Tulsa Gal

Nelson's - Take Two!

2012-01-27T17:39:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago I wrote about how excited I was that the Nelson's chicken-fried steak was back. Well guess what? It's back again! As reported by Scott Cherry in the Tulsa World earlier this week, Suzanne Rogers has brought the old buffeteria back to the South side and we couldn't be happier. It is located at 44th and Memorial, where Betty Ann's used to be.

I remember when Betty Ann's opened back in the early 1970's. My dad often scouted out places to eat during his lunch time and returned with the family if he liked it. Betty Ann's was named after a teacher at Memorial High School, I'm told. I am unsure of the ownership history these past 30+ years but I do know it has been an excellent location despite the decline in it's last years. Breakfast and lunch crowds were usually good.

Ironically, one Sunday a few weeks ago after having lunch downtown, my spouse and I decided to cruise around some. He wanted to check out the Nelson's Ranch House over on 3rd to see if it was still open on Sundays. Owner Nelson Rogers has been playing around with the hours on weekends and we weren't sure what they were anymore. It was not open and, in fact, we weren't sure if it was still in business - I noted that the signs and memorabilia that used to be by the entrance were gone. We continued our drive and ended up on Memorial Drive heading home. We both saw the sign at the same time: Nelson's Buffeteria - !! What?! The sign had just been put up that afternoon. We high-fived each other at our luck in having this so close by. Breakfast was served one week later and we were there.

The lines have been out the door every day since that opening. I knew that if we wanted lunch I was going to have to get there fairly early (before 11:30) to get a booth. I was pleasantly surprised that sitting by the door entrance were 3 fellas playing tunes, just like they used to have downtown. And the food did not disappoint! The chicken-fry/mashed potatoes/gravy were just as I remembered them from years ago. This meal was just a little bit better than the same at the Ranch House and it's because of the gravy, I think. The new restaurant's gravy has more flavor. The fried okra was fresh and wonderful. We each got a piece of Suzanne's pies (chocolate and coconut cream) to go. Awesome.

Come to find out, Nelson's Ranch House is not out of business, just not open on Sundays. And that missing memorabilia? Why, it's all over at the new restaurant! The old Nelson's neon sign has been located and is being readied to put up in it's new home. Can't wait.

Got A Minute?

2012-01-25T16:28:00.000-06:00

If you have the time and the interest in looking through old photos, then why not help out the Tulsa Library and the Historical Society at the same time. How? By looking through the hundreds of unidentified photos from the Beryl Ford Collection and seeing if you can help identify any people or places.

The Tulsa County Library has posted over 1,000 of these photos onto Flickr and is asking for your help. There are two categories Unknown People and Unknown Places. It is asked that you leave a comment on a specified photo with the identifying information or email them (unknowntulsa@tulsalibrary.org) and they will work with you to conclusively identify the photo in question.

Tulsa Banks: The Farmers/Exchange/NBT/BOk

2012-01-22T12:13:00.001-06:00

Tulsa's first bank was born July 29, 1895 in a brick building that sat amid the dust and prairie chickens, cooling themselves near the foundation. Called the Tulsa Banking Company, it boasted when deposits reached $65,000 from a population of 1,300 later that year.

Oil had not yet been discovered and loans were given mainly to those ranchers with a large herd of cattle and horses. A few short years later, though, banks were everywhere. This diagram from the Nina Dunn Book "Tulsa's Magic Roots" helps illustrate how just this one bank grew in a few decades:

Then Came Oil Money

In 1909 the intersection of Second and Main was known as "Financial Row" with banks on all four corners. The Farmer's National was on the southeast corner, the First National in it's "skyscraper" 5-story building sat on the northwest corner

First National Bank

with Planter's National on the southwest and the National Bank of Commerce on the northeast corners.

The Farmer's National Bank was organized in 1903 by the Marr's brothers. Oilman Charles Simmons took the helm in 1909 and the bank rose to be one of the largest in the city. Controversy over connections with the failed Columbia Bank in Oklahoma City however, caused deposits to drop and the doors were closed. The night after the failure, thirty of Tulsa's wealthiest oilmen met and formed a plan for reorganization. In February of 1910 the bank reopened the same doors, but with a new name: Exchange National Bank.

In 1917 the fast-growing bank moved into it's new twelve-story building at 302 S. Boston.

As Exchange Bank absorbed more and more of the smaller neighboring banks, it's home grew as well. During 1922-23 the second section of the building was extended to include the full block from Third to Fourth Street on the west side of Boston.

Artist pen and ink drawing of the future bank building.

In 1927 a four hundred foot tower was completed atop the building, making it the tallest in the city and dominating Tulsa's skyline for the next thirty years. It was during this time that a new vault weighing 55 tons was added, requiring intricate construction. It is said that temporary railroad ties were laid from the train station to the construction site to transfer the vault to the bank.

In 1938 The Exchange was illuminated creating an impressive nighttime picture. The weather lights were added to the tower in 1960's, changing colors to give the forecast. Although sources give the years 1967 to 1973 as the time period for the "weather teller" this postcard indicates that the idea, anyway, was much earlier.

Even when the Depression hit, many of the large stockholders advanced money into the bank to help meet demands and remain in business. In 1933 the Exchange National Bank was reorganized and the name changed to the National Bank of Tulsa.

Forty two years later, the name was again changed, this time to Bank of Oklahoma and in 1976 the bank's business was moved into a brand new 52-story skyscraper. They celebrated 100 years of business in 2010.

Sources: Tulsa's Magic Roots by Nina Dunn; Tulsa World; Bank of Oklahoma

Postcards From The Past

2011-11-28T09:36:00.002-06:00

Last month I had the pleasure of presenting one of the museum's programs to the Tulsa Postcard Club. This wasn't my first time in meeting with these nice people. In fact, I don't normally do evening presentations any more, unless it's for a special group such as this.

Postcards are an extremely important link and record to our past. I only came to realize just how important when I began piecing together my first Tulsa History presentation about our old movie theaters. Photos of the long-lost gems are hard to come by, but street views in postcards are out there and plentiful. I have picked out some postcards to share with you here in no particular order. Hope you enjoy!

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Case in point: One of Tulsa's first moving picture theaters was called the Lyric and was located inside of an old former grocery store. Across the street from the Lyric was the Idle Hour theater. Opening in 1906-07, any photos were rare if not impossible to find. This postcard got me so excited when I chanced upon it:

A blog entry from 2009 focused on pioneer Chauncey Owen and how the pond in Owen Park came to be. Here is an actual photo postcard of the event afterward.

Minck's Hotel (now known as the Adams Hotel).

Built in 1927 and designed by Bruce Goff:

To read more about Carl Magee's contributions to Tulsa (including Carlton Place Addition) click HERE.

Kress Store and the Rialto Theatre on the far right.

The sign, circled in red, reads: Ike's Chili Parlor

Formerly known as Orcutt Park, it was turned into Swan Lake residential area around 1917:

Last but not least is another "A-Ha!" find. A little history first:

Tulsa’s third Methodist Church, then known as the Methodist Episcopal Church South, purchased a lot on East Second St between Cincinnati and Detroit in 1897. In 1901 the congregation sold that land and purchased a lot on the corner of Second and Cincinnati where they built the first brick church building in Tulsa.

They stayed in this building from 1901 until 1907 at which time the land was sold and a new home was built for the church at 5th and Boston. They built an impressive two-story brick church and changed their name to Boston Avenue Methodist Church. The year was 1908. Services were held in this church for twenty years.

The congregation began to feel cramped when the Philtower was constructed in 1926. The Methodists sold their property to Waite Phillips and purchased land at Thirteenth and Boston. The last service was held in the church on 5th and Boston Sunday, October 14, 1928 and the congregation then moved to their beautiful art-deco style church.

Tulsa In 1954

2011-11-18T16:46:00.000-06:00

While I was out of town, a new Tulsa history tidbit surfaced that bears sharing here. If you already watched this over on Batesline, then I urge you to watch it again and see what (or who) you may have missed.

This is a 15 minute documentary produced by the U.S. Information Service in 1954 to promote Tulsa. There are scenes from downtown, T.U. as well as other Tulsa landmarks, stores and buildings long gone. Share in the comment section below if you recognize any places, people or things. Enjoy!

Jimmie Wilson's Catfish String Band

2011-09-25T22:29:00.001-05:00

The Rotary Club is known as the world's first service club. Formed in 1905 by an attorney who wished to capture the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth, by 1921 Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents and as it grew, their mission expanded. Members began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to serve communities in need.

A group of Sapulpa Rotarians formed a band, adopting their backwoods profiles for fun. The group was led by a man named Jimmie Wilson. Jimmie was a humorist with the same style as Will Rogers, and named his band "Jimmie Wilson's Catfish String Band." They recorded a session for Okeh Records in 1925 which produced 4 songs, 2 records.

The band debuted on radio station KRFU in Bristow in 1926.

In 1928 new station owner W.G. Skelly moved the renamed station to Tulsa and Jimmie's band came with it. He was a popular figure in Tulsa and for a time they had a weekly one-hour show. Jimmie opened each broadcast with, "This is Jimmie Wilson broadcasting from Andrew Jackson Johnson's farm down on the banks of Polecat Creek." He would then sprinkle water on a hot skillet to simulate the sound of fish frying.

