The historic Phillips 66 station along Route 66 in Chandler, Okla., was named to the National Register of Historic Places effective Sept. 8, according to an email from the National Park Service.
The station, built in 1930, has been owned by Bill Fernau since 1997, and he’s been steadily restoring it in exacting detail ever since.
In 2002, Fernau earned a Cyrus Avery Award for historic preservation at the National Historic Route 66 Federation’s Steinbeck Awards dinner.
According to a story by Route 66 historian Jim Ross in American Road magazine a few years ago:
Station No. 1423 operated as a Phillips 66 until 1967, when it became a Skelly. In 1983, it was under the Getty Oil banner, and when last operating sold Texaco products. Fernau first laid nostalgic eyes on it in 1997. It was for sale, and had been since 1993. “Each time I came through town, I’d see it just sitting there, vacant. I finally got motivated in 1998 when an old house nearby was torn down, and I worried that it could meet the same fate.” […]
His commitment goes deeper than simply resuscitating an endangered icon for display to tourists and those with a personal connection, however. Bill Fernau is a disabled Vietnam veteran, something he seldom talks about. “This may sound sappy, but I set aside my disability check for this every month. It’s my way of returning something for posterity—using that money to preserve America. It’s what I fought for.”
Phillips 66 built the station and others during the 1930s in a cottage style so it would blend into residential neighborhoods.
(Photo by Emily Priddy)