The historic but long-closed Brookshire Motel in Tulsa faces a possible wrecking ball amid the city’s continuing efforts to revitalize Route 66 in the region.
The Tulsa World reported:
With a bright neon sign and charming, cottage-style office, the Brookshire epitomizes the affordable, roadside motels that catered to Route 66 traffic during the Mother Road’s post-war heyday. But in recent times, the police have gone there more often than tourists.
“The property is a public nuisance and has become a haven for criminal activity,” said Michelle Brooks, the mayor’s press secretary. “The property was declared a nuisance more than a year ago.”
Since then, Brooks said, code violations have gone unaddressed and the city has incurred more than $10,000 in abatement charges. The owner has until next week to respond with a “plan of action,” according to communications obtained by the Tulsa World. But demolition would be “a very last resort,” Brooks said.
“We will explore and allow time for all possible options for preservation,” she said.
According to Tulsa County property records, the motel’s owner is the Nathu Patel trust of nearby Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The tract’s fair-market value is $228,400.
Little is known about the Brookshire’s history, although its architecture indicates it likely was built in the 1940s.
Several Mother Road boosters, including Ed Sharrer, Tulsa County Route 66 Commission chairman, and Amanda DeCort, executive director of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, have urged a solution other than bulldozers. Both said the motel, if repaired properly, could become a prime draw to Route 66 travelers on the city’s east side.
The property had been for sale in the 1990s, but bad neighborhoods near that area probably scared off potential developers. The entire 11th Street (aka Route 66) corridor has seen an upswing in economic activity in recent years. So the time to buy the Brookshire might be now.
The possible demolition of the motel comes amid at time when the commission is due to get funding from the taxpayer-approved Vision funds. One of the group’s goals in the coming months is to encourage Route 66 business owners to install or restore their neon signs, plus add more directional signs to Route 66 in the county.
(Image of the Brookshire Motel in Tulsa by Nicolas Henderson via Flickr)
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