As told in a book by Don Cusic: Band member Bob Dennis remembered that "the band practiced at the Potter brother's music store where a young fellow would come by and sit in on some of the rehearsals. He just sat there and watched and learned to play the guitar. He would then go down to the Harvey House and play for the waitresses." Jimmie and the Band began giving time on their broadcasts to this young man who was billed as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy" even though he was really a Texan. His name was Gene Autry.

An example of the Rotary Club's mission is highlighted in this story: In 1929 an explosion in a coal mine near McAlaster killed sixty one miners. It also created forty-six widows and orphaned 178 children. Jimmie Wilson's Catfish String Band took to the airwaves, broadcasting for 12 hours and raising $40,000 for the widows and children.

Sources: digital.library.okstate.edu

Gene Autry: his life and career by Don Cusic

Reverend Loughridge

2011-08-28T19:42:00.000-05:00

Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1842, Robert Loughridge traveled 600 miles on horseback to ask the Creeks if he might establish a mission-school. They wanted a school but no preaching but soon changed their minds. In 1843 he established the Koweta Mission and school, located near present day Coweta.

His first wife, Olivia, taught alongside Robert, bearing him two children before passing away in 1845. The following year he married another teacher, Mary, who taught at Park Hill Mission (located south of Tahlequah) in the Cherokee Nation.

The Creek government established Tullahassee Labor School in 1848, located about 5 miles northwest of Muskogee, and named Loughridge superintendent. He supervised the construction in 1848-1850. Mary Loughridge passed away in 1850.

Robert retained his post until the Civil War forced him in to Texas. He returned in 1881 to be the superintendent at the Creek Nation's new Weleaka School located between Bixby and Leonard.

Loughridge became an expert in the Creek language during his ministry to them. He translated and transcribed portions of the Bible with the assistance of Legus Perryman (one of many grandsons of Benjamin Perryman) and published an English and Muskogee Dictionary with David Hodge in 1890.

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In the 1870's Creek Indian Daniel Childers built a small church so that Rev. Loughridge would have a place to preach to the Indians in the community of what is now Broken Arrow. According to the Indian Pioneer History Project, the lumber was brought overland from Coffeyville and it was named the White Church because it was painted white and painted buildings were quite unusual in those days. The five acres adjoining the church lot on the north became a cemetery that was named for Dr. Loughridge.

The church was used as a school house during week days in the early 1880's. Lilah Lindsey taught at this school between 1880-1885. It was primarily a community church but was looked after by the Presbyterian board.

This photo was taken in the 1940's:

Recently I took a drive by the White Church. It is located on 129th E. Ave and 131st Street. The church still stands proudly, obviously well taken care of although missing the once-cherished bell. It is used by another denomination at this time.

In the cemetery the oldest grave is said to be that of Daniel Childers himself who was buried in 1885.

The Reverend Thomas Perryman (son of Lewis) lived in that vicinity and also preached at the White Church. One of his daughters, who died at age 3, was buried there about 1883, perhaps one of the first. Her body was later disinterred and placed with her father at Oaklawn Cemetery along with the marker brought from the Loughridge Cemetery.

Sources: digital.library.okstate.edu, Indian Pioneer Project

Tulsa's First Schools

2011-08-14T22:24:00.003-05:00

Ed. Note: I recently completed a community program for the Tulsa Historical Society about Tulsa's first schools and churches. I thought I would share some of the history here.
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First Presbyterian Mission School

Tulsa was incorporated as a “town” under the pattern laid down in Arkansas law, on January 18, 1898. The first School Board was elected in 1899, their prospect challenging. Over 100 students were attending the 3 church/mission schools and even more would attend if it were free. The schools were running out of space. Most of the pupils lived north of the railroad tracks so a school was needed there.

The first problem was solved when the Presbyterian Board decided to sell its Tulsa property (located at what is now 4th and Boston). The school board had no money and by law, an incorporated town could not incur debt. Private buyers were clamoring to buy the land. Four Tulsa men stepped forward- Jay Forsythe, R.N. Bynum, J.M. Hall and Joe Price- to save the day…… and the school. Banker B.F. Colley loaned $1050 to these men who bought the property and held the note until the city was able to repay the principle from tax funds.

Immediate improvements were made to the little school building. Two rooms were added above the old ones. Stairways led from the outside to the front and rear doors upstairs. Painted, plastered and newly roofed, the first public school building was a matter of considerable pride. Soon a room on the north side was added for primary grades. The School Board hoped this additional space would last for several years.

The picture changed abruptly when oil was discovered at Red Fork June 25, 1901. Two months later a town site survey was begun and within the year all residents were able to buy land from the Creek Nation. This increased the tax base but city income failed to keep up with the school population. Make-shift classrooms were opened in any sort of room available.

Following the 1905 school term, with joy and sadness, the little white schoolhouse that had served Tulsa for 22 years, was torn down to make way for the new Tulsa High School.

The new buff-colored brick building, which combined both grade and high school classes, boasted 21 classrooms, plenty of good slate boards, ample cloakroom space, a small auditorium and gold-leafed dome. The new school might have been built earlier than 1905 had there not been the rivalry between north and south residents about where to build it. A compromise was finally reached. The south side residents would get their school as would the north side residents.

To many children the use of running water in the toilets was the greatest luxury they had never seen. The new school was jokingly called Our Lady of Mud due to the fact that there were no sidewalks or paved streets leading to the school and many got stuck in the mud.

Work also began at the same time for the Northside School located at 519 North Boston. The building had eleven rooms and boasted "splendid light, good ventilation, automatic heat regulation and the best sanitary conditions possible". Three years later the school name was changed to Sequoyah and it was expanded to include four ward buildings of eight rooms each plus a bell tower was added.

Eleven hundred children entered Tulsa’s two new schools in September 1906- 300 at Northside and 800 in the “south side” school. In 1907 the school buildings again became badly overcrowded with an increase of almost 700 students during that school year alone. New schools couldn’t be built fast enough to keep up.

Lindsay Elementary was built in 1907 on the outskirts of town, named after one of Tulsa’s first teachers, Lilah Lindsay. The school was later renamed Riverview in 1917.

Lynch Forsythe School (later known as Washington in 1914) came along in 1908.

Orcutt School was built in 1909 again, on the outskirts of town, at 15^th and Peoria. The name changed soon to Bellview and again to Lincoln.

Owen School was also built in 1909, bringing the total that year to eight public schools. Owen changed it's name to Irving in 1918. The building still stands today.

Men of Tulsa ca 1916

2011-07-23T18:21:00.000-05:00

Recently I thumbed through an old book titled "Men of Affairs and Representative Institutions of Oklahoma 1916". It is self-described as "A Newspaper Reference Work" compiled by the World Publishing Company here in Tulsa. This book is a virtual "Who's Who" of Oklahoma at that time. I thought I would share some of the photos and findings that I found to be interesting and/or amusing, several are linked to previous blog posts. Click on photos to enlarge.

First up is a true Tulsan. He was born near here and returned to help our city grow and prosper.

I blogged about this next man's business HERE:

Here's an interesting young fella:

He was 34 in 1916. Hurley invested in real estate and built Oklahoma's first apartment-hotel, the Ambassador. He became secretary of war under President Hoover, becoming the first Oklahoman to serve in a presidential cabinet. In WWII he became a brigadier general and later an ambassador to China.

This next gentleman is someone I blogged about before:

The White City neighborhood was built on his land and Braden Park is named after him.

And this man needs no introduction:

At the time of the printing, this next gentleman had only begun his important contributions to our city:

He designed Central High School in 1910 and went on to design the Hunt Department Store (Brown-Dunkin) in 1918 and Trinity Episcopal's Church in 1922 as well as several prominent residences.

The city south of Tulsa bears this man's name:

This is a very modest biography of his work and contribution to our state. You can read more about him HERE.

Is this man to blame for our street woes?

I wonder exactly where this "country home" was located....?

This is another place of interest:

Located on Third Street, between Boston and Main was the Daniel Building

Down the street at 123 S. Main was Boswell's Jewelry

A few more businesses

Tulsa Ice Company and the Rea and Read Mill

And last, though not a Tulsan, is a man who would become the next Governor of our State:

This was my fraternal grandfather's uncle, making him my Great Great Uncle.

Mail-Order Homes

2011-07-10T09:24:00.001-05:00

Sears Modern Homes, ordered and bought from a catalog, came delivered in shipments via train, ready for assembly. From 1908-1940 Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold thousands of these home kits that eventually came in 370 different housing styles. Or, if preferred, a customer could design their own home and submit the blueprints to Sears who would then ship off the needed precut, fitted materials. The kits came with everything needed from instruction manuals down to nails and varnish and came in price ranges for everyone. Sears wasn't the first to offer these houses, but they became the largest.

Rosemary Thornton has written several books about the mail-order Modern Homes sold through the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog. Another book, written by Rebecca Hunt, titled "Putting Sears Homes on the Map" cited Oklahoma as one of two states with no kit homes. Recently, Tulsan Rachel Shoemaker contacted Thornton to inform her that Oklahoma- Tulsa in particular- did indeed have Sear's homes. Several, in fact, as well as other kit homes.

