Scene - Blogs - More Route 66 memories

More Route 66 memories
Published: 4/22/2011 5:49 PM
Last Modified: 4/22/2011 5:49 PM

A photo taken last year of the Max Campbell building, which used to house the fabled Casa Loma Hotel. It has since been renovated into the Campbell Hotel, slated to open this summer -- after the fabulous Designer Showcase, of course, which starts next week.

After my recent story about the Campbell Hotel, which used to be the Casa Loma Hotel many years ago and will serve as this year's Designer Showcase, a few folks called or emailed with their own stories.

One was from Cecilia Huff Jensen in Colorado. Her parents, J.C. and Julia Huff, owned and ran the Casa Loma from 1944 to 1960. Here's what she wrote:

"They rented the hotel area from Max Campbell. I was 4 years old at the time they started the hotel. Prior, it had been used by the US military as barracks for a short while and needed a lot of work before it could be opened as a hotel.

"We lived at the hotel for those 16 years, and both of my brothers, Harlan Eugene Huff and Richard Huff, were born during those years. I have many memories of all of the shops and stores below the hotel, especially the barber shop, which also had the beauty shop for women in the back, the drug store and soda fountain, the Safeway and TG&Y.

"My brothers and I attended Kendall Elementary school and Wilson Jr. High. I graduated from Tulsa Central in 1958 when it was still downtown. When the Highway 66 bypass was built, my folks' business was affected, as not as many of the truckers and travelers came past the hotel on old Highway 66. They closed the hotel in 1960 and moved to Missouri where my father built, owned and ran a resort on Table Rock Lake outside of Lampe, Mo."

Her brothers still live here, and she hopes to return sometime and see the hotel's renovation.

"I am so pleased this is happening," she said. "Perhaps I can stay in my old bedroom where I grew up and see the lounge area where I had my 16th birthday party and where we had many Christmas mornings."

Read more about Designer Showcase in this Sunday's Scene section.

Peace, love and fond memories ... XOXO

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Brad (last year)

I hope the hotel is successful. From my limited business experience, it is difficult to see, though. There may be the occassional traveler retracing the old Route 66 that stays there -- but who else? Maybe some great marketing will help? I don't know their budget for advertising. Best of Luck, though!

Brad

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Living Wright

While other kids were watching "The Smurfs," Scene Writer Jason Ashley Wright was tuned in to "Style with Elsa Klensch." By fourth grade, he knew he wanted to write, and spent almost three years publishing a weekly teen-oriented magazine, Teen-Zine -- circulation: 2. After earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, he became the medical reporter and teen board coordinator for the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, a Gannett newspaper. Eight months later, with visions of Elsa dancing in his head, he applied for the fashion writer position at the Tulsa World, where he began working on Aug. 3, 1998. He is now a general assignment reporter for Scene.

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