Will Rogers Archway

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Bridge restaurant before renovation 2013/14

The Will Rogers Archway is a bridge restaurant in Vinita , Oklahoma . The structure, constructed in 1957, spans the Will Rogers Turnpike, a section of Interstate 44 . It is considered the flagship of the Vinita Service Plaza rest area and was the first bridge restaurant in the United States.

history

The building was constructed in 1957 as part of the construction of Interstate 44 and began operations in 1958. The first operator was the restaurant chain Glass House Restaurants , which earned the building the nickname Glass House . The restaurant was later run by the Howard Johnson's hotel and restaurant chain before McDonald’s took over. The company had the characteristic arches of the structure painted yellow, creating a visual end to the McDonald's logo design. The branch in the bridge restaurant was until the early 1990s with an area of ​​over 29,000 square feet (about 2700 square meters) as the largest McDonald's branch in the world.

In 2013 the restaurant was closed for a major refurbishment and renovation. In August 2014, it was renamed Will Rogers Archway in memory of the American entertainer Will Rogers . It reopened in December 2014. In addition to McDonald's, the building has since been home to branches of Subway and Kum & Go .

In front of the restaurant there was a statue of Will Rogers showing him with a lasso until the renovation in 2013; During the renovation, this was moved inside the building, where a small exhibition about Rogers was also set up.

Others

In the 1960s, the bridge restaurant was included in the cookbook series The Ford Times Cookbook - Favorite recipes from popular American restaurants , which was published by the Ford Motor Company . The cookbook recommended the restaurant's special recipe for the Will Rogers Special , a dish made from marinated beef, bacon, mushrooms and cheese.

literature

  • Michael Karl Witzel: Strange 66 - Myth, Mystery, Mayhem, and Other Weirdness on Route 66. Quarto Publishing Group, Minneapolis 2018, ISBN 978-0-7603-5417-9 , pp. 84 ff. (English)

Web links

Commons : McDonald's over the Will Rogers Turnpike  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Phoenix: Glass House Restaurant, Vinita, Oklahoma, 1962. Charles Phoenix - The Ambassador of Americana, accessed December 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Will Rogers Archway. Oklahoma Tourism Department, accessed December 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The Will Rogers Turnpike. highwayhost.org, accessed December 13, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Rhett Morgan: Hundreds join celebration as rebuilt Will Rogers Archway is unveiled. In: The Oklahoman, December 23, 2014 issue.
  5. ^ "Glass House" in Vinita, Oklahoma. The Beth Lists, October 5, 2018, accessed December 13, 2019 .

Coordinates: 36 ° 37 '24 "  N , 95 ° 8' 52.1"  W.