Vacant Route 66 Gas Station in Tulsa OK

Cities Service Station #8, Tulsa Oklahoma

Date added: June 27, 2025

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Cities Service Station No. 8 is a good example of the "oblong box" type of service station which proliferated across the nation from the 1930's through the 1950's. In 1926, the first station was constructed and in 1940 the separate two-bay garage was constructed. In 1950, the old station was demolished, and replaced by a new office and connection with the existing garage. This now unified office and garage with new sleek enameled panels, smooth lines, large glass windows, and green trim created a new "modern" identity for the Cities Service Company.

The oblong box form of station was the result of a transition in gas station architecture from earlier "house" types. After World War II, the international style of architecture inspired similar stations which were less adorned, more stripped down with clean lines, shiny finishes, and functional design. The Cities Service Station #8 is not strictly an oblong box, however. Cities Service developed its own version of the oblong box with the recessed office area, angled entry and green and white stripes and logo which promoted the recognition of the Cities Service brand. The station is a good example of the basic type of oblong box station with its flat roof, large plate glass windows, and an integrated office and service bays in one nearly rectangular building.

The station had an ideal location along Quanah Avenue (renamed Southwest Boulevard in 1957). Before Interstate 244 was constructed, it was between two cross streets, West 16^th Place and West 17^th Street. The first Cities Service station was constructed at this site in late 1926, after Route 66 had been designated, establishing the site as Route 66-related. Its location, surrounded on three sides by streets with easy entries made it possible to draw road traffic from Route 66 as well as local traffic on side streets.

The site for the station was ideal. Quanah Avenue was heavily used because the street fed traffic to and from the Eleventh Street Bridge across the Arkansas River. This bridge was one of the most important early substantial bridges built in Tulsa and Oklahoma, constructed in 1916-1917 and it carried traffic from Tulsa to west Tulsa oil fields and refineries. Just south of the bridge, Quanah Avenue bordered the large Constantine Oil Refinery on the east side and a sand and gravel company on the west. When the bridge became an official part of Route 66 in 1926, it became part of this federally-designated highway, an east/west transcontinental highway, which only increased traffic along Quanah. In the early 1920s, there were already two gasoline stations and a garage at 1629, 1640 and 1701 S. Quanah, amid a small commercial development with hotels, stores, post office and fire department, With Quanah Avenue a prime high traffic street, the Cities Service station site was well-chosen.

Prior to the discovery of oil just after the turn of the twentieth century, Tulsa was a small town along the Arkansas River dependent on ranching and agriculture. Tulsa was reshaped by the discovery of nearby large pools of oil in 1901 and 1905. Oil discoveries caused the city's population to surge as incomers sought the wealth that seemed so readily available in "oil". The hub for the multitude of oil businesses emerging from the oil boom in the surrounding area was the downtown core. This once railroad dependent community in the early twentieth century was about to experience radical changes, however, altering from a dense urban community to a far flung city spreading in nearly every direction. By the 1920s, automobile use helped extend the city's outward spin to the south, east and southeast peppering new additions and subdivisions along the way.

Even south of the Arkansas River along Division Street (later Quanah Avenue), the construction of the Constantin Oil Refinery in c. 1913 promoted new city additions and an area of commercial development with stores, rooming houses and residential hotels. The site of the 1926 Cities Service station was amid this commercial area, along the heavily traveled Quanah Avenue and Route 66.

Cities Service Company was formed in 1910, and it developed large holdings in the Mid-Continent Region by 1912 when it acquired the assets of Theodore N. Barnsdall, and a number of Oklahoma-based oil companies. Two years later Cities Service began extensive works in the Kansas oil fields. Those developments resulted in the formation of the Empire Gas and Fuel Company, and the name later changed to the Cities Service Oil Company, headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

In 1917, Empire was operating over 100 service stations, mostly in Oklahoma and Texas and they were transferred to a Cities Service Company subsidiary, the Crew Levick Company, a Pennsylvania firm acquired in 1916. The stations were known under the Empire and Crew Levick names until the mid 1920's, when they began operating under the Cities Service brand.

