Preserving the Threatt Filling Station on Route 66

Along Route 66 in Oklahoma is a historic service station founded in 1915 by Allen Threatt, Sr. This historic site, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, was the only known Black-owned and operated gas station along the Mother Road.  Today the station (as well as the 150-acre family farm on which it stands) is still owned by the Threatt Family.

In 2021, this site was listed as one of America's11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, later receiving a major grant from the National Trust's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

In the summer of 2023, a crew from the National Trust's HOPE (Hands-On Preservation Experience) Crew traveled to Luther, Oklahoma, where the Threatt Filling Station became a living laboratory for preservation. 

When Molly Baker, the manager of HOPE Crew, first approached the family about a project at the Threatt Filling Station, the goal was to complete façade improvements on just one side of the station. However, under trades expert David Gibney’s guidance, the crew adopted the masonry skills needed so rapidly that they were able to complete rehabilitation on all four sides of the structure, completing a full transformation for this incredible site.

The project also included a community volunteer day in which locals could learn the important history of this site and try their hand at various preservation skills used in the rehabilitation efforts.

Scroll through to hear from David Gibney about the restoration of the Threatt Filling Station, and listen to the history of the Threatt Filling Station from Allen Threatt, Sr.'s, grandsons Charles David Threatt and Edward Threatt on SavingPlaces.org.

The first step for Gibney was to identify what stonework they were dealing with.

"...and they have painted joints, and they were built pretty much that one was built in 1930s, and they were built with Portland cement.

So the whole project changed then. So we weren't doing any repointing. We essentially, the structures made with sandstone, and so there was some areas where the sandstone deteriorated. So we used a product called Jahn Masonry, and it's a patching natural cement, and then we actually repainted all the joints black.”

"...the average size of the joint was joint was like three quarters to an inch wide, and so it was painting every joint on the building. 

So I had people doing that. I had a couple people that were working on patching the sandstone, and then I had a couple people, actually, the whole foundation had to be painted green, so I was able to break them into different groups. So painting joints, painting the foundation, patching the sandstone, and that's pretty much what went on for the period of work. And you kind of do things in phases. You attack one side, we're going to do the north side, then the south side, then the east side, and that's what we did."

"...And then after they took the air conditioner out, someone put in stone that did not match at all the color of the sandstone or the texture. So Ed Threatt he and I searched out for a day going to different masonry places, couldn't find the sandstone. Then somebody suggested, what about the old homestead back in the woods? So after three days kind of searching around, we were able to find the exact sandstone that we needed."