Recently in Tulsa::History Category
Once upon a time, encouraging patriotism and an appreciation for our country's blessings was considered a fundamental aim of public schools in America: "84 Freedom Awards Go To Tulsa: National winners of the 1967 Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Awards were announced Wednesday with 81 awards going to Tulsa schools and educators and three to Tulsans who helped 'promote a better understanding of the American way of life.' Winners were selected by a 34-member panel of judges. Tulsa received the largest number of awards of any city in Oklahoma. Dr. Charles C. Mason, superintendent of schools left Wednesday for Valley Forge Penn. where he will receive the school awards Thursday -- George Washington's birthday. For the past 16 years Tulsa schools have received many of the awards in various categories.... Verl A. Teeter, 4020 S. Sandusky Ave., received a George Washington Honor Medal Award in the public address category for his speech on "Protecting and Preserving Our American Heritage," delivered before the Broken Arrow Rotary Club last fall. An identical award in the sermon category went to Rev. G. E. Gotoski, 5324 E. 46th St., for his sermon on 'A Christian Manifesto.'" Mason was the namesake of Tulsa's 10th and short-lived high school. Teeter was an educational consultant, former school superintendent, and prolific letter writer. Gotoski was pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Tulsa, a congregation of the American Lutheran Church, a merger of Norwegian, German, and Danish Lutheran denominations that would later be merged into the ELCA.
If you're curious what Tulsa's zoning code and other ordinances were like in 2003, here they are, in PDF format, courtesy the late City Auditor Phil Wood, who put city government information online long before any official city website. Also includes the City Charter, list of officials from the founding of the city, sales tax ordinances, and bond issues.
'He was central to music history': the forgotten legacy of Leon Russell | Music | The Guardian
"By 1969, Russell had become a musical octopus with tentacles spreading to his own record company (Shelter Records), a duo he formed called the Asylum Choir, and, most importantly, key contributions to albums by Delaney & Bonnie, the only white act signed to Stax. Their rollicking second album, Accept No Substitute, didn't sell well yet it became, in Janovitz's words, 'a secret handshake. It was the album where all the major musicians said to each other, "You have to hear this."'
"The buzz on Delaney & Bonnie's record was so intense, it inspired Eric Clapton, Dave Mason and George Harrison to join the group - which also included Rita Coolidge - for a UK tour. A then unknown Elton John found himself equally besotted. 'Elton once said to me, "I would not be where I am today without Leon Russell and Delaney & Bonnie, and the music you all made,"' Coolidge said."
National Archives collection of Railroad Right-of-Way maps
Showing grade crossings, viaducts, stations, and other structures, and list of transactions by which right-of-way was acquired. 981 maps currently in the collection, including several pertaining to the Sand Springs Railway. (Index map, showing stations and route; Downtown Sand Springs and industrial area; "Colored Park" on the south side of the tracks at about 31st West Ave, Joe Station at 25th West Ave, City Water Works at Newblock Park; Crosbie Heights, with the depot SW of 3rd and Maybelle, and crossing TSR & OUT tracks; street running on Archer St in downtown Tulsa, with passenger station on SE corner of Archer and Main, also showing TSR & OUT tracks and MKT & Frisco stations; through Greenwood and connecting to Midland Valley & AT&SF.)
Football | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Semi-pro football in Tulsa: "In Tulsa the Oilers formed in 1966 and played in the Texas Professional Football League, played the 1967 season as the Thunderbirds, moved to Bartlesville as the Quickkicks, and folded. In 1974 the Tulsa Knights organized in the Mid-America League but disbanded in 1975. The Tulsa Mustangs played five games of a fifteen-game American Football Association (AFA) season [in 1979] before disbanding. In 1982 the Tulsa Thunder played in AFA but died when the city announced that it had attracted a United States Football League (USFL) team. In 1983 a San Diego team shifted to Tulsa as the Oklahoma Outlaws and signed Doug Williams, the first established NFL quarterback to move to the young league. In 1984 the team moved to Arizona."
The Tulsa Mustangs were coached by Glenn Dobbs, retired coach of the University of Tulsa where he was known for an aggressive passing game. The Mustangs managed only a 1-4 record, drawing tiny crowds to Skelly Stadium, before they shut down. The Sackheads, a group of regular callers to Hal O'Halloran's "SportsNite" talk show on KXXO 1300, attended one of the games "in sack."
