Tulsa Trivia: Central Library floor names

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Here's a puzzler for long-time Tulsans. I'll give you the answer in a day or so.

The floors of Tulsa's Central Library, starting at ground level, are numbered from 1 to 4 nowadays. (There are two basement levels below ground.) But when the building opened, and for many years thereafter, the elevator buttons had initials for each of those four levels, corresponding to the non-numeric name given to each. Can you name each level?

UPDATE: Answer after the jump....

1st floor was AL - Auditorium Level, because Aaronson Auditorium is on that level. As Michelle notes in the comments, there's still an AL in the floor outside the elevator.

2nd floor was PL - Plaza Level, because it's the same level as the Civic Center (Oakley) Plaza.

3rd floor was ML - Mezzanine Level; it's the mezzanine in the main hall of the library. (I'm sure many people thought of it as "Magazine Level" since the periodicals section has always been on that floor.)

4th floor was UL - Upper Level. True enough, it's been the business and technology floor as long as I can remember, but UL was used for the elevator button.

Rumor has it that the building was constructed to allow adding at least two more stories. Changing from floor names to floor numbers should simplify the process if it ever comes about.

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6 Comments

michelle Author Profile Page said:

The second level was PL (Plaza Level), and the first level was AL (Atrium Level?). We were never allowed above those two--I thought it went to numbers after AL & PL. I seem to recall that the AL level still has those initials on the floor near the elevator.

1- unknown
2- Mo
3- Larry
4- Curly

??

:)

That's cool, I never knew that and I've been going there for years.

Craig adams said:

AL was "Auditorium Level" and four used "BT" for "Business and Technology".

michelle Author Profile Page said:

There is still an elevator with the original AL/PL designation (though it lists the others as 2 and 3), as well as the basements--IL & LL. It's the book elevator on the 1st floor, near the media room. When I was little, my sister and I thought it was an elevator built for kids, and thought it would be great fun to ride on.

michelle Author Profile Page said:

There is still an elevator with the original AL/PL designation (though it lists the others as 2 and 3), as well as the basements--IL & LL. It's the book elevator on the 1st floor, near the media room. When I was little, my sister and I thought it was an elevator built for kids, and thought it would be great fun to ride on.

Wow, Michelle, I'd completely forgotten about IL and LL!

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This page contains a single entry by Michael Bates published on January 5, 2007 11:01 PM.

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