Threatt Filling Station and Family Farm

Threatt Filling Station and Family Farm

The Threatt Filling Station, at the southwestern corner of the former U.S. Route 66 and Pottawatomi Rd. about 3 miles east of Luther, Oklahoma is a filling station built around 1915.

The entrepreneurial Threatt (pronounced THREET) family first sold produce from their 150-acre family farm outside Luther, Oklahoma, in the early 1900s, and over time expanded their offerings to include a filling station (built in 1915), ballfield, outdoor stage, and bar. The filling station was the only known Black-owned and -operated gas station along Route 66 during the Jim Crow era, making it a safe haven for Black travelers.

The farm also reportedly provided refuge to Blacks displaced by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The Threatt family still proudly owns the property and envisions revitalizing this site in time for the 2026 Centennial of Route 66, starting Route 66’s second century off with a more representative narrative of the legendary “Mother Road.” But they need partners and financial support to fully restore the filling station and bar and do justice to its stories of Black entrepreneurship and travel.

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

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

The Threatt Filling Station and Family Farm were placed on America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2021 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.