In 1923, Crew Levick Company operated two service stations in Tulsa: Station No. 2 at 103 N. Cincinnati, and Station No. 3 at 722 S. Boston. In 1924, the stations were operating under the Cities Service brand and Station No. 4 was added at 1707 E. 6th. Four more stations were added in Tulsa in late 1926: Station No. 5 at 2500 N. Peoria, Station No. 6 at 1747 S. Main, Station No. 7 at Main and Haskell, and Station No. 8 at 1648 S. Quanah. Only the Station No. 8 site is extant and still a gas station; all other early Cities Service station sites are now used for other purposes. There has been a Cities Service station at this site serving travelers along Route 66 for nearly 20 years, and on along Business 66 for several more. It is the only 1920s Cities Service site left in Tulsa.

Building Description

The Cities Service Station #8 faces east on Southwest Boulevard, once Quanah Avenue and US Route 66. The building has a large concrete pad surrounding the south and east sides of the building with drives that allowed customers access to both sides of the gasoline pumps. The rear elevation abuts a grassy strip along an access road entering Interstate 244 which is elevated overhead. The interstate's construction closed West 16^th Place north of the building. The garage portion on the north has large overhead doors and the office portion on the south is lower in height. The office has an angled entry that faces the southeast. The white enamel panel building is trimmed with the green of the Cities Service brand. The gasoline pumps are no longer extant.

The building has two masses constructed in two phases. The northern portion of the building is a two service bay garage, constructed c. 1940. It is a square block approximately 30' x 30' with a higher roof and parapet wall than the station office to the south, constructed c. 1950. The station office has a storage room, a utility room, and a restroom, and is a rectangle with one corner truncated on the diagonal. The office portion measures approximately 35'-9" x 23'-3". The west and rear elevations of the garage and addition align, and on the front facade, the office addition steps back from the garage. An overhang with a sloped soffit wraps around the east and south sides of the office addition. Both portions of the building are constructed of concrete block on a concrete foundation and are connected by a storage room that was once a breezeway between an earlier 1920s station and the 1940s garage. Three steel pipe columns support the overlaying construction along the east and south elevations of the office. A narrow raised sidewalk wraps around the east and south elevations of the office. Roofs are constructed of wood rafters and wood decking and the building has a new membrane roof. The garage roof has a positive slope to the west; the office roof is virtually flat.

Main Elevation (East)

The garage and office are clad in white enamel panels on the south and east elevations. The panels are trimmed with Cities Service green trim and logo. The panels at the top of the garage parapet have a radius edge. The garage has two bays with a single steel pipe column between. The garage has two 10' x 10' glazed aluminum segmented overhead garage doors.

The office entry is located on the diagonal southeast corner and is a narrow stile aluminum door with a wood-framed transom. The door is flanked by two vertical porcelain enamel panels covering the door framing. On either side of the door and wrapping around the south side of the office are large plate glass windows in original aluminum frames. The windows facing east have in-kind replacement panes and aluminum frames. The storage room elevation has a 1950s plate glass window paired with a jalousie window with glass louvers.

North Elevation

The north elevation of the garage is painted stucco. There are three nine-light painted steel awning windows with concrete sills. The windows and sills are painted.

West Elevation

The garage is finished with stucco and the office is painted concrete block. This elevation has four nine-light painted steel awning windows with concrete sills. One window in each of the original men's and women's restrooms has been in-filled with concrete blocks. This elevation has no parapet wall.

South Elevation

The south elevation is also clad in enameled panels. A large plate glass window flanks the main entry. A single aluminum door with a louvered vent in the lower portion accesses the women's restroom.

The building retains its integrity with original windows and overhead doors in the bays; also, several 1950s original interior and exterior doors remain in place. The enameled panels are trimmed with Cities Service green trim and logo.