and there are at least 10 locations in my area that are selling regular for LESS than $2.25 right now.

It appears there was no shortage of billboards during the war years and that 1943 Esso gas at 19.4 (if that is the gas price) would be, according to an inflation calculator, would be almost $32/gallon today.

[Check your math. - Dave]

oops.

A major source of the congestion Collins photographed were thousands of wood-frame barracks, housing projects, and brick row houses built to house workers in war industry, including 27,000 at the Fairfield Shipyard. This revolutionized communities throughout the city and exacerbated segregation.

The boom would subside quickly. As a war-emergency project, Fairfield Yards was closed in 1945 after only four years, with the facilities converted to scrapping operations and cleaning of storage tanks. Baltimore's population, which increased 10% in the 1940s, began a decline which continues today.

Driving into this particular area today, you will find residents of the luxury high-rise Ritz Carlton and Harborview condominium communities. The Harborview parking garage, a converted dry dock, is almost the only vestige of the WWII operation.

Microsoft Copilot tells me that inflation would increase the 20 cent gallon of wartime 1943 (note the sign by the gas station) to about $3.65 today. Copilot also tells me that today's average price of unleaded regular gasoline in the USA is around $3.10 per gallon.

The Esso service station is interesting. The signage on the canopy reflects the then-current Esso branding/typography adopted in 1934, while the big pole sign still has the original logo from the 1920s, presumably when the station was built. Maybe the owner wasn't in a hurry to go to the expense of replacing it.

is the Matheson Building in the distance.