Lucille’s Historic Highway Gas Station

About

Built in 1929 by Carl Ditmore, this unusual two-story filling station is one of the surviving reminders of the small independent businesses that once served motorists along Route 66. Its Bungalow/Craftsman-inspired design placed the owners’ living quarters directly above the open service bay, supported by broad tapered piers. W.O. and Ida Waldroup purchased the property in 1934, renamed it the Provine Service Station and added tourist accommodations nearby. In 1941, Carl and Lucille Hamons took over the business, beginning the chapter that would make the little station one of Oklahoma’s best-known Route 66 landmarks.

Lucille operated the station for nearly six decades, helping generations of motorists and becoming known as the “Mother of the Mother Road” for her hospitality and generosity toward travelers. Even after Interstate 40 diverted most highway traffic away from the old road, she kept the business going until her death in 2000. The restored station now serves as a photo stop rather than an active gas station, with vintage pumps and a roadside marker recalling Lucille and the families who lived and worked here. Her legacy earned her induction into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame in 1999, while the station itself was added to the National Register of Historic Places two years earlier.

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