The Ultimate Deep Deuce Collection

[Doug Loudenback]

Or, at least, so I say!

It's the 1st blog post I've made for several weeks since I have been wholly focusing on the web-html-based Vintage Clickable Map project. Here's the link:

Doug Dawgz Blog: The Ultimate Deep Deuce Collection

Actually, it is an outgrowth of the clickable map project except that I've used a flash file as the vehicle. As flash files go, it's pretty small (1.73 MB) so it should load rather quickly. I've defined "Deep Deuce" rather generously to include areas which are not, strictly speaking, part of that historical area but were relevant to the black community who lived there ... the Douglass schools in the warehouse district, the Walnut Bridge used to get there, Riverside Park which came to be a "Colored Park" after Oklahoma City passed it's "Jim Crow" ordinances requiring racial segregation in residences as public accommodations (which story I'll write about in a different article shortly).

The opening "page" looks like this:



As you move your mouse over items in the map, the window at the top of the map immediately changes, such as that show below:



When that happens, a "hand" icon appears at the map location. You can click that icon to open up a web-based page which is actually a page in the Vintage Clickable Map, and in which there is much more information and more and larger images about the building or other object (those objects being the Walnut/Finley Bridge, Deep Deuce aerials, and NE 2nd street and map views).

M, if you're reading this, I'd particularly like your feedback since you are a flash guru.

But, actually, I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who will give it. A technical concern is that the file is too "tall." At 768 px high, even if you press F11 for a full screen display, part of the area is cropped if your video resolution is 1024 x 768, which means that some scrolling is necessary even if not much. I'd like to know if that's a problem ... if it is, I'll resize the frame but at some cost to the top window's content.

I hope you like it, but I seriously would appreciate your feedback.

[grantgeneral78]

That is great Doug very nice job

[Doug Loudenback]

That is great Doug very nice job

Thanks. Not hearing any feedback about how to improve it though, which I really would like to hear, I decided that the height issue I mentioned needed attention. I'm working on that now.

[Steve]

Doug, have you seen the blown up mural at Sage yet? It's great to see your map and images after looking at it.

[Martin]

great work! all i'd say is that some of the locations along 2nd are so close together it's kind of hard to hover over the one you want.

-M

[Doug Loudenback]

Doug, have you seen the blown up mural at Sage yet? It's great to see your map and images after looking at it.

Yeah, I did, and the wallpaper is great. Other pics were posted in the Sage thread in the main forum but here's one of them:

[Doug Loudenback]

great work! all i'd say is that some of the locations along 2nd are so close together it's kind of hard to hover over the one you want.

-M

Yes, particularly on the south side of 2nd between Central and Stiles. Do you have any suggestions about handling that better?

[Martin]

i guess the obvious suggestion is that the map just needs to be bigger. perhaps a horizontal layout with the map on the left and the description on the right would allow you make the enlargement.

-M

[Doug Loudenback]

Well, there's the problem-solver, all right. But, I kinda wanted to keep this one within the blog itself, unlike what I'm doing with the vintage map, generally. That decision pretty limits to the width to 500 px or so. Maybe I should rethink my decision, because I know that you are right about that.

Even at 500 px, it would be lots easier to see and use had I not included Douglass High School on High, or south to Reno to pick up those Douglass schools. But I though that both should be included.

Thanks for your input, M.

[Doug Loudenback]

I've tweaked the layout a little and managed to get the display to 500 x 675 which seems to work better than the original (to prevent the need to scroll, but full screen display (F11) is still needed). Instead of sticking building pics in the top, they are now overlaid in the map itself to compensate for the smaller height dimension.

A new sample page looks like this:



Thanks to you who have offered comments and suggestions. I guess I'm now done with this and will get back to the larger overall clickable map project, which still has a long way to go.

[CCOKC]

Doug, you have done it again. I spent at least an hour reading this blog last night. It is such a shame that I never learned this in Oklahoma History when I was a kid. I was particularly interested and concerned about the state of Calvary Baptist Church. My family thought that maybe that would be a great place for a Deep Deuce History Museum if it is not going to be used as Church.

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks! An old dawg needs a little lovin' now and again!

I'll be reviewing Oklahoma City's Jim Crow laws very soon. It ain't a pretty story.

[Steve]

I've tried to add to the story with a piece on Roscoe Dunjee.

[Doug Loudenback]

I've tried to add to the story with a piece on Roscoe Dunjee.

I've seen it and commented on it in your history blog, and it's a very good post.

My own remarks about Dunjee, largely excerpts from a larger book on historic black newspapers in the country. The full chapter on the Black Dispatch, which is largely about Dunjee, is here: The Black Dispatch

As I said already, I too am working on a piece on Oklahoma City's Jim Crow laws. One thing I learned which was interesting that Gov. Alfalfa Murray established a "technical" martial law in the city in 1933 to keep the blacks and whites apart ... here's a map of the border ...