Vega Hiway Service Station - Route 66
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Vega Hiway Service Station - Route 66
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Colonel JT Owens constructed the Hiway Service Station along the Ozark Trail in 1924. However, as good luck would have it, in 1926, the dirt road through Vega, Texas, was commissioned as Route 66, and the station was ready to serve its first travelers.
Colonel Owens leased the station to a series of people that ran it and lived in the two-rooms above the station over the years. While the upstairs had a lavatory for washing up, the only toilet was the public one downstairs, only accessible by an outside staircase.
In 1933, the station became a Phillips Petroleum Company. The lease states that a one-cent per gallon of gas sold will be paid to Phillips as rent. Almost inconceivable in this day and age!
The station finally closed in the 1970s when I-40 bypassed the town. However, Vega restored the station in 2001 with a grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. The station was dedicated in 2004 and is the town’s Visitor Center.
The Colonel who moved to Vega in 1906 was instrumental in developing the town of Vega. He built three service stations in town, of which only this one remains, along with the town’s first tourist court, Camp Joy. He also established the first newspaper and town’s waterworks.
Copyright 2022 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
January 17th, 2022
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