A flower shop along Route 66 in Tulsa has operated there since 1935, and apparently it will for at least a while longer.
Burnett’s Flowers and Gifts at 4322 E. 11th St. (aka Route 66) recently changed hands, and the new owner thinks he’s found a new way to sell flowers and keep the business going, reported the Tulsa World.
Jerry Yocum of Wichita, Kansas, bought Burnett’s, and he described what he wants to do:
He said the Burnett’s location fits what Valley Floral of Wichita, his company, is trying to do. Burnett’s is going to become a little more do-it-yourself, Yocum said, with tables for brides and others to design their own flowers and learn about design.
He said the company is committed to what he called the “cold chain” — the ability to keep flowers cool so that they stay fresh longer.
Yocum said he’s also glad that he gets to help keep an established business along Route 66 alive.
“On Route 66, it’s a different area of town. … We’re going to have to be more of a destination place,” Yocum said.
The previous owner, Jerry Smith, had owned Burnett’s since 1995. He was only its fourth owner.
Finding any sort of history online of Burnett’s beyond the year it was established proved fruitless. Regardless, it’s rare to find a business that opened in the mid-1930s that’s operating today.
Burnett’s would not be the oldest business on Route 66 in Tulsa, however.
That likely would be Ike’s Chili, which has dished up bowls of its signature stew since 1908. Ike’s hasn’t stayed in one spot because of fires and moves, but it always has been on or near Route 66 — including for nearly 50 years on Admiral Place (an older alignment of 66) until it moved to 11th Street in 2014.
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