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Crystal Motel

5510 W Skelly Dr, Tulsa, OK
Phone:

East < GO > West

The Crystal Motel was formerly the 33 room Frontier Motel and dates back to 1953. The grassy area in front used to be home to a swimming pool. An early postcard carried a detailed location comment "Located one quarter mile East of Turner Turnpike on U. S. highway 66 and Interstate 44 By-Pass connecting Will Rogers Turnpike East with Turner Turnpike West.".

This sign replaced a larger original sign. The original sign promoted the Coffee Shop, Free TV, the Swimming pool and Family Rates.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

Late 50s Postcard
New Frontier Motel
Tulsa, Okla.
(Detailed location)
Swimming Pool
Coffee shop
Room service
Diner's Club
Family accommodations
24 hour switchboard

Mid-60s Motel
AAA
Carte Blanche
Diner's Club
Frontier Motel
5510 West Skelly Dr.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
(detailed location)
15 minutes from downtown Tulsa
33 Units
Swimming Pool
Coffee Shop
Tub and Shower Comb.
Room Phones
TV
Family Accommodations
Phone HI 6-xxxx
Featuring "Magic Fingers" Massaging Beds

Note: Looking at the mid-50s postcard, very few postcards dedicate more than three lines of text to their location, as this one does, and then fail to mention the actual address. At least they mentioned phones.

The mid 60s postcard is somewhat more informative mentioning how many rooms and how far from downtown as well as more than just the AAA affiliation. The note about how far it was from downtown can probably be attributed to the opening of the freeways nearby and the likely loss of some pure tourist traffic, thus requiring an attempt to attract more business travelers.
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Photo(s): 2016