Historic Neon Signs Installedat Avery Plaza Southwest for Vision 2025 Route 66 Project
REMEMBERING THE ROAD: Historic Route 66 motel signs have been placed at the Avery Plaza Southwest.
Neon signs advertising businesses that travelers on U.S. Route 66 in decades gone by would have seen on the Mother Road – Will Rogers Motor Court, Tulsa Auto Court and Oil Capital Motel – are reappearing as historic replicas on Route 66. This time-traveling magic appears at the Avery Plaza Southwest, a new Route 66 attraction on Southwest Boulevard near West 17th Street. The signs were installed in August.
Like several other Route 66 attractions in Tulsa, Avery Plaza Southwest is named after Cyrus Avery, the Father of Route 66 who lived in Tulsa. The Avery Plaza Southwest consists of the west approach to the historic Cyrus Avery Route 66 Memorial Bridge. It corresponds to the Cyrus Avery Route 66 Centennial Plaza on the opposite bank of the Arkansas River, where the East Meets West bronze sculpture is located.
The plazas are on each end of the Route 66 Memorial Bridge, which was the original 11th Street Bridge that in 1926 was instrumental in Cyrus Avery’s successful attempt to bring the alignment of U.S. Route 66 through Oklahoma and Tulsa.
The 20-foot-tall historic replica neon signs stand in a decorative plaza designed by Howell & Vancuren landscape architects and Wallace Engineering and constructed by Crossland Heavy Contractors. The neon signs were designed by David Hoffer and fabricated by A-max Sign Co.
This $500,000 (includes design and construction) project is one of the final ones from the Vision 2025 Route 66 Enhancements and Promotion, the original Vision package approved by Tulsa County voters in 2003. Remaining Vision 2025 Route 66 items are a Kendall Whittier pedestrian lighting project at Admiral Place and Lewis Avenue, the Route 66 Experience and a preservation fund.
