Foyil gas station added to National Register of Historic Places

Foyil filling station 2015

A 1920s gas station along an old alignment of Route 66 in Foyil, Oklahoma, officially was designated to the National Register of Historic Places this month.

The designation, effective Dec. 8, came listed in an email Thursday from the National Park Service.

We reported in April the long-closed gas station’s owner, Kean Isaacs, wished to restore it to “its original condition or as close as possible.” He said he hoped to eventually reopen it as an information center and Texaco merchandise outlet.

A Facebook page shows the station’s ongoing renovations. The National Register designation will make the property eligible for tax credits and other preservation incentives.

The official address is 12243 S. Andy Payne Blvd. in Claremore, Oklahoma, although the station sits in the middle of Foyil. Andy Payne Boulevard was Chestnut Avenue, which was U.S. 66 from 1926 to 1963.

The street is named after Foyil native Andy Payne, who won the 1928 Trans-American Footrace, aka Bunion Derby, of more than 3,400 miles, including all of U.S. 66. Years after Payne’s death, Foyil erected a statue of him where old Route 66 and newer Route 66 meet on the west edge of town.

We speculated in April that Payne likely ran past the station during the race. The owner a few weeks later confirmed that hunch by digging up this information:

In 1898 21 year old Thomas B. Millard with two other companions J. P. Andrews and Jim Ashburn left Cumberland County, TN and came to Foyil Indian Territory scouting for business opportunities. Tom bought lot 12 of block 12 in April 1923 where he would build the Foyil Filling Station before selling the property to his brother William J. Millard and moving to Texas in October 1926. William J. Millard sold the property to George W. Vincent and his wife Violet in October 1931. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent sold the property to Joseph Floyd Shaffer in June 1937 but he had already been operating the station as early as 1932. Floyd Shaffer, who was the brother in-law of the original owner Tom Millard, ran the station for the next 33 years until the mid 1960’s when it ceased operating as a filling station. The current owner is the Great-grandnephew of J. P. Andrews, one of the men that accompanied Tom Millard to Indian Territory.

Route 66 was realigned about 100 yards west of the station after 1963, where it remains today.

(Image of the Foyil gas station via Facebook)

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