A cottage-style gas station in Oklahoma City that dated to the beginnings of Route 66 was torn down in recent weeks to make way for a fast-food restaurant, according to the OKC Central blog, which is affiliated with The Oklahoman newspaper.
The long-closed station stood at Pennsylvania Avenue and Northwest 23rd Street (aka Route 66). Here is a Google Maps image of the corner before the station faced the wrecking ball:
Longtime Route 66 News reader Rick Martin alerted me to the gas station’s razing about a week ago. Oklahoman reporter Steve Lackmeyer, who’s well-plugged-in on Oklahoma City’s historical issues, checked into it and wrote a report Tuesday on his OKC Central blog.
Lackmeyer said the gas station and a nearby retail building both were built in 1926 — the first year U.S. Highway 66 was federally commissioned.
According to Sanborn fire insurance maps, the station was originally a Conoco.
The corner has been empty for as long as I can remember. A vintage-style Sears stood catty-corner to the gas station, and it was torn down in the mid-1990s to make way for the big box shopping center we see today.
Lackmeyer reports the site will be developed into a Raising Canes fast-food eatery.
Disgusting. Yet another piece of history lost in the name of “progress”.
That is too bad, as it looks like a very cute little building, and it had survived all this time. Just what we need is another fast-food restaurant. And when that closes in a year or two, we’ll have to watch their ugly building decay.
This is why I am desperately trying to get the money together to buy “Dale’s Barber Shop” in Joplin. I want to restore it to something like the Phillips 66 in McLean, Tx (while running my computer repair business out of it).
I used to buy fuel there in 1959/60…..DAMN!!
Incomprehensible while the tourism around 66 develops more and more. Another old 66 place disappears instead of being protected. I would be curious to know how many fast-food restaurants already exist in the city.
Fortunately, other cities protect their 66’s treasures.
(sorry for my English). A route 66 fan from France.
I grew up in OKC, and, sadly, many folks there have been quick on the trigger to demolish wonderful landmarks like this; I remember my mom bringing me a brick from the Biltmore Hotel after it was torn down. It’s too bad the new owners couldn’t have tried to incorporate it into the new building.