At first glance, the restored Spartan trailer sitting in the empty parking lot of what used to be Kennedy’s Used Cars might appear to be the start of a very odd new housing unit, with its white picket fence, lawn furniture, and plastic flamingos out front.
But look again and you’ll see what’s actually a retro spin on a new concept: an AirBnB for the Tee Pee Drive-In, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2022.
Daniel Briggs and his brother Justin were hired to restore the travel trailer as part of their day job at Action Restoration and Construction. They were used to doing homes, just not the kind that move around on wheels. Daniel Briggs told Sapulpa Times that when they were told about the assignment, his first thought was, “Well, I’m always up for a challenge.”
And a challenge it was. In order to standardize all of the inner workings, the trailer had to be taken down to the structure. “We worked it from the bottom up,” Briggs said. All of the trailer’s electrical and plumbing had to be redone and brought up to modern standards. “They didn’t have in the 1950s what we have now, in plumbing,” he said.
The plumbing is actually a big feature of this particular unit: an extra-large shower and vanity that make for a large bathroom in the 8-foot trailer. “In all my years I’ve never seen a travel trailer with as big a bathroom as this one has,” he said.
Briggs says that they were given explicit instructions on what the trailer should look like—it had to fit the 50s theme, with red appliances inside. Things like cabinets were hand-built to accommodate new retro appliances.
Briggs says they are working on trailer number two now, and that the Kante Group is planning on 10 more, many from different years, and each will have its own color scheme, but all will keep the 50s design inside. “They’re buying them up from all over. One of them is ten feet long,” he said.
Route 66 Vintage Market gets a new sign
Down Main Street and around the corner is another new entry for the “Seen in Sapulpa” story: Mike Meyer, award-winning artist with murals and signs all over the world, painted an old-but-new sign for Vintage Market at 105 E. Dewey this week. After owner Archie Fain scraped the peeling paint and painted the entire section black down the length of the half-block, three-story building, Meyer came in and with a sharp can of white paint and a steady hand, applied a pristine Route 66 shield and store name along the top.
Meyer, who hails from Iowa, has also done some work for Michael Jones, for a future project regarding another historic building in Sapulpa. He’s hoping these gigs are just the first in a flurry of new projects coming to town as Sapulpa prepares to launch a new campaign to bring as many as 15 new murals to Sapulpa ahead of the 100th Anniversary of Route 66.
Joe Krout, a Sapulpa transplant, now involved with Sapulpa Main Street, assisted with the finishing of the sign and agreed with Meyer as they stood looking at the finished product. “It’s a pebble in the avalanche,” he said. The first of things to come.
