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Vintage Postcard
Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Today, Kathy
Weiser, September, 2007.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
Among the many restaurants and filling
stations that once served Shamrock,
Texas'
Route 66
travelers were the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Restaurant. Representing the art-deco style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s,
the building was completed in 1936. The building was first constructed as
three separate businesses - the Tower Conoco Station, so named
for the tall tower gracing its roof; the U-Drop Inn Cafe, named by a
local schoolboy in a contest that awarded him $50.00 for his idea; and
a retail store. However, when the retail store failed, it was taken
over by the cafe for use as a ballroom and overflow dining room.
Local newspapers reported it as
"the swankiest of swank eating places" and "the most up-to-date edifice of
its kind on the U.S. Highway
66 between
Oklahoma City and
Amarillo." The U-Drop Inn, where "Delicious Food Courteously Served" became the
standard, was a welcoming sight to highway travelers and the many buses
that pulled in at the diner.
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Beautiful in its day, the building sported neon lighting and art deco
details including glazed ceramic tile walls. Over the years, it continued
to serve travelers, and in the 1970's, it was converted to a Fina station.
After some 50 years of operating successfully, it finally closed in the
mid-1990's and sat abandoned for the next two decades.
Today, however, the building has been fully
restored to its original grandeur and serves the Chamber of Commerce and
as a tourism office.
 The
U-Drop Inn inspired Romone's auto painting shop in the popular Disney/Pixar
movie "Cars."
The Tower Station is located at the
corner of
Route 66 and Highway 83 in
Shamrock, Texas.
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