And why wouldn't we? While Oklahoma may not have become a state until 1907, trains ran through Tulsa long before then and immigrants from all over flooded the territories in the land runs. When oil was discovered in 1901 near Red Fork it set in motion the beginnings of the oil boom which impacted the city and state immediately. After the Glenn oil strike in 1905, the lid blew off of this city overnight. In 1907 the population in Tulsa was 7,298. Two years later it was 18,182.*

Tulsan's weren't living in tee-pees, although there were still some who rode on horseback. In fact, Tulsa had more automobiles per capita than anywhere else for a time because we had some of the wealthiest oilmen in the world living here. Men like Josh Cosden (who many estimated to be worth $50 million dollars before 1920), Warren G. Skelly, Waite Phillips, Harry Sinclair and J. Paul Getty (to name a few) spread their wealth all over our city in the form of philanthropy, building our Art Deco heritage, airports (in 1929 Tulsa had 4 airports), museums, housing additions and more. It is no surprise that many of our residents would have purchased kit-houses and had them built in some of our finest neighborhoods- Carlton Place, Brady Heights, Owen Park, Riverview and Buena Vista Park. No surprise at all.

To see Rachel's (and Rosemary's) Tulsa finds, click HERE and HERE.

To read more about the history of Sears Modern Homes online, click HERE.

For an index to Bungalow Floor Plans click HERE.

*Source: digital.library.okstate.edu

43 Years Ago.....

2011-07-08T14:21:00.001-05:00

..in July of 1968, Bob Bell installed a roller coaster at his amusement park, bought for $225,000 and named Zingo, after another popular Tulsa roller coaster from the past. The cost to ride Zingo: 60 cents. Tulsa reference librarian Sherry Perkins posted recently on her Tulsa Area History blog and I thought I'd share (click on photo to enlarge):

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-02T20:52:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Independence Day!

KAKC- Trippin' Down Memory Lane

2011-06-24T16:25:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the KAKC exhibit opened at the Tulsa Historical Society -and what a BLAST from the PAST it was! I honestly felt like I had time-traveled some when I left there. Although I was a youngster in the late 1960's, I had 2 older sisters who were devout listeners and ergo, so was I. I remember going to the Penney's store in Southland to buy 45's that were listed on the (posted) Top 40. Here is one from an earlier time:

The exhibit features so many great, nostalgic items that will zap you back in time, especially if you are "of a certain age".

A very cool item is this huge transistor radio that plays old KAKC programs on it.

A jukebox is at the other end of the exhibit, loaded with songs of yesteryear to play.

Aside from this great exhibit, the t-shirts and KAKC documentary that were for sale and the pizza, the highlight for many of us was the panel of former DJ's that each got up to reminisce about their days on the station. Sharing the table also was owner S. Carl Mark's daughter Mary Alice Mark Alexander who shared stories.

Dick Schmitz (referred to by most as "the nicest man") spoke first and the fun began. Stories and recollections came forth from Harry Wilson, Scooter Segraves, Clayton Vaughn, Mike McCarthy and Steve Suttle.

l to r: Mary Alice Mark Alexander, DJ Harry Wilson, DJ Scooter Seagraves and Steve Clem (who produced the documentary)

l to r: Dick Schmitz, Clayton Vaughn, Mike McCarthy and Steve Suttle.

We, the audience, were wistful, nostalgic and laughing throughout it all. For example.....

Mike "Morning Mouth" McCarthy recounted a particular Thanksgiving day in 1977 when he and John Durkee had to work at the station:

LISTEN HERE

Oh what a night.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

To Our Veterans:

Your sacrifice can never be repaid

but will always be

appreciated.

1915 Map

2011-05-27T09:25:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting with Tulsa history buff David Breed. David has extensively researched the West Tulsa area and was a great source for my blog entry about Taneha which was quite a thread to unravel. While we were 97% sure of the facts surrounding Taneha, David gave me a copy of a map from 1915 that proves it 100%.

I want to share this map with everyone because it's so interesting. Not only can you find Taneha/Bowden and New Taneha on it but other little towns I've referred to, such as Alsuma- which you can see on the edge of the map, far right- plus new one's I haven't heard of, such as Scales and Hickory. So click on the photo and have fun seeing the way we were.

Tulsa Historian Fannie Misch

2011-05-14T16:32:00.003-05:00

Born in Nodaway, Iowa on January 6, 1886 Fannie Brownlee claimed she had "the instinct for church relationship and the importance of history born right into me". Some of her most prized possessions were the journals kept by her circuit-riding minister grandfathers- on both sides- dated 1848 in Ohio and 1866 in Iowa. She and her family migrated to Kansas at the turn of the century. Fannie graduated from Prairie Valley School, Parsons, Kansas in 1903. She rode in a buggy for six miles to have this graduation picture taken.

Upon receiving her teaching certificate, her adventuresome spirit led her to travel with a woman friend and the nephew of family friends to the panhandle of Texas to teach school.

In an interview with the Tulsa World, back in the mid-1970's, Fannie told of their arrival in Texas: "We arrived with trunks as big as doors but soon had to trim down our possessions, for we found everybody in that pioneer country traveled by horseback." And so she hung an oval-shaped, aluminum Kodak camera over her saddle horn and set out to document her journey. Pictures were later used in her first book, "Teachers on Horseback". The girls' first hurdle was to take a test about Texas history before they could teach. Staying up two days and two nights, studying by kerosene lamps to cram for the exam, they passed with flying colors.

Fannie rode a train to the rural community where she hoped to teach. However when she got there her assignment had changed, so she caught a ride back to the county seat with a lawyer in a hack. The heat was almost unbearable. "I had on an embroidered blouse. By the time I got back to my room, the pattern of the embroidery was burned into my skin."

Schoolteacher Miss Brownlee

Teachers often boarded with a family, paying for rent and food. Fannie's friend had to live in a dugout and believed that Fannie was fortunate because she lived in a ranch house. But Fannie had to climb outside stairs each night to reach her room, which was without heat.

Typical schoolhouse of the period

Students of all ages were in a typical school house. Because so many rural kids had to help with farm chores during spring planting and fall harvesting, there were two school terms: "winter" and "summer." They each were about four months long between the harvest and planting seasons.

This photo shows Fannie (middle) on vacation in the fall so her students in Donley County, TX could pick cotton.

Undated photo

Fannie Brownlee came to Tulsa in 1913 and married Julius Misch. Together they opened Tulsa Printing Company in 1916, which was located at 1011 N. Main. Mrs. Minch began researching local history and writing everything from book-length histories to articles for newspapers.

Mrs. Misch served as president of the Tulsa History & Literature Club from 1939-1941

Fannie acquired the Lilah D. Lindsey collection of photos and manuscripts in the late 1950's. Adding to the material with interviews Mrs. Lindsey had previously given, Misch wrote an article about her for the Oklahoma Chronicles which you can read HERE. In addition she presented photos of Lilah's husband, Col. Lindsey, to the Creek Nation Museum in Okmulgee. Lindsey had built the wall around the Council House, set out trees and did brick work at the Wealaka Mission where Lilah had taught. For her efforts and research, Fannie was made an honorary member of the Creek Indian Council.

She authored several books about the Creek tribes and Missions, including "Kowetah, the first Creek Indian Mission". She was invited to contribute four articles in the two volume "History of World-wide Methodism" books. This led to her documenting the local Methodist history with her book, "Methodist Trails to First Methodist Church Tulsa". Her writing and research earned awards too numerous to count. In 1975 she was the winner of the Oklahoma Heritage Association's Distinguished Service Award.

Besides being an accomplished writer, Fannie Misch was an active preservationist. It was she who alerted the Tulsa County Historical Society (and later the Methodist Oklahoma Conference) to the fact that Tulsa's oldest house, once the parsonage of Tulsa's first Methodist minister Sylvester Morris, was about to be destroyed in an Urban Renewal project.

The house was rescued and restored by the Methodist conference in Owen Park, on a site Fannie chose because her research had proven that the corner was the intersection of the three Indian Nations. (The house was later moved several yards over to it's current spot).

She was also responsible for preserving the well-known "Hanging Tree" that sits at 3 N. Lawton. When the owner of that property passed away, she feared new owners, unaware of the tree's history, might dispose of it. Thanks to her efforts it was preserved and still stands today. She recalled how it shaded picnics of the Creek Indians in early Tulsey Town. And later, three cattle rustlers were once hanged from its limb, hence it's name.

Fannie Brownlee Misch lived to the age of 92 and is buried in Rose Hill cemetery, Tulsa. She was nearly finished with her last book titled "Creek Indian Nation East to West" at the time of her death. She was extremely excited about this book because she had information and photographs not available to anyone else, obtained by interviews with family members of many Creek tribal officials.

I do not know if the book was every completed by someone else or not.

I could only find a copy of the book "Methodist Trails" but no copies of any other books she wrote.

Source: Tulsa World

Sanborn Maps

2011-04-20T23:26:00.001-05:00

Blog reader Beverly wondered in a comment just exactly where South Carolina Avenue used to be (see previous blog entry). After reading her comment I had a "doh!" moment and realized I could simply look on the Sanborn Maps and find the answer.

The Tulsa County Library website describes the Sanborn Maps as:

Sanborn Maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of 50 feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street blocks and building numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers.

