Threatt Filling Station makes America’s Most Endangered Historic Places list

The Threatt Filling Station and family farm near Luther, Oklahoma, made it onto the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of 11 of America’s most endangered historic places.

The properties are threatened by deterioration, climate change, or inappropriate development. The good news is in the 34 years the National Trust has compiled the lists, only 5% of those more than 300 properties have been lost.

Here’s what the National Trust said about Threatt Filling Station and farm:

The entrepreneurial Threatt (pronounced THREET) family first sold produce from their 150-acre family farm outside Luther, Oklahoma, in the early 1900s, and over time expanded their offerings to include a filling station (built in 1915), ballfield, outdoor stage, and bar. The filling station was the only known Black-owned and -operated gas station along Route 66 during the Jim Crow era, making it a safe haven for Black travelers. The farm also reportedly provided refuge to Black Oklahomans displaced by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The Threatt family still proudly owns the property and envisions revitalizing this site in time for the 2026 Centennial of Route 66, starting Route 66’s second century off with a more representative narrative of the legendary “Mother Road.” But they need partners and financial support to fully restore the filling station and bar and do justice to its stories of Black entrepreneurship and travel.

The National Trust advocates making Route 66 a National Historic Trail to aid the property. One can sign a petition here to support such a designation.

The Threatt Family Foundation wrote in a news release:

“The Threatt Filling Station and Family Farm represents the power of Black entrepreneurship and its ability to create a safe haven for Black travelers on this iconic American roadway,” noted Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “This place, still proudly owned by the Threatt family, underscores the fact that carefree travel along Route 66 was not a reality for Black Americans, and it reinforces the truth that many people of color face danger while traveling still today. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre and look towards the centennial of Route 66 in 2026, we have the opportunity to honor and preserve this place that has long served as a refuge and safe haven, and re-activate it to carry its legacies forward.” […]
Through the Threatt Family Foundation, the Threatt family envisions revitalizing the farm and filling station in time for the 2026 Centennial of Route 66. Major work is needed to rehabilitate the property, however. Per a Historic Structures Report conducted in 2020, over $200,000 in needed repairs and upgrades were identified for the filling station alone, which has been vacant for several decades.
The Threatt Family Farm exemplifies a multigenerational Black family legacy that continues to fight discriminatory policies for Black landowners. It also honors Black entrepreneurship on Route 66, an important and under-represented part of the story of the iconic highway. Through its preservation and restoration plans for the property, the Threatt Family Foundation envisions starting off Route 66’s second century with a site that presents a more
representative narrative of the legendary “Mother Road.”

The famiily also has established a GoFundMe.com page to help preserve the station:

Here are the other threatened sites:

• Selma to Montgomery March campsites, Selma, Alabama
• Trujillo Adobe, Riverside, California
• Summit tunnels 6 and 7 and Summit campsite, Truckee, California
• Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home, Camilla, Georgia
• Morningstar Tabernacle No.88 Order of Moses Cemetery and Hall, Cabin John, Maryland
• Boston Harbor Islands, Boston
• Sarah E. Ray House, Detroit
• The Riverside Hotel, Clarksdale, Mississippi
• Oljato Trading Post, San Juan County, Utah
• Pine Grove Elementary School, Cumberland, Virginia

(Image of the Threatt Filling Station in 2014 by Melodbit via Wikimedia Commons)