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Royce Cafe / Adamson Station

400 S. Broadway, Edmond, OK
Phone:

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Royce Adamson, a former Edmond newspaper publisher, announced plans for his new cafe and gas station in March of 1934. At the time the project was announced those plans included tourist courts, but I'm not sure if those ever got built or not. Construction on the stone clad main building started in early May and the Royce Cafe and Adamson Service Station opened for business in early June of 1934. Both the station and cafe offered 24 hour service. It was still common for cafes to have gas pumps out front.

The new station sold Conoco gas and products. An early ad lists Sandwiches, Ice Cream, Lunches, Cold Drinks, Hamburgers as some of the items on the menu. It also mentioned "Curb Service" and plenty of parking.

The businesses were apparently pretty much instant successes, so much so that in the summer of 1936 they added an 18 by 40 foot new dining room to the south end of the building, increasing total seating from 35 to 75.

They weren't done enlarging the cafe though. In 1941 the added the 22 by 60 foot Mural Room on the north end of the building. The name came from the 6 foot tall 36 foot long woodland mural on the north wall of the room. Hardwood floors, a player piano and a new "automatic record player (a juke box)" combined to make this one of the most popular dining rooms in Edmond. It was however only available by reservation.

In 1936 they also leased the gas station which became known as Keys Conoco. In order to make servicing cars easier, the new gas station operators promptly installed a hydraulic lift outside in the parking lot. The three visible gas pumps still stood in front of the northwest corner of the building. In 1938 Keys Conoco built a new station on the northwest corner of the same intersection and in early 1939 Ramon Bunsine leased the Adamson station and turned it into a Magnolia Gas station. That arrangement was apparently over by 1941 when they added the Mural Room to the cafe.

Mr. Adamson passed away in early 1942 and Mrs. Adamson continued to run the cafe until she sold it and retired in 1958. The cafe closed in the 1970s.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

ON U.S. HIGHWAY 66 AND 77... EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

NOTE: This undated postcard doesn't say much, but the gas pumps are gone so I'm guessing dates to post 1941. There is no descriptive text on the back of the card, apparently they subscribed to the old saying that "a picture is worth a 1,000 words".

Photo(s): 2017