Oklahoma's maps are available for viewing (if you have a library card) here. They are a wonderful resource for locating (among other things) streets that no longer exist. So here is the map showing the street layout back in 1926. I marked my grandparents' first home with a red star. Click on the image to enlarge and have fun seeing how the streets in that area used to look.

Follow Up

2011-04-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

While going through some of my Grandfather's papers for the prior blog post about him, two questions popped up that had me curious. First of all, where was South Carolina Avenue- the first house my grandparents lived in? The other question pertained to a found document that indicated something significant had occurred here in October of 1923. A trip to Central Library's was in order.

Knowing my grandmother arrived here in 1924 I pulled that years city directory and searched for the street definitions. I learned that South Carolina Avenue had originally been named Dorothy Street and that it was located: "one block east of Cincinnati between 17th and 18th Streets". First question answered.

Next up:

The document I found was this (click to enlarge):

So, I had to find out what in the heck was going on here October 1, 2 and 3 of 1923. Grandpa had been on the job barely a year and was being deputized….?

The Answer

During the tumultuous short term of Oklahoma's 5th governor, Jack Walton tried to appease both parties which alienated both from him. His problems went from bad to worse and KKK activity was increasing during this time- so much so that he placed both Okmulgee and Tulsa Counties under martial law with the additional penalty of suspension of habeas corpus- something strictly forbade by state constitution. When an Oklahoma City grand jury prepared to investigate the governor’s office, Walton put the entire state under martial law on September 15, 1923 with “absolute martial law” applicable to the capital. Impeachment demands were rampant and legislative leaders responded with a call for special session. A petition was circulated, adopted and a public vote was planned for October 2, which would allow the legislature to assemble on its own motion. Walton tried his best to stop the vote, claiming the day before, "There may be bloodshed, but there will be no election." He ordered the entire National Guard, numbering about 5,000 men to mobilize and claimed to have 22,000 men to assist in keeping the polls closed.

This in turn caused city officials to appoint Special Deputies to help the police keep peace. At 7:00 pm the ballots and boxes were collected by officials along with the Special Deputy Sheriffs and delivered to the courthouse where they were tallied. The Tulsa World reported that during this time Boulder was roped off between Fifth and Sixth Streets in front of the courthouse with police positioned on the sidewalks and the Special Deputy Sheriffs in front of all entrances to the courthouse. Entrance was denied to those without official authority.

In The End

On October 17 the legislature met in reply to the call of Speaker of the House, W. D. McBee. The house developed twenty-two charges against Walton and voted for impeachment. On October 23, Walton was suspended and Lieutenant Governor Martin E. Trapp became active governor.

Source: The Tulsa World

My Tulsa Roots

2011-04-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

I remember my grandfather, Bill Wooten, as being a quiet soft-spoken man with a wrinkled smile. Born in Dardendale, AR in 1895, he attended the University of Arkansas graduating with an engineering degree, then joined the Army in 1918, serving as a Lieutenant alongside (future Senator) Robert S. Kerr. When he got out of the Army he taught high school mathematics for two years in Russellville and it was there that he met his future wife, Margaret Elizabeth.

Bill got word that the city of Tulsa was looking for someone to lead a field of surveyors and came to Tulsa to apply for the job, only to learn that there was no survey job available. However he was qualified as an engineer and the city hired him as a statistician in 1922. Two years later he married Margaret and brought her here to Tulsa. Their first home was at 1715 S. Carolina Ave.

For the next years my grandfather advanced to assistant sewer engineer, sewer engineer and assistant city engineer by 1927. He was named to the city's top engineering post the first time in 1939. But in between that time he and my grandmother had saved to start a family which included building their own home. Their first child, my mother, was born in June of 1928 at St. John's Hospital. Thankfully, my grandmother kept a well documented baby book that included lots of photos. She has the hospital room they were in circled on this postcard:

She notes that work on their new house began just a month after my mother's birth in July of 1928.

Their new house was to be way out on 14th Place between Delaware and Columbia.

In this photo an arrow is drawn showing approximately where their lot is.

They visited in August while construction was going fast and furious:

And the house was finished in three short months by October of 1928.

By next spring (1929) flowers in the window box, a sidewalk and new construction going on:

This was the living room at Christmas, probably around 1937 or 38 (my mom and her 2 brothers):

Some time after 1970 there was a fire in this house; it was rebuilt as a two-story. This is what it looks like today:

My Grandpa "survived" 18 different city commissioners/elections back before the Civil Service charter amendment banned the political patronage system in 1957. However, it was because of the Civil Service regulations that he was forced to retire at age 70, which was still 5 years longer than usual- and that was because he was asked by the City Commission to stay on, which tells me a lot.

During his 44 years as a city employe, it was estimated that he had participated in construction of more than 75 percent of the city's public improvements including streets, sewage, bridges, airports, drainage and expressway programs. He was honored by the City Commission in 1962 with a silver engraved platter and Mayor Maxwell read a resolution that was adopted, praising him for his work. At that time only one employee had served longer than he had- by 3 months.

I believe that working on the planning and designing of Tulsa's expressways was probably one of the most exciting times of his career.

A couple of years ago I was giving a presentation at a luncheon to a group of retired city of Tulsa employees. I was anxious to see if anyone there knew of or remembered my Grandpa. I was thrilled when several of the men and women did know him and spoke very highly of him. One of these people sat next to me during lunch and I described this book that I had come across on eBay:

I asked this former co-worker of grandpa's if he knew about this book; he smiled and said, "Why yes. Your grandfather hired me to work on that book." Compiled in 1959, this book details each planned expressway for Tulsa, most of which have now been built. I often wondered what he would have thought about the Gilcrease Expressway taking so long to finish. But then, he didn't live to see the Broken Arrow Expressway completed either. He died 4 years after retirement in 1969.

Exciting New Tulsa History Links!

2011-03-28T17:04:00.001-05:00

I suppose if you aren't all that in to researching Tulsa history, this may not be as exciting to you as it is to me. Sheri Perkins, History and Digital Collections Librarian at (our wonderful) Tulsa County Library just posted two great resources now available ONLINE:

First up is the 1910 City Directory- pretty cool, huh? The 1920 directory will be added soon.

And second is the entire Tulsa World newspapers for the year 1920; 1921 is almost completed as well. Sheri says that a portion of 1921 is also available online, too.

Thank you Tulsa County Library!

New Exhibit at THS

2011-03-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

There is a wonderful new exhibit that just opened in the main gallery at the Tulsa Historical Society covering our Tulsa history from 1878-1900. Along with lots of interesting old photos there are some great artifacts as well, including items from the Perryman Ranch. Here is more about it from OETA:

http://www.oeta.tv/video/1963.html

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p.s. Beginning May 1st admission will no longer be free at the museum. Become a member and enjoy the many benefits including admission, gift shop discounts and more.

The Great Fire of 1897

2011-03-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Before the town of Tulsa was incorporated there was no official fire department and thus, no fire equipment. It is noted in several Tulsa history books that if one heard gunshots fired repeatedly, it meant there was a fire because no shop owner was that bad of a shot. All available citizens rushed to the scene carrying a bucket and formed a line, creating a bucket brigade from the water well located just north of the Lynch store. Passing the buckets of water proved inept most of the time unless the fire was caught early. A fire that started in the middle of the night could be deadly.

Main Street Tulsa was mostly wooden structures with the exception of the Lynch Store, the Bank and the striking Price-Gillette store. You can see from the roof-lines the three different buildings in this advertisement from 1895. Price sold saddles and Gillette had a general store.

On down the street from these three buildings were other businesses including Scott's Store and the Commercial Hotel that was above the store, the Frisco Meat Market and Mr. Goyne's Drug Store.

Looking North on Main Street, 1896:

It is believed that a leaky shipment of kerosene in the Gillette Store caused the massive fire that broke out in the pre-dawn hours on December, 1887.

These photos were captured as the roaring fire destroyed nearly half of the little town that night.

In the early dawn, the only building left standing on that side of the street unscathed was the Lynch Building.

Somehow the bank's vault survived as well, so it was moved across the street to the Hall Store and business was carried on as usual until the bank rebuilt.

It is unknown if any were injured in this fire. One month later the city was incorporated and two years later Tulsa had a fine fire department.

In this photo from the 1940’s we see the old Lynch building on the left (it was, by then, the Lyric Theatre) and the next building that the bank built, then a hardware store.

Before the wrecking ball took these buildings down in the early 1970’s, a piece of history was saved. You can see this in the Vintage Gardens at the Tulsa Historical Society:

Tulsa's First Church and School

2011-03-11T08:03:00.003-06:00

Tulsa's first church was also it's first school. Or, is it the other way around? That's sort of like the chicken and the egg question.

One of Tulsa's founders, J.M. Hall, helped facilitate the growth of churches in the new little town, beginning with the first Sunday School which was organized in 1883 by the wife of a railroad carpenter, Mrs. Slater. One day she invited Dr. Booker and Mr. Hall to her tent (she and her husband lived on railroad property near the Frisco section house) to discuss organizing plans for religious meetings. With all three of them being of different denominations, they decided to call it the Union Sunday School. There were only 4 or 5 children present at the first meeting but it was a start.

