Avant's Cities Service Station

Avant's Cities Service Station is a small, well-preserved late-1920s filling station on South Choctaw Avenue in central El Reno. It is no longer a working garage — it is open as a historic site and Route 66 photo stop — but the structure, signage, and one of the original gravity-feed pumps are still in place.

Together with Jackson Conoco a block away, it is one of two early-twentieth-century stations in town, both on the National Register. Either one is a five-minute stop on a downtown walk between burger lunch and the railway museum.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The Cities Service company built a series of these distinctive small stations across the lower Midwest in the late 1920s — green tile roofs, white stucco, and a canopy on slender pillars. Most were demolished as filling stations grew larger. Avant's survived because it sat in an out-of-the-way spot on Choctaw and was eventually preserved.

Other places in Things to Do