The Tulsa World reported a few days ago that the Tulsa Development Authority paid $800,000 for the venerable Route 66 business, the Metro Diner. It was one part of the University of Tulsa’s efforts to buy up property along 11th Street, aka Route 66, to make way for a new entrance to the university.

However, this $800,000 went to the owner of the land on which the Metro Diner sits. TU is still negotiating with the owner of the Metro Diner business, and time may be running short. Several of the businesses already have been removed.

Jim Rowenhorst is the owner of the Metro Diner, which has a 1950s look but actually was built in the early 1980s. Still, it’s a popular stop for many tourists traveling the Mother Road through Tulsa.

Rowenhorst told me that TU has “offered a fraction of what I paid for the business eight years ago. They’re offering very, very little.”

He said he has a possible new site to move the Metro Diner (rumor has it that it’s at 11th and Harvard), but the amount TU is offering won’t come close to covering the costs.

“We’d love to move,” Rowenhorst said, “but they’ve not offered enough money to even consider moving. To give up (this business) is not something we want to do.”

Rowenhorst indicated to me that he’s been given a Sept. 1 date to vacate the property. But he said this is probably unenforceable because he’s in the middle of a 12-year lease with his landlord.

He said he’s also concerned about his longtime employees, who would be affected by a protracted move. “The longtime workers help make the Metro Diner what it is,” he said.

Rowenhorst said that people concerned about the Metro Diner should write Kevan Buck, vice president for business and finance at TU, and politely implore the university to make a more reasonable offer for the restaurant and its relocation costs. Buck’s e-mail contact information can be found here. Snail-mail can go to: Kevan Buck, VP for Business and Finance, University of Tulsa, 600 S. College, Tulsa, OK 74104.

Scott Piotrowski reports that the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the oldest museum in Los Angeles, has closed and its future is uncertain.

There will be a “funeral service” for the museum at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Gold Line Southwest Museum rail station, along with a candlelight vigil that evening at Sycamore Grove Park.

Piotrowski has a rundown about the Southwest Museum’s plight here. More info also is here.

Alan McNeil, the man who seeks to restore the long-closed Triangle Motel at 7954 Amarillo Blvd., aka Route 66, in Amarillo, Texas, recently put up his Web site about his renovation efforts for the 1940s motel. You can find the site here.

I held some initial skepticism about McNeil’s ability or will to restore it. But the fact he found original blueprints tells me he’s serious. The fact the Triangle also was built beyond even current city codes also builds optimism about its prospects for restoration. For more background, read this.

These pictures, by the way, were taken by Robin Jett of the Red River Historian site. She not only shot a photo of the Triangle’s sign, but also of one of the buildings and a courtyard that has a big tree growing in the middle of it.

I’ve received some private e-mails that indicate that McNeil is receiving resistance from one person in particular with the city, despite the Community Historic and Preservation board voting unanimously to give McNeil a chance. I’ll keep the obstructionist’s name and contact information around in case I need it.

But in the meantime, I think the best course of action would be to write a letter to the Amarillo Globe-News, expressing your support for McNeil’s bid to restore the property. I know I’d jump at the chance to stay at a restored, historical motel like the Triangle. I think if Globe-News readers saw an outpouring of support, it would gain more local support for McNeil and reinforce his stance.

To write a letter to the editor via e-mail, write john.kanelis@amarillo.com . Letters should be fewer than 200 words, and include your name, address and daytime phone number for verification purposes. One letter to the editor is permitted each calendar month.

Chicago Sun-Times writer Dave Hoekstra, a longtime supporter of Route 66, tells about some of the Mother Road’s favorite dining haunts from Chicago to St. Louis.

Hoekstra focuses first on Scotty’s Route 66 Restaurant and Bar in Hamel, Ill. But he also gives detailed shout-outs to Lou Mitchell’s in Chicago, Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, the Old Log Cabin in Pontiac, the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis.

It’s an exemplary article about these Route 66 haunts’ food and history. Go read it. 

Urban Tulsa, which is that city’s alternative weekly, points out some of the best ways to keep cool in Oklahoma’s notorious summer heat with a 1950s and ’60s flair. Many of these escapes are on old Route 66.

For movie-watching, there is the circa 1951 Admiral Twin Drive-In and the restored, circa 1928 Circle Cinema. There are diners, such as Tally’s, the Metro Diner and the Blue Dome Diner. Writer Claudette Lancaster also provides a history of these types of places.