Mrs. Slater and her husband moved on with the railroad so Hall and Booker carried on. With no minister available, Hall served as a lay minister preaching to his pioneer friends in their tents, homes or on the porch of his store. In August of 1883 Presbyterian missionary Dr. Loughridge, prevailed upon by Hall, came to the little town to preach the first official sermon. Hall carried lumber from his lumberyard behind his store around to the 12x30 front porch using every keg, bucket or plank in which to make benches from.

Only a handful of the 100 or so town citizens showed up. As the minister stood on the porch and delivered the sermon, he soon found his self having to talk louder and louder to be heard. The professional gamblers who had followed the Frisco RR into Tulsa, together with the outlaws here, were in nearby tents and at gambling tables that had been moved outside to avoid the heat. Their jeering at times was loud.
The photo below was taken in 1886 on that porch, probably after a service. Laughridge can be seen sitting in the middle (white beard):

In the summer of 1883 a drifter came into town claiming to be a schoolteacher. Eager parents hired him only to learn shortly after school began that he, too, was a gambler. He was fired and left town. However the folks realized that the need for a school was still strong. Hall contacted a missionary named Rev. William Haworth who was largely supported by the Presbyterian Mission Board to ask for advice.

After Haworth reported to the Mission Board that there were no churches or schools and many children living here, the board authorized the building of a school that would also be used for church services if Tulsans would subscribe what funds they could toward the cost. The board also agreed to furnish two teachers, paying all of their salaries and most of the salary of a minister.

The pioneers selected a school site on a hilltop far removed from the few buildings and little box-like homes and tents by the railroad. It was a stubble-covered hill standing alone in the wilderness. The location is now known as the southeast corner of Boston at Fourth Street.

Construction began in the summer of 1884. During the building phase, the minister's wife and Miss Ida Stephens began teaching classes in their homes. Haworth also continued holding services on the porch of Hall's store. The building was finished and opened immediately in the fall of 1884.

Honestly, it is doubtful that any building was more important in Tulsa's history. Aside from it's urgent need providing education services, it was also the first public building and the endeavor of building it helped fuse the little community together and forge ahead with making this town stay and grow. The little mission was used for many other things including other denominations using it while organizing their churches. It became a community building and so much more.

The First Presbyterian Church was organized on October 5, 1885. In 12 short years the church outgrew it's little mission building as did the needs of the Tulsa children, even with the addition of another story to the little building. With the town being incorporated in 1898 a public school system was needed so the church began building their first church (that wasn't related to a school) across the street on the southwest corner of Boston and Fourth.

The Home Mission Board wanted the property that the little Mission school was on to be sold to the city at a nominal price with the understanding that it would become the site of nondenominational public school buildings.

Tulsa was growing fast and the value of real estate was beginning to be recognized. Private parties tried very hard to buy the school land to hold for speculation. In an act that dramatically affected the growth of Tulsa's schools, four of Tulsa's leaders stepped in and bought the school property to hold until city taxes could be raised to reimburse them. J.M. Hall, Jay Forsythe, R.N. Bynum and Joe Price borrowed $1050 from the Tulsa Banking Company and bought the property from the Mission Board.

It was in 1902 that enough taxes were raised to pay back the investors who then signed over the land to the city, giving Tulsa it's first piece of public school property.

This is what the intersection of 4th and Boston Ave looked like with a new school and church:

Another view of the 4th and Boston intersection circa 1905:

First Presbyterian Church also continued to grow rapidly with the discovery of oil and, in 1911, they built another new church down the street at 7th and Boston.

The former land was sold and became the Pioneer Telephone Company's building.

In 1924 the membership of the church increased to 2,200 and a new sanctuary was built next to the original building which was then used as classrooms.

That building was torn down and replaced with the Kerr Memorial Chapel and Educational Building, dedicated in 1954 as a monument to Dr. Kerr and a link to the past- the pioneers who never gave up.

Sources: Tulsa's Magic Roots by Nina Dunn

Bishop's Restaurant

2011-02-27T23:43:00.000-06:00

Back in the days when downtown Tulsa was The (only) Place To Be, there were plenty of cafes and diners for lunch and breakfast but not so many restaurants, especially one's that were open 24 hours. And really there was only one place to go, to be seen and to see others. I am talking about Bishop's Restaurant of course. I posted this postcard on the THS Facebook page the other day, which was Bishop's Driv-Inn (not to be confused with the restaurant).

Although many remembered this pretty, neon spot that was located on 10th and Boston, the memories and comments always drift back to the other Bishops. THE Bishops that was located at 510 S. Main, in the hub of the city. I thought I would share some of those memories, along with a little bit of history.

I couldn't find out much information on W.W Bishop other than he opened the first Bishop's in 1913 and it was located at 15 E Third St. It was a counter-only cafe/diner back then. That could very well be him on the far right, but I cannot verify that.

Sometime in the early 1920's he upgraded the place and enlarged it. This ad was in a 1927 booklet.

This photo, taken around the same time, shows the new signage in front.

WW. Bishop became partners with J.H. Powers and together they opened a bigger, better full-scale restaurant in a building on Main Street and 5th. The year was 1930. Customers in that era included the likes of William G. Skelly, Josh Cosden, Harry Sinclair and J.Paul Getty. They also opened a Bishop's in Oklahoma City.

Moving along into the next decade, social activities swirled around Bishops; first dates, anniversaries, special occasions or lunch -Bishop's catered to them all. Everyone loved the infamous Brown Derby which came with french fries or onion rings, grilled onions and hot rolls so light they floated away- all for .65 cents in 1948. A steak platter for two was featured for $1.85. What better place to go before or after a movie.

A menu and some other memorabilia found at online auctions:

Counter seating or a booth? The U-shaped counter was huge with red and chrome swivel chairs. The floor was black and white checked. You were always served well by one of the many waitresses employed there.

Wearing a starched cotton uniform, a ruffled apron, small cap and a handkerchief in a little breast pocket, they were always neat as a pin, some having been there many years. For three decades there was no place equal to Bishops.

When the restaurant went to 24-hour service, more than 70 waitresses were employed. New signage out front included the famous Hereford cow's head when a remodel was done in the late 1940's.

A back room now included a "buffeteria" offering. The upstairs of the building was used as a storage area with cowboy and Indian artifacts. Later it was rented out to a competitor, Mike's Restaurant, which in 1951 was the birth place of the Spotlight Club.

Memories shared by Tulsans were mostly about the food- from "best cheeseburgers and fries" to the "best waffles in the world" served on heavy white china that had a green rim on it. The house salad dressing, rum cake and chicken pot pie were other favorites. And hash browns like no other.

My neighbor, a Central grad, fondly remembers going there "with the gang" late one night after a school dance. She said they all ended up dancing outside in the street.

Another memory was of a sign at the front register that read, "We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone" which at that time was a reference towards segregation and the unwelcomeness of the black population to eat there. The other Bishop's Restaurant in Oklahoma City was eventually picketed by civil rights activists in 1963 who staged a sit-in.

On Saturday, February 19, 1966 Bishop's Restaurant closed it's doors for good. Plans were to tear down the building and put in one of the infamous parking lots. The Saturday morning regulars along with two favorite waitresses drank a champagne toast to the end of a Tulsa institution.

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Here are some recipes that have been passed along from Bishops:

BROWN DERBY

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

2 cups chicken broth

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. Mustard

Mix ingredients, adding broth last to give mixture the consistency of soupy meatloaf. Using 1 cup of the mixture for each portion, make thick patties and brown them in oil. Set aside.

SAUCE DIABLO

1 can beef gravy

1 Tbsp. mustard

1 tsp. A1 Sauce

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire

1/2 cup catsup

1 Tbsp. Margarine

Boil ingredients together for 2 minutes. Drain the meat patties and put in a baking dish. Cover with Sauce Diablo. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees; longer if desired.

WINE-OIL DRESSING

1 pint garlic-flavored salad oil

1/2 cup honey

1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put honey and salt in electric blender and blend until creamy.

Add vinegar and lemon juice. On slow speed add salad oil very slowly.

Blend until thick. (The secret is slow blending.)

Garlic-flavored oil: put 3 cloves garlic in a pint of salad

oil and let it stand overnight.

RUM CAKE

Batter:

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 pinch salt

1/2 C dark rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch

tube pan or a 12-cup Bundt pan. Chop nuts and sprinkle evenly

over the bottom of the pan.

Cream 1 cup of the butter and 2 cups of the white sugar together.

Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each one.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and

add alternately with the buttermilk to the egg mixture.

Stir in the vanilla and rum. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. While cake is baking, prepare glaze.

Glaze:

1 C butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark rum

Melt butter in a saucepan; add water and sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Allow to cool and stir in rum.

Remove cake from oven, poke holes in it with a fork and pour all of the Rum Butter glaze over cake while still warm. Leave cake in pan for 2 hours before turning over onto serving dish.

Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Doctor's Hospital

2011-02-16T20:09:00.000-06:00

The medical profession was changing drastically by the late 1950's. The role of Family Doctor was becoming outdated, replaced with specialized medicine. This meant that many times, the family physician was not allowed admitting privileges to hospitals and had to turn their patients over to "specialists". In a bold and courageous move, 19 Tulsa doctors took on the challenge to build a new non-profit hospital in the 1960's. These family physicians wanted their own hospital and would use only private money to build it.

