Abandoned Church
000 Outside of Commerce
Abandoned Church(?) • Commerce, OK • Day Five
Our last stop on Day Five of the Route 66 trip was Commerce, OK. Commerce is the home of the Hole in the Wall Conoco Station and the birthplace of Yankee’s great, Mickey Mantle, a.k.a., The Commerce Comet. (Yes, I did photograph Mantle’s birthplace. It was underwhelming, but I’ll post that soon.)
After our visit to Commerce we had a couple of quick stops on the list: an original Route 66 bridge (a bust), and “Big Brutus,” the world’s largest electric coal shovel. Big Brutus was MASSIVE, and would have been worth checking out close up, but none of us wanted to pay the entry fee. We grabbed a couple of snapshots from the parking lot. You can read about Big Brutus here.
On the way to those last two disappointing locations however, we stumbled upon this abandoned church just outside of Commerce. At least I think it was a church. It could have been a schoolhouse or some other meetinghouse. It sat in a field blocked from the road by a fence with a locked gate with a very legible “No Trespassing” sign.
We did our best to adhere to the demands of the property owner.
We were not successful in that effort.
000 About This Series
From April 12 through April 20, 2025, I was on a Route 66 Photography Adventure (The Trip) with three good friends and like minded photographers. This series is recap of The Trip in stories and images.
All of the images were shot on that historic road or within a couple of miles of it. Neither the images nor stories are necessarily presented in chronological order.
Enjoying the series? Drop a comment.