Oklahoma City's six Route 66 Centennial Monuments sit on several different versions of the highway. Between 1926 and 1953, Route 66 moved through this city more than once, and each move came from the same pressure: more cars than the old streets could carry. With the highway's 100th birthday coming on November 11, 2026, the newest signs read like a map of those moves.
Four of the monuments went up the week of September 17, 2026, at NW 32nd Street and Classen Boulevard, Britton Road and Classen Boulevard, NW 39th Street and Barnes Avenue, and NW 43rd Street and Western Avenue. The other two were installed over the past year at NW 23rd Street and Hudson Avenue in Uptown and on NW 39th Expressway just east of the historic Lake Overholser bridge.
Six signs, sorted by the road they mark
The City of Oklahoma City's historic study of U.S. Highway 66 traces each alignment street by street. Matching the monument sites against it gives this.
Monument site | District | Route it sits on |
|---|---|---|
NW 23rd St & Hudson Ave | Uptown 23rd | The 1926 original, heading west from the Capitol |
NW 32nd St & Classen Blvd | Asian District | The 1926 original, on the Classen stretch the highway left around 1930 |
Britton Rd & Classen Blvd | Britton District | The Beltline bypass along Britton Road |
NW 43rd St & Western Ave | Western Avenue | The Beltline's leg south from Britton Road to NW 39th |
NW 39th St & Barnes Ave | 39th Street District | NW 39th Street, the 1926 route's way west |
NW 39th Expwy east of Lake Overholser bridge | Lake Overholser | The westbound exit toward Bethany |
The table shows two separate versions of the highway, plus the stretch of 39th Street where they meet. The sections below follow that order.
The 1926 road ran on Uptown's main street
The original alignment came into the city from the northeast on N. Kelley Avenue. It jogged west along the former Grand Boulevard, now I-44, and went south on Lincoln Boulevard to the State Capitol at 23rd Street. From there it turned west on NW 23rd to Classen, north on Classen to NW 39th, and west on 39th out of the city toward Bethany.
NW 23rd took to the role quickly. A 1927 newspaper advertisement in the city's study promoted a new row of shops between Robinson and Broadway as the "Busiest Community Center on Main Street of America." Goodpasture's Lunch at 117 NW 23rd was among them. The study notes that 119 and 133 NW 23rd appear to still stand, though both have been heavily altered.
The Uptown monument at Hudson Avenue sits by another survivor from that era. The city's study identifies a former Phillips 66 "cottage style" gas station at the northwest corner of NW 23rd and Hudson. It was one of the branded stations national oil companies built along the highway in the 1930s. A few blocks east, Tower Theatre at 425 NW 23rd keeps the street's older storefront scale.
Why the Asian District lost the highway
The monument at NW 32nd and Classen sits on a part of Route 66 that carried the highway for only a few years. Visit OKC's alignment timeline dates the first city route to 1926 through 1930.
Traffic and the street's own history explain the short run. In 1926, a traffic count north of the Capitol recorded 3,362 vehicles. By 1930, the count at that point was 7,365, more than double in four years. Oil was discovered in the Oklahoma City field in late 1928, and the city's population more than doubled during the 1920s to 185,389.
Classen could not widen to keep up. The study says the boulevard had grown up during the street railway era, and buildings along it limited how much room could be added for cars. The 1922 Sanborn fire insurance maps showed Western Avenue far less built up. So the first realignment moved Route 66 from Classen to Western. A second one soon shifted the segment between NW 23rd and NW 39th farther west, to May Avenue.
Today the Asian District Cultural Association places the district along Classen between NW 23rd and NW 36th. The 32nd Street monument stands in the middle of the stretch the highway left behind.
The Beltline made Britton a highway town
Around the same time, the state laid out a "Beltline" route to carry traffic around the north and northwest edge of the city. It ran west from N. Kelley along Britton Road, through the then-separate town of Britton, to Western Avenue. From there it turned south on Western to NW 39th and joined the original alignment. The monuments at Britton and Classen and at NW 43rd and Western both sit on it.
The dates vary by source. The city's historic study says the Beltline was designated in 1931 and kept until the new Route 66 Bypass was built in 1953. Visit OKC splits Britton's highway years into two periods, 1931 to 1936 and 1936 to 1953. The city's 2025 Britton District announcement gives 1936 to 1953.
Britton already had a working main street before the highway arrived. The town was founded in 1889 as the first railway station north of Oklahoma City. In 1910, Anton Classen and John Shartel linked it to the city by Interurban railway. That is the same streetcar-era Classen whose boulevard later proved too crowded to widen.