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At one time, all of Tulsa's physicians were located downtown in basically one building - that being the Medical Arts Building which sat on the southwest corner of 6th and Boulder.

When these young doctors began searching for a place to build their hospital, they had to go way, way out to "the edge of civilization" to find their land, located at 24th and Harvard. They purchased 10 acres of suburban tract land for $180,000 from the Batsell brothers. This was the highest price recorded at the time for that amount of land. The Batsell's had inherited this land from their father, F.N. Batsell who died in an automobile accident in the 1950's. Mr. Batsell was the president of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Tulsa. He had purchased this land originally to build a bottling plant but the zoning was denied. He was considering building a shopping center there at the time of his death.

When the doctors purchased the land, there were just a smattering of houses in Mayo Meadow neighborhood and virtually no businesses east of there. It took them some time to find a bank that would loan them the money; in fact, they had to go out of Tulsa to do it. When construction began the crews were faced with building on land that was once a coal mine. It meant digging very deep.

The hospital eventually opened in August of 1966 with 100 beds and was designed with the comfort and well-being of the patients in mind. There was a 24-hour public restaurant and color televisions in every room. The hospital was a financial success. It was expanded twice, a chapel and conference center were added as well as a six-story professional building for about 30 doctors. Thanks to doctors like this founding group, Family Medicine became a recognized specialty.

Tulsa's Doctor's Hospital was the first to carry the emblem of the American Academy of Family Physicians. And the first hospital west of the Mississippi to be built completely with private funds.

--------------------------

Doctor's Hospital was sold on September 29, 1983. With the proceeds of the sale, the founding physicians established a non-profit group called the Founders of Doctors Hospital, Inc. which supports the charitable activities these physicians believed in. The last living founder, Dr. Joe Salamy, passed away last August at the age of 91.

Further Investigation.....

2011-02-13T09:18:00.000-06:00

A Tulsa Historical Society Facebook follower read about the Harvard Apartments parking lot mystery and went to check it out yesterday. Here is her report:
-------------------
February 12

A couple of friends and I went out there today, actually, and had a look around. There's still lots of snow but you can tell where things are by anomalies in the snow. While we were traipsing around, one of the people who lives in one of the houses that can see the parking lot from their backyard came and talked to us for a little while. She said it was definitely old overflow parking for Doctor's Hospital (and was much more interested in the foxes that live back there).

The interesting thing to me, though, is that we peeked into the drains that are still in place in the curbs and could two different levels; the water was running in the second level down, and the separation between the levels was evident by a sort of shelf of concrete that looked like it had been broken. I've looked in a lot of storm drains in the past few years due to a predilection for saving trapped ducklings and never seen two different levels like that before. Plus, it looked like the "shelf" had exposed rebar, like it had broken off. My friends and I wondered if the lower level could be an old coal mine shaft, but it would be nearly impossible to tell without going down there when it's dry, and even then would be way too dangerous. We could tell that the water was running parallel to the street leading up to the parking lot. However, the storm drain on the entrance street didn't have the second, lower level.

Memories From A Reader

2011-02-11T09:25:00.000-06:00

I was contacted recently by Jim M. regarding the History Mystery post from last year- the one regarding the mysterious parking lot by the Harvard Apartments. The mystery of this lot still remains, but Jim shares some insights and memories from growing up near this area which are, as always, great to share. Enjoy (and thanks Jim).

-----------------------------------

I grew up in the neighborhood now called Florence Park South,

that is just West across Harvard from the area in question. Back in the

late '60's, the paved parking lot East of the Harvard Terrace

Apartments was a mixture of woods and brush to the north

with a grass field to the south.

A spur off of the MKT line ran on the east side of the covered

parking for the apartments and terminated on the Tulsa State Fairgrounds.

The railroad tracks must have already been in place when the

neighborhood was constructed as Marion, Oswego, and Oswego Place

follow the railroad alignment. Evidence of the tracks is still present

at the 23rd, 24th Place and 25th St. crossings. The spur must have been

put in place after the coal mines as the Coal Mine Map does not show

this spur.

My older sister and her friends called the area Hobo Jungle, named for

the occasional transient they would see. Kids on foot and bikes

find the fastest paths through a neighborhood, without regard to roads.

Back-routes out of that part of the neighborhood to Madalene School,

Lanier Elementary, Warehouse Market (formerly at 21st and Harvard),

Jones Drug (now Empire Optical), or to the Quik Trip originally located

at 25th and Harvard would have been through Hobo Jungle.

By 1968, my buddies and I would ride our bikes over to the area. Kids

had made bike trails throughout the field and trees. There were lots

of bumps and jumps by the tracks. In the areas close to the houses

were long flats. Sting Ray style bikes did well. My single speed paper-

route cruiser, a Penny's "Foremost", was a challenge.

Realizing that our parents were reluctant to turn us loose in a place called

Hobo Jungle, we referred to the area as "The Bike Trails". Evidence of

hobos remained in the form of camp fire ashes, empty canned food

tins, discarded clothing, empty bottles of cheap alcohol, and the occasional

curious magazine featuring rather scantily clad women. I only have one

vague memory of actually seeing anyone camping there.

By mid summer, the grasses would be 5 ft tall. You could only see

the head of someone riding in the east part of the trail. Countless

hours were spent holding timed bike competitions, building grass forts,

launching military campaigns, and just hanging out. It was like being

in the country in the middle of town. There was absolutely no adult

supervision. Needless to say, for all of the above reasons, we loved

the place.

August would come, and the 5 ft grasses would dry out. One of

the adults living in a house that backed up to the field would start a

not-unfounded worry about a brush fire and brush-hog the whole

place and and ruin it all.

I have a very dim recollection of there being some sort of concrete

8'x8' platform in the center of the field. I also seem to remember that it

was always full of broken glass from the discarded bottles (think

"juvenile catharsis"). If this memory is true, then it would not be

unreasonable to suspect that the platform was a

somehow related to the former mine that was in the area. I have no

memory of ever seeing any kind of remaining evidence of manufacturing,

abandoned equipment, buildings, loading docks, etc. If you compare

the Coal Mine Map to a similarly scaled Google Map, you see that the

Lucinda Mine (13) has two entrances near the area in question.

As the Coal Mine Map looks to be a "general location" map, it would be

risky to conclude that one of the entrances is under the parking lot

with any level of certainty, but not unlikely.

I started driving in '73. The MKT spur was still active for a decade or

so after that as I remember having to wait on the BA westbound

once when they were moving railcars to/from the fairgrounds.

Looking at the maps, I observed something else of interest regarding

the creek that flows north/south. On the north end, the creek appears

to be in the same approximate location as the retention ponds located

between Pine/11th St/Yale/Sheridan. The southern most end of the

map shows the creek running through the same area as what is now

Mockingbird Lake. It appears as if the city essentially buried the

creek and replaced it with storm sewers that eventually end up flowing

into Joe Creek. There is a 6ft+ line that parallels the spur and I expect

that it runs to Mockingbird Lake.

In conclusion, the area that was once a mid-city secluded "wildspace"

has been paved over and turned into a parking lot that no one uses.

Seems like there could have been a better plan....

Tulsa's West Side Stories- Taneha and Oakhurst

2011-01-23T21:33:00.003-06:00

Trains and oil booms are what helped create some little communities in what is now West Tulsa. The trains carried oilfield workers and supplies to the oil fields. Red Fork, where the first strike occurred, was close enough to Tulsa that most workers came back on the train rather than stay there. The Glenn Fields, however, were far enough out that boom towns for these workers to live in shot up practically overnight. A little town called Praper consisted of a few railroad workers until the Glenn strike. Being the closest train depot to the Glenn Pool it virtually exploded and, by 1906 was home to hundreds of oilmen. The town changed its name just before statehood to Kiefer.

Another boomtown was Taneha, which was Creek for "oil under land". Located about four miles north of Sapulpa, Taneha was a typical rough and tough oil field community, one in which women did not go outside after dark. Structures were usually just wooden frames with clapboard sidings and tar paper roofs. Taneha boasted a grocery store, hotel and boarding houses such as Elizabeth Winter's Boarding House (below).

The Taneha Boarding House fed three shifts at each meal.

Another boarding house.

This was Sherman Smith's gasoline service station.

In 1909 a post office opened there and the town was re-named Bowden. The post office remained until 1957. But that wasn't the end of the Taneha name.

That same year, L.J. Weatherman platted a community a few miles north and east of Bowden called "Business Men's First Addition to Taneha". Six months later it was renamed New Taneha. The land changed hands and was re platted several times then sold to O.C. Graves in 1913. Graves, a speculator from St. Louis, began drilling for oil and soon oil derricks dotted the area.

He filed plats for New Taneha in 1915 and, in 1918-1919 began an aggressive marketing campaign to gullible easterners, selling 25-foot lots and practically promising an oil well in every back yard. A Main Street was laid out..

sidewalks were poured...

and natural gas-fed street lamps sprouted from them.

The entry into the neighborhood boasted brick pillars and matching canopied buildings on either side.

