A piece of Tulsa history is moving

The Meadow Gold Milk sign that's been overlooking the corner of 11th and Lewis for 60 years is coming down. <br/><br/>The News on 6's Rick Wells says itâ€™s not all bad news. <br/><br/>It is

Wednesday, June 16th 2004, 9:48 am

By: News On 6

The Meadow Gold Milk sign that's been overlooking the corner of 11th and Lewis for 60 years is coming down.

The News on 6's Rick Wells says itâ€™s not all bad news.

It is a kind of bitter sweet day for Route 66 road warriors, and historic preservationists. A piece of Tulsa history is coming down so it can be restored and re-located. The hard work has begun, piece by piece, letter by letter, a Tulsa and Route 66 landmark is being dismantled, taken apart so it can be restored.

"The porcelain pieces can be buffed the neon tubing will have to be replaced.â€ Lee Anne Ziegler is the executive director of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, one of the groups involved in this project. Theyâ€™ve got to find another location along Route 66 put the sign back up, the building it's on now will be torn down.

"We've received checks in the amount of $5 and donations for a dollar up to $1,000 for this wonderful sign to be restored.â€ They still may be several thousand dollars short of enough to complete the job. The sign's been on this spot since the 1940â€™s; it was put up to advertise Meadow Gold Milk and its home delivery service.

In its hay-day the sign had a clock atop each side and the clocks will be part of the restoration. "At the Route 66 festival this weekend I met a fifth generation owner of a clock company who actually did the original clocks." The plans are still around and can be used to re-do the clocks.

Money to complete the project is an issue, as it always is. Rick Shmigle of the Route 66 Society is on his way up the ladder with a bucket, to collect any old pieces of neon tubing that might be sold as mementoes the money of course going to complete the project.

Here's what's left, finish the take down, storage and restoration. They've got to find a new location for the sign somewhere on Route 66 and of course raise some more money, so maybe in a year or so it'll be back up for folks to see.