Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 21, east central Oklahoma

Heading out of Oklahoma City, we continue east on the Mother Road.

Arcadia

Arcadia is famous for an amazing example of woodworking: the Round Barn. It was constructed in 1898 and was restored a few years ago. It houses a gift shop, which is well worth a stop. The gift shop has photographs of other barns with unusual configurations. The round design is efficient in wood use and provides a large interior volume without the need for pillars. I asked the proprietor why there are so few true round barns, and he said one main reason was that construction required a level of skill similar to boat-building. The normal country farmer did not have the woodworking skill. Look at the astonishing roof in the photograph above (click to enlarge it).

Tuton's Drugstore from the 1890s is in an unusual limestone building. 

This old gas station at 109 Main Street may date to the Route 66 days. The asbestos siding on the building could be any date from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Chandler

Chandler has an old Philips 66 gasoline station with an appropriate Cadillac in front, awaiting gallons of gasoline and patiently awaiting restoration. I have previously written about an old Valentine diner on a side street in Chandler (click the link). A 2018 comment by a reader said the diner has been moved to another town for restoration. 

It looks like folks are conservative here in the Heartland. I hope it pays off for them.

Bristow

Bristow is a quiet town about 20 miles southwest of Tulsa. I did not see too much Route 66 memorabilia on Main Street. The downtown looks prosperous, and the shops are occupied. Nice little town.

We stayed the night in a modest motel run by a Pakistani gent. The place did not offer breakfast, so we headed downtown. Bristow has a real coffee shop! I am impressed, coffee culture is finally spreading out from the cities into smaller communities. As I recall, we had excellent coffee and scones.

Continuing east from Bristow, Route 66 passes under Interstate 44 and then curves to the east, eventually crossing and running south of the interstate again.

Kellyville

Kellyville is quiet. I saw an old brick warehouse that may have been once a shed for locomotives. 

Sapulpa

Contunuing east, we reach the small town of Sapulpa. This was once the home of Frankoma Pottery, according to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook. An older alignment of Route 66, Frankoma Road, winds through woods. The Rock Creek Bridge is an early-20th century keystone type. similar to the Fairground Street Bridge in Vicksburg.

The two photographs from Sapulpa are genuine Kodak BW400CN film, shot with a Olympus Trip 35 camera. Most remaining frames are digital images from Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera, with raw files opened with Photoshop Elements and black and white filtering with DxO Filmpack 5 using the Kodak Tri-X emulation.

Update: Here are some examples of gorgeous round barns in Indiana:

https://blog.jimgrey.net/2021/04/15/the-round-barns-of-fulton-county-indiana/

The Valentine Diner of Chandler, Oklahoma

On our recent Route 66 trip through Oklahoma, we passed through the small town of Chandler. I stopped to photograph a historic Phillips 66 gasoline station on the corner of Manvel and 7th Street. My always-observant wife looked down the street and told me to check out old diner. A real find!

The inside was a mess, and the counters were gone. But you can see the streamlined pseudo-Art-Deco stripes on the overhead cabinets. Nice work.

Viewed from the other side, you can see there was once a fire. So far, there is no sign of restoration in progress. But at least the windows were intact. 

An article on diners in Preservation Mississippi directed me to the Kansas Historical Society, which has a page dedicated to these efficient, compact diners. 
From the Kansapedia of the Kansas Historical Society:

"What are Valentine Diners? They are small, portable restaurants that were made in Wichita and shipped all over the United States."

"Valentines were small eight- to 12-seat diners with a limited menu, making them ideal for a one person operation. They made it possible to operate a business with very little capital. "

"These diners were manufactured in Wichita from the late 1930s into the mid-1970s. Sales of the buildings expanded nationwide, and soon Valentines were all over the United States. Many are still in use today. "

• "History: A 1958 Valentine that originally was located in Leedy, Oklahoma, this diner was purchased by Patina Properties in 2003 and moved to Chandler. It currently is being restored.
• Model / serial number: Little Chef / 1690"

Photographs taken on July 25, 2017 with a Fuji X-E1 digital camera. I processed the RAW files with Photo Ninja software. If you use a Fuji camera, I recommend Photo Ninja highly.