Walker's Phillips 66 Gas Station

The station was built at least by 1947 when the Walker's (Cecil and Zelma) moved to Conway and the cafe was built a couple of years after they arrived. The cafe occupied a separate building just a few feet from the west side of the station. The station and cafe closed two weeks after I-40 opened in 1966. The cafe building was torn down sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The station was still standing in 2019.

There are at least three reported dates for the construction of the station, 1926, 1947 and 1949. The 26 and 49 dates come from the Texas Historic Commission and the 47 date comes from other sources. Personally I tend to think the 1926 date seems most likely going by the style of the station and also that it matches the date of the new Route 66 designation for the highway. At any rate, I'm not really certain when the station was built.

Going west it was known as the last chance for gas until Amarillo, 25 miles away. That doesn't seem all that far away, but yesterday's cars didn't always get very good gas mileage. Even in the 1960s when muscle cars came along a led footed driver could run the miles per gallon well down into single digits. If your car, truck, bus was over heating going twenty-five more miles without a serious breakdown might well have been impossible.

Heading west on 2161 past the grain elevator you get to drive about seven miles on pretty open old road before you get to the freeway again.

Photo(s): 2012