The highway added auto businesses along Britton Road. The Owl Court Tourist Court at 742 W. Britton Road is the only surviving Route 66 tourist court in Oklahoma City that the city's 2020 windshield survey found. OKC Friday reported plans to turn its former motel rooms into four retail and office spaces. Down the street, the Ritz Theater building, where highway travelers once watched movies, now houses Woodworks Distilling Co.
The corridor has changed recently too. In March 2025, the city held a ribbon cutting for $6.6 million in streetscape work on Britton Road between Western Avenue and Classen Boulevard. The project added corner bump-outs, flashing pedestrian signs, shade trees, benches, new sidewalks and bike lanes on a road the city says carries 16,000 cars a day. In the city's announcement, Woodworks founder David Wood said the project was "already creating the kind of gravity we need to grow and succeed."
Where the routes meet: NW 39th Street
Each version of the highway ended up on NW 39th Street heading west. The 1926 route turned onto it from Classen. The Beltline came down Western to meet it. The city's study describes the Beltline as turning at NW 39th "to join the original alignment." A 1935 proposal would have moved the highway onto a widened NW 36th Street, but the city's research found no sign that the change was ever made.
That shared stretch is why two monuments sit on 39th. One stands in the 39th Street District at Barnes Avenue. The last, on NW 39th Expressway just east of the historic Lake Overholser bridge, marks where every version of Route 66 left Oklahoma City for Bethany and the West.
The signs are made in OKC
The monuments match on all six corners, and Oklahoma City is where they come from. The design is by Oklahoma City-based VOX Audio Visual with OKC artist Stan Carroll. GS Signs, an OKC sign manufacturer, builds and installs them across the country. The Oklahoma Gazette reported that 32 had been installed from Illinois to California as of September, with more planned.
The four September monuments cost $132,000 in total and were paid for with MAPS 4 beautification funds. According to Visit OKC's announcement, Mayor David Holt called them "striking and impossible to miss." The monument project is an official project of the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission.
They join a quieter set of markers. In 2021, city crews installed about 200 smaller Route 66 signs to help drivers follow the various alignments. The city keeps a map of them at okc.gov/route66.
Driving all six in order
This route takes the 1926 road first, follows the Beltline back down, and ends where the routes leave town:
- NW 23rd and Hudson. Start on the original alignment by the former Phillips 66 cottage station.
- NW 32nd and Classen. Head north on Classen, the stretch the highway gave up around 1930.
- Britton Road and Classen. Keep north to Britton. The 1926 route turned west at NW 39th, so this part of Classen links the two eras but was not on the original highway.
- West on Britton Road. Drive the new streetscape past Woodworks Distilling and the Owl Court to Western Avenue.
- NW 43rd and Western. Turn south on Western, following the Beltline toward 39th.
- NW 39th and Barnes. Turn west where the Beltline joined the original road.
- NW 39th Expressway at Lake Overholser. Finish at the bridge, where the highway left the city.
The monuments are lit from within, so an evening drive shows them at their brightest.
The birthday itself, and the boot
Oklahoma City's big celebration has already happened. Visit OKC put on the free "Kickin' It On Route 66: OKC Centennial Celebration" at Scissortail Park on May 30, with live music and a drone show. The October 6 agenda of the Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission lists the state's November 11 event as a Tulsa Birthday Bash. The Oklahoma listings on the national centennial calendar also include a free online session of the National Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series on November 10 at 1 p.m. Central.
The city's other centennial landmark is worth a stop on the same week. Kicks 66, a 35-foot red cowboy boot inspired by vintage neon signs, was unveiled June 25 in the east parking lot of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum at 1700 NE 63rd Street. News 9 measured it at 35 feet, 4 inches and reported its inscription, "Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty," a line from the song "Route 66." It is open to visitors from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. year-round. News 9 also reported that the boot was first planned near Classen Boulevard and NW 25th Street, on the 1926 route, before residents raised concerns and the site moved to the museum.
For more of what is happening around town this fall, our October in OKC guide covers the month's festivals, and our Oklahoma City neighborhood page introduces the wider city.
If your home sits along one of these old alignments, on NW 23rd, near Classen, in the Britton District or off 39th Street, Carpenter Parham would be glad to talk about what is changing on your stretch of the Mother Road. You can also start with a home valuation whenever you are curious what your home on the old highway is worth today.
