Claremore Auto Dealership

The Claremore Auto Dealership at 625 W. Will Rogers Boulevard is an outstanding example of 1930s commercial Streamline Moderne architecture, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was designed to sell cars by embodying the same aerodynamic aesthetic as the vehicles on the lot, and it does so with unusual integrity — the rounded corners, horizontal banding, and large curved glass windows are still intact.

The building still operates as a car dealership, which is part of what makes it remarkable: it is a functioning commercial building that has been in continuous use since 1936 without being demolished, substantially altered, or converted into a museum. Worth stopping for photographs on a Route 66 drive; the building is best seen from across the road to appreciate the full facade.

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A story
The dealership was built in 1936 in a Streamline Moderne style specifically designed to suggest the speed and modernity of the cars it sold. The rounded corners, glass-block windows, and horizontal chrome detailing were not just decoration — they were arguments that driving one of these cars would place you in this same sleek, forward-moving world. It worked commercially for the dealership's original owners; it works architecturally still.