The Threatt Filling Station, at the southwestern corner of the former
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
and Pottawatomi Rd. about east of
Luther, Oklahoma (which is about east of
Oklahoma City), is a
filling station built around 1915. The station closed in the 1970s. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
[
It is "an example of a 'house' type of station, designed in the ]Bungalow/Craftsman
In the United States, the National Register of Historic Places classifies its listings by various types of architecture. Listed properties often are given one or more of 40 standard architectural style classifications that appear in the National ...
style of architecture."[ With ]
Its original c.1915 gas pumps had glass globes on top so that the amount of gasoline to be dispensed could be determined, but those were replaced by two c.1940 pumps.[
During the ]Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
era, the Threatt Filling Station provided a place where black travelers, limited by laws restricting travel and accommodations, could stop, shop, and park for the night or just rest while traveling.
The property in which the station was located was owned by the Threatt family, a black family that engaged in multiple entrepreneurial avenues. The Threatt family estate also provided a safe haven for displaced blacks from the Tulsa race massacre in 1921.
References
External links
Gas stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma
National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
Transport infrastructure completed in 1915
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