Oklahoma Tire & Auto

313-315 South Summit Street

In June 1933, the Oklahoma Tire & Supply Co. (OTASCO) announced it would open a new store in Arkansas City at 315 S. Summit St. on July 1, 1933.

Thirteen years later, in 1946, the store was remodeled and doubled in size. A photo of the enlarged, two-story Spanish Eclectic-style building was included in an advertisement promoting the business at 313-315 S. Summit St. It features three window bays with stuccoed façade, terra cotta trim and an American Spanish tile roof. The lots on which the OTASCO store stood were used for several different purposes from about 1884 until 1920. By 1884, they were used as lumber yards.

By 1905, neighboring one-story frame buildings had been constructed on the lots. An iron-clad frame structure at 313 S. Summit St. was occupied by a luncheon business, with a shed behind it to the west, and a wood-frame horse stable was next door to the south, at 315 S. Summit St.

In 1920, a restaurant occupied the 315 location, and a shoe shop and electrical motor business was next door. The two-story buildings on these lots were constructed in the 1920s or early 1930s.

By 1925, AC Floral & Seed Co. was located at 313 S. Summit St., followed by Piggly Wiggly in 1930 and Delux Photo in 1938.

OTASCO expanded north to include this location by 1952.

Local merchant Roger Sparks, who began in the music business in Arkansas City as a young man in the late 1960s, moved his store to 313-315 S. Summit St. in 1975 and it continues there to this day.