Prairie Gothic, a boutique store based in Guthrie, Oklahoma, next month will open a second location inside the historic Milk Bottle Building in Oklahoma City, reported The Oklahoman newspaper.
The mother-daughter team Christie and Shirley Clifford own the store, which was described as a mix of cowboy and goth decor. The newspaper reported:
The Cliffords will continue that aesthetic at the new Oklahoma City shop, but with a more modern flourish in keeping with the Route 66 history of the milk bottle building.
The Milk Bottle Building’s owner, Elise Kirkpatrick, recently finished a historically minded renovation, including new windows, salvaged wood from old buildings, 1930s tile floors and a 1930 toilet.
Constructed in 1930, the 350-square foot triangular building sits at a former streetcar stop. The 11-foot-tall milk bottle on top, made of sheet metal, was erected in 1948. The bottle advertised Townley’s Dairy from the 1950s until the 1980s, then Braum’s ice cream.
The building served as a cleaning service, a real-estate office, a fruit market, a barbecue restaurant, a Vietnamese sandwich shop and a grocery. The Milk Bottle Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The building sits on Classen Boulevard, an original alignment of Route 66. Subsequent alignments of Western Avenue and Northwest 23rd Street lie only a short distance away.
(Image of the Milk Bottle Building in 2010 by Aaron Hall via Flickr)
Good news about the dairy building. Do you think they could move that school crossing sign away from the historic building? Ruins the historic character.