A look inside the historic Threatt Filling Station

A few months ago, a prominent Route 66 advocate whispered she’d been inside the Threatt Filling Station along Route 66 near Luther, Oklahoma, and she was blown away by the artifacts inside.

Last week, KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City brought a reporter inside the station. Take a look for yourself:

More from the story:

“I don’t think you can adequately define how important [the Threatt Filling Station] was because, again, not just for people in the community but for people of color traveling Highway 66 at that time it was just absolutely vital,” Edward told FOX 25, “Not only could they stop and get gas, food, they were also able to camp on the grounds here.” […]

“My memories growing up here is pumping gas and cleaning windshields and putting air in tires as the cars come,” said Reverend Allen Threatt, III who, along with the rest of the Threatt family helped at the filling station. […]

“We were little boys and I would get up early the next morning and go and pick up coins on the ground where people would be dancing with the jukebox and money be falling out of their pockets,” Allen said. […]

“On Saturdays and Sundays, grandfather was involved with the Negro Baseball League and they played baseball right across the street over there,” Allen said. […]

On a related note, members of the Threatt family will attend the 2 p.m. Sunday screening of “Green Book” at the Circle Cinema in Tulsa and tell stories about their Route 66 gas station. Ironically, the Negro Motorist Green Book, which helped inspire the premise of the “Green Book” movie, never listed the Threatt station for some reason.

The Threatt family seeks to repair the long-closed station and reopen it as a historical and Route 66 museum.

Built by Allen Threatt in 1915, the gas station remains one of the few surviving African-American-owned businesses along Route 66. The bungalow-style station made of rock from the Threatt farm’s quarry was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

The Threatt Filling Station operated until the early 1960s, when it was converted into living quarters.

(Screen-capture image from video of Allen Threatt inside the Threatt Filling Station near Luther, Oklahoma)