Rock Café
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Rock Café
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| Location |
114 W. Main Street Stroud, Oklahoma |
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| Coordinates | 35°44′56″N 96°39′16″W / 35.749°N 96.6544°WCoordinates: 35°44′56″N 96°39′16″W / 35.749°N 96.6544°W |
| Built | 1939 |
| Built by | Roy Rieves |
| Architectural style | Bungalow/Craftsman |
| MPS | Route 66 in Oklahoma MPS |
| NRHP reference # | 01000661 |
| Added to NRHP | June 14, 2001 |
The Rock Café in Stroud, Oklahoma, a historic restaurant on U.S. Route 66, takes its name from the local sandstone used in its construction.
Originally built in 1936 and opened in 1939, the Rock Café reopened on May 29, 2009 after extensive repairs by historic preservationist David Burke due to damage from a 2008 fire. The restaurant's cookbook, written during the rebuilding effort, was published in November 2009.
Rock Café proprietor Dawn Welch, a long-time promoter of U.S. Route 66 in Oklahoma selected by The Oklahoman as Oklahoma's 2009 Woman of the Year, is the basis for animated character Sally Carrera in the Pixar film Cars.
Roy Rieves started building the Rock Café in 1936 during the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression and relied on local materials to build the café's distinctive stone exterior, doing much of the construction work himself or hiring students. The original costs included $100 for the land and $5 for local Kellyville sandstone left over from construction on the U.S. Route 66 roadway which had come to Stroud, Oklahoma in 1926.
The café opened in August 1939, initially operating under manager Miss Thelma Holloway, and was a busy local Greyhound bus stop during World War II. Its neon signage was installed in the late 1940s. Mamie Mayfield operated the Rock Café twenty-four hours a day in 1959 and retired at age 70 on July 14, 1983.
Business from cross-country truckers declined with the construction of Interstate 44 in Oklahoma, a toll road, although Highway 66 remains as a free alternative to the Turner Turnpike. After U.S. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, highway 66 became Oklahoma State Highway 66. Dawn Welch, the current proprietor, acquired the café from Ed Smalley in 1993.
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