Meadow Gold Sign Returns To Tulsa's Route 66

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- There are 24 miles of historic Route 66 running through Tulsa. Along it are bits and pieces of our history.  One of those bits and pieces has been restored and is being re-erected along the historic pathway.

It is a new home near 11^th and Quaker for the Meadow Gold Milk sign that lit-up the corner of 11th and Lewis along historic Route 66 for decades.

"Everyone who's been involved in this sign is just happy this day has finally come, when the sign parts and letters are finally going back up," said Lee Anne Ziegler.

It took a long time, longer than anyone thought it would to get the sign back up.

In the 1930's, Meadow Gold put it up atop a small building at 11th and Lewis.  It was a beacon along Route 66 until sometime in the 1970's.

"It's more than just a sign, it lives in people's hearts and memories it truly is a landmark," said Lee Anne Ziegler.

A few years ago the owner of the building on which the sign rested decided to tear the building down.

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture and others mounted a sign rescue project.  They got a grant from the National Parks Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.  They were able to take the sign down and begin restoration.  Other grants and donations helped finish the project

"I just wanted it to be like I remember when I was a kid driving down Route 66," said architect Steve Vogt.

Vogt's an architect with PSA Dewberry and he designed the brick pavilion the sign will rest on.  The land was donated to the city for the project and from the corner at 11th and Quaker there's a good view of downtown which will make the sign visible from there, too.

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture is currently completing an inventory of Tulsa's historic neon signs and hopes to have a directory and self guided tour information published soon.