Davenport Oklahoma Route 66 Photography
Davenport is situated on U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66), seven miles east of Chandler, the county seat. Lincoln County and the area of the future Davenport townsite were opened to non-Indian settlers during the Sac and Fox Opening on September 22, 1891. Noah and Annie Sutton Davenport staked a claim in that opening. Their daughter Nettie became the first postmistress of the post office established on March 29, 1892. Named for the Davenport family, the community had several cotton gins, a grist mill, a saw mill, a blacksmith shop, and general store during the 1890s. In 1898 the St. Louis and Oklahoma City Railroad (later the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway) connected the agricultural trade center with outside markets.
During the 1910s town leaders campaigned for the routing of a branch of the Ozark Trail Highway through Davenport. They were successful in their crusade, and the trail was designated in 1916. It became State Highway 7 in 1924 and U.S. Highway 66 in 1926. In 1926, in order to meet the demands of additional traffic through the town, the streets were paved with vitrified bricks supplied by the Davenport Brick and Tile Company. The brick streets are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The 1891 Land Run scene from Harper’s Weekly is the tallest mural on Route 66, soaring 32 feet high on the south side of the 1905 Farmers Bank Bldg. Other scenes are of Nettie Davenport, first postmaster and namesake of the town, her log cabin post office, oil boom scenes, cotton fields and business views. Old photos are on display in City Hall, as well as an original painting by Nettie Davenport, and Central Oklahoma Telephone Co., the local independent phone provider in business here since 1904, has its original switchboard and old phones on display.
Davenport Oklahoma Route 66 Photo Gallery
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Oklahoma Route 66 Photo Galleries
My name is Greg Disch and I am a freelance photographer with a passion for taking photos of Route 66. I have been photographing Route 66 for the past several years and have accumulated one of the largest collections of contemporary Route 66 photography. My images are all available online for immediate sale and download or may be ordered as photographic prints. If you need photos from Route 66, or just want to take a virtual tour of the “Mother Road” you can travel from town to town using the interactive map or search by subject.
Interactive Google Map
Use the map + – controls to zoom in and out, use the Map drop-down to change to “Map”, “Satellite”, “Hybrid”, or “Terrain” views. Drag the little man icon from the upper left corner to a map location for street level view. Click on a pushpin for more information about the Photographic Destination, then click on the title to go to the location page.
