Glass House Oral History Project

About the Collection

The Glass House Oral History Project features interviews with Vinita residents and former employees of the Glass House Restaurant sharing their memories of the iconic building.

The restaurant building stands at the half-way point on the Will Rogers Turnpike near Vinita, Oklahoma. The arched building opened in 1957 and was the first restaurant built over a U.S. public highway. Conoco (Continental Oil Company) commissioned the building with an aim to serve the needs of motorists passing in both directions. The building housed the Glass House Restaurant, dedicated in 1958, and included a cafeteria, snack bar, and sit-down restaurant. On each side of the building, motorists enjoyed full-service gas stations, operated by Conoco initially.

Over the years other restaurants and fuel facilities have operated at the service plaza. Host International, Interstate Hosts and Howard Johnson’s have operated the plaza at different times. The Glass House and the Conoco stations employed many of the area’s youth through the years and served many, many travelers. Renovation began on the service plaza in 2012 and in 2014; it re-opened with a new name, the Will Rogers Archway.

This collection is a subseries of the Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project.

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Contact Us

Oklahoma Oral History Research Program
207 Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-7685
liboh@okstate.edu

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