Central Park Comfort Station - Ardmore, OK
N 34° 10.400 W 097° 08.095
14S E 671897 N 3782947
Rotary International was founded in 1905, and to celebrate their centennial, they constructed this comfort station -- a rest room -- behind the historic bandstand in the center of Central Park at the southwest intersection of W Main and E Street SW.
Waymark Code: WMW13R
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 06/25/2017
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The comfort station was intended to have the same feel in terms of construction as the bandstand. The National Register of Historic Places
registration form describes the comfort station thusly (slightly edited):
"Less than ten feet from the back of the bandstand is located the noncontributing stone restroom. Constructed in 2005 as a Centennial Project of Ardmore's Rotary International, the restroom is officially called the "Central Park Comfort Station." The restroom has a limestone foundation with a concrete floor and sidewalk to the front. The roof of the building is hipped, metal with wide, boxed eaves. Under the eaves, on the front of the building, are several flush lights. While the restroom matches the bandstand in the use of light-colored stone and random ashlar pattern of
masonry, the stone is not quarry-faced and the overall stonework is notably not as refined as the stonework of the bandstand. The comfort station has no openings on the west, north and east sides. On the south side of the building there are three metal slab doors set into a central, rectangular opening under the principal roof. The central door leads to the maintenance area. The east door provides access to the men's room and the west door to the women's restroom. Small plaques, noting the intended gender, are located on the outside of both the restroom doors. To the west of the opening, located roughly at eye-level, there is another, larger, metal plaque:
Central Park Comfort Station
Rotary Centennial Project 2005
Ardmore Rotary Club
Arbuckle Sunrise Rotary Club
Southern Oklahoma Memorial Foundation - The Charles B. Goddard Foundation
Community Activities, Inc - Community Foundation of Ardmore
Ardmore Parks and Recreation Department - City of Ardmore, Oklahoma
Friends of Charlene Kern - Lumpkin and Associates Architects
A concrete sidewalk extends along the front side of the comfort station from the sidewalk which curves along the sides and front of the bandstand. To the direct west of the building, and just off the north side of the walk, there is a modern, metal water fountain.