What Graves - and buyers- couldn't know was that the oil wells were drying up and the Great Depression loomed on the horizon. Most buyers never claimed their properties and lost their investments. And while it looked as though it would all dry up and blow away with the Oklahoma dust, another unknown factor came to light. The road in front of the entrance pillars would become Route 66 in 1929, and a new generation came down it. After losing jobs and surviving the Depression, the inexpensive houses were a draw. While it is unclear exactly when it happened, according to old-timers who lived there, the Frisco railroad later gave the community the name Oakhurst because it's mail drop was near a grove of oak trees. Click on the map below to enlarge:

Thanks to an observant reader who pointed out that the above building still stands, even though the pillars are long gone:

References: David Breed- Southwest Tulsa Historian; The Rush Begins by Kenny A. Franks; The Tulsa Spirit; Southwest Tulsa History; The Tulsa World

Tulsa's Coal Mines

2011-01-13T22:30:00.001-06:00

There isn't an abundance of information easily available on the coal mines that were once here in Tulsa. I have found maps, which are helpful and useful- provided you can read and understand them. I have found recollections from former workers and one lone newspaper article from 1933. In it the reporter decided to see what the life of a miner was like and visited one of the mines on the "outskirts" of town. His last remark: "As we make our way back to the showers, I take off my hat to the miners and fervently confess to my guide that I'd rather see, than be one!" There were a lot of interesting photos taken for this newspaper article. Unfortunately the xeroxed copies make them unusable to share here.

This is a photo of men digging a strip pit in Indian Territory (photo courtesy Oklahoma Heritage Association):

There were at least 14 coal mines in Tulsa. Here is a map obtained from a reference book in the library showing them:

(click on photo to enlarge)

The other drawn maps are Sanborn Maps.

There used to be a town called Dawson back before statehood. It has since been absorbed into the big city. This Google map shows it to have been here:

Dawson was the home of strip coal mining as well as a rock quarry. The Smith Brothers owned and operated the coal mine there as did Leavell Coal Company.

Since the Smith Brothers aren't on the above list, they were probably one of the first coal mines in the area. This is a photo of workers with the Smith's daughter on the bank.

This was the Henry Adamson Coal & Mining Co. and the Adamson Coal Mine - located together south of 11th Street between Yale and Sheridan.

The Seneca Coal Mine was located on the land where Doctors Hospital now stands on Harvard. When I was researching the Harvard Apartments Mystery I learned that, in the late 1940's Coca Cola was interested in building a plant "out there" but didn't because of the instability from the mines. And years later, when the hospital was built, it was noted that in one of the elevators you could still smell the coal.

Next to the Seneca Coal Mine was Hickory Coal Mine #2 aka Lucinda. This little slope was located on the south side of 21st, just east of (what would become) the Broken Arrow Expressway. This was the mine the reporter visited in the story I mentioned above. Frank and William Podpecham started Hickory Coal Co here in 1929.

You can see in the map that the company general store was at the west end of the complex, as you would now go under the expressway bridge. The miners, who lived in a 'tent city' of sorts, had tokens that they would spend at these stores.

And then there are these maps that I snagged online of the Fairground area mines and shafts. I'm not quite sure how to read the yellow lines - but what a honeycomb design they make! Again, click on these to enlarge:

The white rectangle at the top of this is the Expo Building:

Anyway, now you can see that all of the rumors about the Fairgrounds, Sears, the baseball park etc being on top of coal mines are true.

Fairgrounds Grandstand

2011-01-06T15:05:00.001-06:00

Reading about them tearing down one end of the grandstand at the Tulsa Fairgrounds made me think about a trivia question I once asked on Facebook. It was one of the "where am I?" where I show a random photo. This was the photo in question that day:

The answer is:

This was the Merchant Exhibit and Grandstand Building at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds. Designed by Bruce Goff, it was built in 1930 beneath the existing grandstand which was 685 ft long and 100 ft wide. This was the longest building of its kind west of the Mississippi River. The building was lost when half of it sank into an abandoned coal mine.

Did you catch that last sentence? Yes, it sank into the ground! Much of that entire area, including where Sears sits, was used for coal mining.

I plan on writing some about these coal mines in the future. There were quite a few.

Tulsa Pioneers: T.E. Smiley

2011-01-03T21:49:00.001-06:00

When Thomas E. Smiley arrived in Tulsey on the 2nd of June, 1884 from his home state of Tennessee, he came to a little village with less than 200 residents. The 21 yr old went to work as a store clerk in the first Hall store (H.C. Hall Merchandise Company) over in Red Fork.

Tulsa was then a cow-town and Smiley wanted to experience life on a cattle ranch and went to work at the Turkey-Track Ranch for awhile. When he returned to the Tulsa area he married Nora Perryman who bore him three children. She passed away in 1898 and Smiley remarried in 1901.

Thomas developed a business of cutting and selling walnut logs and other hardwood products, harvesting them from the huge supply along the Arkansas River. They had teams of oxen and mules (owned by C.A. Wimberly) to haul these logs to the railway station or float them down the Arkansas River, employing a force of men to cut them down and saw them. This business was a boon to early Tulsa in that he and his partner, M. Baird, always gave employment to men who were really in need of money.

It was during this time, around 1894, that Smiley seriously considered going into the lumber business. While studying the plans for such a venture, he was called upon by a salesman from a lumber mill in Arkansas named W. S. Dickason.

After meeting with him, Smiley agreed that he would place an initial (train) car-load order, but it was to be placed once he had all of the details of his new business figured out. By mistake, the shipment from Arkansas was made upon receipt of the order and arrived in Tulsa just as it appeared Smiley would be unable to form his company. The population of Tulsa at that time was approximately 250; a full car-load of lumber was a lot of board feet to have on hand at one time. Dickason took the initiative and proposed that he and Smiley form a partnership to sell the material, which Smiley agreed to and Tulsa's first lumber firm- briefly known as Tulsa Lumber Company- was in business. Total resources pooled by the two men were $1,900.

Dickason hit the road again as a salesman leaving Smiley in charge of the Tulsa operations. Although it was still 4 years away from becoming an incorporated city, Tulsa's growth was steady and strong. In 1896 Dickason met C.A. Goodman and the two acquired lumber yards in Kansas and Missouri and eventually they bought out Smiley's interest, going on to have outlets in nearly 50 communities. After the oil boom days faded they centered their business in the Tulsa area. The original yard was on Boston Avenue, on the north side of the Frisco tracks. Later it was moved to Main Street on the Frisco then in 1915 it was relocated on First St and Madison.

It was in this location that Dickason's son expanded then concentrated the business on furniture sales. The Dickason-Goodman furniture company was around until the late 1980's, spanning 100 years in Tulsa.

Smiley went on to other interests, opening the first ice plant, becoming secretary of the commercial club, fire and police commissioner in 1911, city councilman and a member of the first school board. He, like all of the other pioneers of our city, had that spirit of giving and serving that made Tulsa what it is today.

Absentee Blogger

2010-12-13T09:17:00.000-06:00

I didn't mean to put this blog on the back-burner during this busy time of the year, but that seems to be the case. I will try to get something posted later on this week...... Thanks for stopping by!

Tulsa Christmas Parade- 1940's

2010-12-07T21:47:00.000-06:00

Tulsa's Christmas Parade was always held in the day so that people would stay and shop. Like many, my sisters and I would always anticipate Santa's arrival at the end of the parade. This is from Jack Frank's movie collection. Enjoy!

Historic Holiday Gifts

2010-12-03T21:15:00.000-06:00

As you all may know, I don't allow advertising on this website (other than what Google makes me have) because I don't want to junk it up and make it hard to navigate. That being said, here is my one and only personal advertisement for two items.
*I have created a 2011 calendar for sale, highlighting some of early Tulsa's churches and schools. You can check it out HERE.
*Also, there's this cookbook that I wrote awhile back. You can purchase a copy of it at the gift kiosk at the Tulsa Historical Society or you can email me (tulsahistory@aol.com) and I will mail you a copy. You can see more about it HERE.
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OK, that's it for the self-promoting. Hope everyone enjoys the holiday season.

Sipes Food Market

2010-11-28T11:26:00.002-06:00

A.H. Sipes began his grocery store business in Oklahoma City (1909) and came to Tulsa in 1927. They were known to be one of the first stores to bring self-service grocery shopping to Oklahoma yet maintained the nostalgic warmth of a neighborhood grocery store even when they expanded.

Personal Memories

Going to Sipes was a Saturday afternoon tradition for my dad and I. We would leave around 10:00 a.m. (shopping list -written by Mom- in hand) and go to his office which was down around 13th and Boulder in a renovated house (later taken out by the expressway). I would doodle around amusing myself on some poor secretary's typewriter while he worked. Then we would head over to Ike's Chili Parlor (the last location downtown at 7th and Boston) for 3-way "Spi-get Special" (this was how they pronounced spaghetti and chili with beans and cheese) and a coke served in a paper cone cup in a metal holder. It was always interesting to sit at the counter and just watch the people working or watch Ollie ring up people at the register by the door. Then off we would go to Sipes for the weeks groceries.

My parents' first house was over by the fairgrounds, so the 27th and Harvard location was where we went, even after we moved way out south. Dad occasionally went to the Sipes at 61st and Yale when it opened but always preferred the Harvard location. I think it was because he knew the butcher there on a first-name basis. When we would reach the meat department, Dad would give me a dime and I would head over to the Coke machine and get a chocolate Yoohoo and wait.