The Coliseum, Tulsa | The University of Tulsa Archival Catalog
Photo of Tulsa's indoor sports arena, taken from a high vantage point (likely from the Philtower), showing lettering on the roof, presumably for the benefit of passing planes, identifying the city as Tulsa, Oklahoma, showing the direction of N, and the direction of airfields 7 miles NE and 4 miles SE. The Midland Valley tracks can be seen running across the photo from left to right behind the Coliseum, crossing the 6th Street Subway (a viaduct that carried the MVRR tracks and Frankfort Ave over 6th) in the upper right. The Coliseum occupied a half-block downtown on the east side of Elgin Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets. It was destroyed by fire in 1951; nothing has been rebuilt on the site, which is now a surface parking lot.
The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project
Arena Mueller posts her research into the history of homes of the 1/2-square mile between Lewis and Harvard Avenues, 11th and 15th Streets, just south of the University of Tulsa, and the people who lived in them. The most recent entry is a story about a fatal 1942 drag race on 11th from Peoria to Elgin.
Tulsa People profiled Arena and her neighborhood history project in the March 2019 issue, along with Rachel Shoemaker, who has identified over 30 Sears kit homes in Tulsa.
If you're interested in house history that's a bit more exotic, visit the case files of Marianne Taylor, The House Detective, based in Brisbane, Australia. Her Facebook page is full of interesting stories.
The Pierce Pennant Tavern - Miami, Oklahoma History
From the May 11, 1929, issue of Tavern Talk, a description of the main entrance of the soon-to-open Pierce Pennant Tavern in Miami:
"Upon alighting from his automobile under a massive white pillared canopy and entering the spacious doors of the terminal, the visitor will be immediately impressed by the depth of the main waiting room. Depending upon the season, his senses will react to its cool coziness or satisfying warmth. In the chill days of late spring or early fall, he will find an open fireplace at the end of the room, logs blazing merrily, just the tang of wood smoke redolent of the Ozark backwoods hanging in the air, inviting a relaxing "stretch" before its hearth. Summer, with its heat and glare and dust, is quickly transformed by the refreshing coolness of the well ventilated lounge, huge ceiling fans silently wafting synthetic lake breezes to the massive and comfortable divans and easy chairs. This room is 50 feet long and 35 feet wide, backed by a soda fountain for soft drink and sandwich service, with tables and chairs to accommodate 50 guests."
The building later served as the administrative building for the Royal Air Force flying school during World War II and as home of Winart Pottery in the 1950s.
MORE: The Pierce Pennant chain and the Tulsa location, later known as the Bates Tourist Hotel.
The Last Lebanese Steakhouse in Tulsa | Saveur
Nice piece on the history of Lebanese steakhouses in and around Tulsa, with links to recipes and memories of beloved restaurants long gone (e.g., The Phoenicia, Eddy's), and an account of some of the rough patches Jamil's has gone through since the restaurant was forced to move by I-44 widening.
"At Jamil's, third-generation owner Jennifer Alcott's feathery blonde hair floats around her face as she checks on diners with a gravelly, worn voice. Her grandfather, Jamil Elias, opened the original Tulsa location in 1946. It has moved three times since then, most recently in 2008 to a nondescript brick building just off I-44 in the southern part of the city. Inside, the faded floral booths, low lights, and endless array of old photos telegraph its age far better than its exterior. But to locals, it's what's on the tables that best evokes nostalgia. They come set with butter and crackers, and soon the hummus will arrive, along with tabbouleh, pita, and a refreshing and retro relish tray of pickles and crudités topped with ice cubes. The warm appetizers follow: barbecue sauce spiced with za'atar and sharp with vinegar and mint comes to the table in a metal creamer jar, and a basket with rib tips and smoked bologna arrives alongside cinnamon-scented cabbage rolls in a pool of tomato-tinged butter. It's a cultural wormhole connecting Beirut and Tulsa. Finally, the entrée arrives--a thick hunk of beef, medium-rare, unadorned, with a foil-wrapped baked potato."
The linked page shows Walmart's 271 locations in eleven states. Wal-Mart, as it was then, had only just begun to move into metro areas, but not yet into big cities. The Catoosa store (actually just inside the city limits of Tulsa SW of 193rd East Ave and Admiral) was a recent addition. The list of Tulsa discount department stores includes Oklahoma City-based T. G. & Y. Family Centers (at 40k to 60k sq. ft., a larger format for the dime store chain, comparable to Wal-Marts of that time), K-Mart (Tulsa had four), Target (Tulsa had two), Woolco (Woolworth's large-format discount store -- Tulsa had one where the 41st and Yale Reasor's now is, and one on Admiral), and home-grown Oertle's (owned by this time by David's in Wichita). Note that the guide does not include non-discount department stores (e.g., Sears, Penney's, Dillard's, Froug's, C. R. Anthony). Nationally, K-Mart had 1607 stores and $11.7 billion in sales.
