Another endangered historic building to be demolished
I was very sad to read of the intent of the Sand Springs Home, the charitable trust created nearly 100 years ago by industrialist and philanthropist Charles Page to care for widows and orphans, to demolish the 87-year-old dormitory building. They plan to build a rec center in its place.
It looks to be a big and sturdy old building, and it's a building that means a lot to the kids who grew up there.
Trustees are saying that the cost of renovation would be astronomical, and they wouldn't know what to do with the building anyway. The fact that they don't cite even a ballpark cost for renovation tells me that the trustees never considered it. I'm sure they haven't looked into "mothballing" the building -- even if you don't have an immediate use for a historic building or the means to do an immediate renovation, you can spend considerably less money to secure a building and prevent deterioration until you're ready to do something with it.
At some point, and I keep thinking the day is finally near, there will be a consensus that preservation is a good and worthwhile thing among the Oklahomans who have the wealth and power to do something about it. Hopefully that will happen before too many more landmarks fall to the wrecking ball.
MeeCiteeWurkor grew up in the Home's Widows' Colony and has much more to say about the situation, and he links to a web page for Home alumni, which has an online petition you can sign, asking the trustees to spare the building.
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The problem is they don't know what to do with the building even if they do renovate it. What would they think of the Mid Continent Building (DOWNTOWN TULSA). Someone without imagination, appreciation of older buildings could have looked at that gorgeous business building and said the same thing. My father used to have his business in the Mid Continent Building so it has special memories for me. Instead the building had tons of money poured into the renovation of that building and you cannot really appreciate it that much from the outside, but if you look on the inside as well as other very old business buildings downtown that have been renovated, that is one part of downtown that is a treasure. Central High School was renovated where it once was a very old building that has tons of history. Fifty ( 50 ) years after my father graduated from Central High School my father was still voted as "most popular" by his high school class reunions of whom has many wealthy people. He has always been very well liked and my grandparents (my dad's parents) were part of the history of Tulsa in a positive way. Instead of tearing just any old property down, look at the business in TULSA that bought the Mid Continent building and what a difference it made!!!!!! Do you see what can be done with old property! Central High School is now at a different location where there is better parking for the students and teachers. I could go on. Michael Bates definitely should have been voted in as City Councilor instead of Baker.
Baker has been worthless. Baker also never seems to pull his own weight on "reports" and is always passing the workload especially when it comes to the Great Plains Airlines/BOK loan mess. The street renovation project in the 1999 Bond project/2lst area still needs KEYSTONE CONCRETE to go back and fix the problems where the concrete they poured cracked in different areas before even a year was up. More than a year later, a supervisor I talked to on that project said they needed to go find the CONTRACT and make KEYSTONE Concrete Services go back and re-pour the areas where there were cracks from KEYSTONE trying to cheat the City of Tulsa from a cheaper concrete mix or poor workmanship. On the 1999 Bond project, there was money left over of what was estimated for this project. There were many people involved. New water lines, new ONG meters of which the house I help oversee had their ONG meter installed improperly. I saw the problem and flagged down the ONG workers and they immediately fixed it. I told the KEYSTONE people about the crack and KEYSTONE still did nothing to fix it. One concrete employee from Keystone that did NOT speak english hit the gas line which sent such a burst of gas it knocked out the heat/air unit and ONG had to come in with special equipment. They had to tear up the concrete on the sidewalk (this is on file with ONG as it was an emergency job). The Mayor's office needs to follow up to MAKE SURE THE SUPERVISOR ON THE CITY PROJECTS FOLLOW THROUGH AND GET THE JOB DONE CORRECTLY. On the 1999 Bond project, the contract should have been written that KEYSTONE CONCRETE should have quality work to hold up much longer than one year without cracks appearing in their work. Their concrete they pour on City of Tulsa projects should be top quality since the work the City of Tulsa hires them for are for high traffic areas which need good quality concrete and workmanship. KEYSTONE possibly cheated to make more money on the project by not having the mix right as there were many streets, sidewalks, etc. and as we can see
they must be use to no one reviewing their work.
People that don't know better would probably look at these homes and think they should be demolished. However, these homes are owned by attorneys, doctors, and many other influential people that remodel and keep up the gorgeous historical Tulsa architecture! Look at all of the remodelling always going on in the Philbrook square mile area. Many of these homes are very old and gorgeous on the inside.
I had to laugh at your last UT weekly article. This is just another project where the City of Tulsa should not be caught with their finger up their nose on tearing down another building because they don't know what they would do with it or because a developer is trying to get the land CHEAP when the City of Tulsa has no idea the real value.
By "layering" different projects and sticking in a $200 million
arena in a vote where the people putting that issue before Tulsa voters knew the new downtown Arena project never would have been passed a yes vote on its own, the Mayor's office can NOT assure Tulsa taxpayers it will operate in the black.
Mike Bates should run for MAYOR OF TULSA!
MIKE BATES SHOULD BE VOTED IN AS THE NEXT MAYOR OF TULSA!
Susan
Sand Springs could use this Sand Springs home as a tourist attraction and bring it back with an
amusement park, water park, etc. Sand Springs has many run down places, and by restoring the home, it could bring some more life to Sand Springs. Charles Page could have worshipped his
money as many wealthy people do. This home could be used as an asset to the city if enough imagination is used such as having the bicycle/walking trail from the Riverparks extend toward this area. They could have a "street car ride" too.
Is Meecityworker Scratch Purser? Very good article in the Southside today on the Charles Page Family Village (former Widows Colony). Scratch Purser and Donna Rogers who were interviewed for the Southside story are testimonies how important it is to have a place like that.
My mother's father died when she was only 3. If her father could have been treated by an excellent cardiologist (almost non-existent back then) all six children would have been raised with a strong wonderful businessman and father. Her mother raised six children all by herself on the many acres of land they owned. They did not live in Sand Springs, but another very historic town in Oklahoma and in the 20's and 30's these
were very hard days for many families with the great depression and the dust bowl.
Depression was common in men back then. The toll of providing for a family was overwhelming since many times men had a very hard time finding work and many men never had the opportunity to go to college in order to get better paying jobs. Even if they found work, the pay was not that great.
Not only did Charles Page help his mother, but he never forgot the hard times many mothers have
with unexpected circumstances that can leave them without a place to live and care for their children.