Battle of Caving Banks

Edit links

The Threatt Filling Station, at the southwestern corner of the former U.S. Route 66 and Pottawatomi Rd. about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Luther, Oklahoma (which is about 20 miles (32 km) east of Oklahoma City), is a filling station built around 1915. The station closed in the 1970s.[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.[1]

It is "an example of a 'house' type of station, designed in the Bungalow/Craftsman style of architecture."[3]

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.[3]

During the Jim Crow 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.[4][5]

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.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ^ Hinton, Carla. "Route 66 'refuge' for Black travelers now listed among 'most endangered' historic places". The Oklahoman. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Maryjo Meacham; Brenda Peck; Lisa Bradley; Susan Roth (May 31, 1992). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Threatt Filling Station". National Park Service. Retrieved July 20, 2018. With accompanying two photos from 1991
  4. ^ Hinton, Carla (December 11, 2018). "'A safe haven': 'Green Book' movie, preservation efforts fuel renaissance for former Threatt Filling Station in Luther". GateHouse Media, LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
  5. ^ Jones, Perris (February 26, 2021). "Route 66 service station was safe haven for Black drivers passing through 'Sundown Towns'". Hearst Television. KOKO News. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
  6. ^ "Threatt Filling Station and Family Farm Named One of Nation's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places". Oklahoma Route 66 Association. Retrieved February 10, 2023.

External links

Media related to Threatt Filling Station at Wikimedia Commons