If it was summertime, there would be much discussion about loin back ribs, pork chops and steaks for cooking on the Hasty Bake. If it was winter time, Dad had to choose the right piece of meat and right amount of suet for his chili and have it ground 2-3 times. I'm sure no Tulsa child will ever forget the cartoon/movie "hut" that children were sent to to wait while groceries were being sacked and paid for. Getting a penny to buy a piece of bubble gum from the machine and watching a cartoon for 10 minutes was a great way to end our weekly excursion. My parent's were very loyal Sipes customers. Mom even did some advertising modeling for them in the 1950's.

Sipes Success Story
Customer service and personal check cashing were just two of the many ways Sipes stayed in business, especially during the Great Depression. In the early 30's there were seven Sipes "self-serving stores" in Tulsa: 11th & Columbia, Peoria just south of 15th Street, 11th & Cheyenne, 15th & Trenton, Edison & Denver, 6th & Zunis, and in the former Warehouse Market building at 11th & Elgin.

These were small stores without much parking needed since few automobiles were on the streets back then. After WWII, only 2 of those stores were paying operations. In 1943 son LeRoy Sipes became general manager and bought a location at 15th & Quaker for a larger, more up-to-date super-market. (This building still stands and is a restaurant).

The 10,000 sq ft facility was the first of five Sipes stores built on the grand scale customers were beginning to demand and included a drug store.

In 1945, the Sipes chain won national recognition for modern supermarket design, including departmentalization of produce and conveyor belt checkout stands. Sipes also received 12 advertising excellence awards from Woman's Day and McCall's magazines.

Besides the Harvard location (now a Dollar Store), large stores were opened in Holliday Hills (61st & Yale), Eastgate (Admiral & Memorial) and 32nd & Memorial (now Drysdales).

Hale-Halsell company acquired Sipes Food Markets in 1955 which probably helped the chain outlast many others for decades. In the early 1970's there were plans to open a store on the northwest corner of 71st & Memorial that fell through. It was supposed to look like this:

One by one the stores closed with the 61st & Yale location being the last, closing in 1992.

Historic Neighborhoods: White City

2010-11-21T13:12:00.000-06:00

Glenn T. Braden, born in 1856, grew up around oil in Pennsylvania. He was hired to help drill wells at the age of 13, helped his father operate a small refinery for 3 years, then worked as a pipe liner. An early proponent of natural gas, he invented the Bradenhead, a device which diverted natural gas from oil wells without disrupting production.

In 1905 he and T.N. Barnsdall purchased 155,000 acres of land from the Osage nation and, as part of the land transaction, they picked up a small natural gas plant in Tulsa. A year later he formed Oklahoma Natural Gas Company.

In 1912 Braden purchased the land that would later become the White City neighborhood from the Creek Indian nation and built a gas plant. Aside from oil wells and coal mining productions, the rest of the land was eventually turned into a dairy farm when he brought a herd of Jersey dairy cattle to Tulsa during World War I. It was named White City Jersey Dairy Farm because the color of all of the buildings and silos were white.

This is the 1923 Sanborn Map of the White City Dairy Farm. Click on the photo to enlarge:

This item is listed in the Token Catalog, found by a local treasure hunter. It says:

White City Jersey Farm 1 quart Pat Dec 25 (?) 1916

After his death his children closed the dairy, platted the land and began selling lots. One of the stipulations was that there be a neighborhood park. Originally named White City Park, it was renamed Braden Park a few years later.

White City was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 14, 2001. These are the boundaries:

Tulsa Pioneers: Glenn Condon

2010-11-17T21:18:00.003-06:00

Glenn Condon was born in 1892 to George and Mary Condon. After graduating from Oklahoma City common schools (8th grade), he worked as a messenger boy for Western Union which was also the source of the Oklahoma City Times-Journal's stories. Glenn's brother happened to work for said newspaper as a pressman. One day his brother told him to standby, that there was going to be an extra out on the San Francisco earthquake. Glenn was the first kid out on the streets with that extra and was bitten by the journalism bug.

He came to Tulsa in 1907 and worked as a bundle wrapper, a soda jerk and at a vaudeville theater called Egan's Roof Garden which was atop the building that also housed the Beane-Vandever dry goods store.

Condon finally got up enough nerve to ask the editor of the Tulsa Democrat for a job- any job that he had to offer. Having only an 8th grade education he was given the job as a printers devil. His duties included sweeping the floors and being the editor's gopher. Glenn liked to tell the story of his first assignment as a cub reporter for the Tulsa Post (at age 17) covering an evangelistic meeting being held in a tent. He took his place at the press table, proudly "making" like a reporter, when a woman approached and asked, "Young man, are you a Christian?" to which he replied, "No ma'am, I'm a newspaperman" without realizing how it sounded. In 1911 Glenn covered the only legal hanging to occur in Tulsa.

While working for the Tulsa Post, he inaugurated one of the first sports columns and became their Sports Editor. Then he went to work for the Tulsa World performing, at one time or another, all of the news jobs there; police reporter, telegraph editor, city editor and managing editor-all before the age of 25. During this time his boss was Eugene Lorton who would later become the newspaper's publisher.

In October of 1911 Tulsa was preparing for their Second Annual County Fair and the First Annual Industrial Show and trade week. The Tulsa Daily Democrat reported that aviator Leonard Bonney would be arriving:

Bonnie Will Arrive Today

Bonnie, the daring your aviator, who has been making successful airship flights at the Muskogee fair and other exhibitions during the past summer will arrive here in a special car from Muskogee this morning. His airship, a Wright biplane, will be immediately taken to the fair ground and set up. A flight will be made on the fair grounds today. Bonnie is the first aviator to carry passengers in his machine in this state, performing this feat in Muskogee last week when he took a member of the State Board of Heath up in the air with him.

Eugene Lorton had wanted to go up in one of those flying machines for quite some time and won a chance to do just that. The Tulsa World was "published from the air" that day:

What Mr. Lorton didn't learn until 15 years later was that every piece of paper in that hat had his name on it.

It was Lorton who encouraged Glenn to run for the House of Representatives seat, which he did and won in 1916. He resigned in 1917 to visit Europe on a war mission for the state, coming back to Oklahoma to promote the state's war efforts by making more than 300 speeches in every county.

After the war Condon became editor and publisher of the Vaudeville News in New York. He gave cub reporter Walter Winchell his first job there, before he became known as a gossip columnist. Ironically over the years, many said Glenn, with his staccato speaking pattern, sounded a lot like Winchell over the airwaves. Perhaps it should have been the other way around.

Returning to Tulsa in 1926, Glenn managed the Ritz and Orpheum movie theaters and later the Majestic. This is Glenn interviewing Gene Autry on the Orpheum stage:

During the World Series games, he would shout the play-by-play of the game from the 2nd story of the Majestic as it came in over the wire to the crowds below.

He went back into broadcasting helping to organize stations as KOME and KAKC- with the "C" standing for Condon ("A" was for Avey, "K" was for Kellogg and later King). The majority of those alive now probably recall him as news director for KRMG when it went on the air Christmas Eve 1949.

Glenn was a popular speaker at functions all over the city with many interesting stories to share.

In his Only In Oklahoma series, Gene Curtis recounts:

Condon…once introduced a public official as "the only Tulsa County Commissioner who hasn't been indicted." When the laughter died down, he added, "yet."

Another of those stories was about a tall, thin, soft-spoken Indian by the name of Henry Starr.

Henry had a price on his head and had been undercover for about a year. One summer day, Henry and his gang rode out of the Osage Hills and headed towards Stroud, OK. At the edge of town they split up with carefully made plans to rob the town's two banks at the same time. A 16 yr old grocers son, firing from the back of his dad's store with a .22 rifle, winged Henry in the leg as the outlaws rode out of town. Henry fell from his horse and was captured.

He was taken to the Lincoln County jail where he sent for a few Tulsa newspapermen (Condon being one of them) and shocked them all, telling them that he had been living in Tulsa all of this time in a rented house a block from the sheriffs home and two blocks from the mayor. He gave the newsmen his keys to the house and in it they found everything just as he had described.

Glenn Condon was one of the proudest Tulsans I think I've ever read about. With good reason though. He had lived here during the birth of the city and had seen and been a part of it all. From the Commercial Club Booster trains that went to state capitals in the East (which he called "audacious") to the knock-down newspaper fight between titans Eugene Lorton and Charles Page over Tulsa's water. He saw the building of the bridge that essentially brought oil to Tulsa and thought the sign erected over the top of it epitomized Tulsa's spirit. "You said we couldn't do it but we did."
He never failed to recognize how many, if not all, of the wealthy oil men "put their money where their mouths were" and gave so very much back to the city in the form of museums, parks, airports, buildings and more.

In other aspects of his life, Glenn was active in the Parks Department, served on the Tulsa State Fair Board, the Tulsa Press Club, the Rotary Club- you name it, it seems as though Glenn was a part of it. Which is why he was honored in July of 1964 by the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce upon his retirement after 57 years as a reporter. This tribute to a self-made newsman humbled him greatly and sealed his belief that Tulsa was the greatest city on earth.

Glenn Condon passed away in 1968.

*Click HERE to read how Condon viewed Tulsa in 1919.