Vickery Phillips 66 Station (Tulsa)

Vickery Phillips 66 Station - National Register of Historic Places
www.tulsapreservationcommission.org/nationalregister/bu...

602 South Elgin Avenue
Built: ca. 1932

The Phillips 66 Station is a virtually intact example of the Cotswold Cottage design used by Phillips Petroleum Company throughout the country. The first Phillips Cottage opened in Wichita, Kansas, and by 1930 there were 6,750 of them in twelve states. These cottage stations had a central chimney and were painted a distinctive dark green with orange and blue trim so that they would stand out from competing oil companies.

The Vickery Phillips station in Tulsa was originally located within a residential area and its cottage appearance was designed to blend into such areas. Tulsa’s Central High School was located two blocks west. In 1926, Second Street was designated part of U.S. Route 66, and businesses that catered to the traveling public prospered. Phillips purchased the property and operated the station with 5 to 6 employees.

The station was later leased to a variety of individuals who had to agree to use only Phillips 66 products. In 1946, it became Vickery Phillips 66. Virgil Vickery lived in a small apartment less than a block away; an indication of the mom and pop status of the station. This was in spite of the fact that it was actually owned by a large corporation.

In 2006 the Vickery Phillips 66 Station received a Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program Cost-Share Grant. These funds assisted with rehabilitation of the building for use as a car rental property serving downtown Tulsa, which opened in September 2007.

The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 3, 2004 under National Register Criteria A and C. Its NRIS number is 04000135.