Milk Bottle Building reopens with new tenant

Prairie Gothic, a boutique based in nearby Guthrie, Oklahoma, opened a second store in the historic Milk Bottle Building along Route 66 in Oklahoma City last week after months of renovations, according to an article in The Oklahoman newspaper.

It’s not a carbon copy of the other Prairie Gothic store, either. The Milk Bottle Building reflects more of the 20th century and its Route 66 heritage; the Guthrie store is more Victorian.

The article notes shoppers can find gourmet barbecue sauce and framed taxidermy bats. In a video by The Oklahoman, Prairie Gothic owner Shirley Clifford described it as “the general store owned by the creepiest people in town.”

Building owner Elise Kirkpatrick oversaw the extensive face-lift:

Kilpatrick recently finished renovating the building with the help of historic preservation tax credits. The renovations included installing new windows, doors and fixtures in the tiny building. The restored restroom includes a newly installed toilet from 1930 and a vintage Boraxo powdered soap dispenser.

Built in 1930, the 350-square foot triangular building sits at a former streetcar stop. The 11-foot-tall milk bottle on top, made of sheet metal, was erected in 1948. The bottle advertised Townley’s Dairy from the 1950s until the 1980s, then Braum’s ice cream.

The building served as a cleaning service, a real-estate office, a fruit market, a barbecue restaurant, a Vietnamese sandwich shop and a grocery. The Milk Bottle Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

The building sits on Classen Boulevard, an original alignment of Route 66. Subsequent alignments of Western Avenue and Northwest 23rd Street lie only a short distance away.

(Screen capture of a video of the refurbished Milk Bottle Building)