"Historical Buildings"

[ljbab728]

Once again, GREAT pics!

Where/what is the last one, the Lion head from?

I understand it is supposed to be from the Terminal Building.

[BDK]

They really ought to move those pieces of the Baum building to the Myriad Gardens or the new park when it's built. Hardly anyone gets to appreciate them crammed away next to the parking garage like they are.

[Doug Loudenback]

I am a young guy that absolutely has no attachment to historical buildings downtown. The question I ask is why do people get so upset about historical buildings being torn down? You have blocks of old historical buildings that sit empty and when someone comes in and wants to tear it down and build something new everyone freaks out. What is the big deal?

That's a very legitimate question, oakhollow, and I'll give my own stab at an answer.

In the 1st place, not everyone does (freak out), quite obviously.

In the 2nd, for those who do, there are probably several different paths taken to reach that perspective. For some, a person's affection for one's home town may have a lot to do with it, and that's how it was for me. During my high school years, I was nuts over the town where I was mainly reared, Lawton, and, strange as it may seem, I recall drawing maps as a high-schooler which puffed up Lawton as the then unsung and under-appreciated 3rd largest city of Oklahoma. In those maps, all roads led to Lawton, America! I was proud of my home town then, though it was not here.

So, although born in Oklahoma City, my childhood was not here. My adult personal identification with this city began while working downtown as a law clerk in 1966, during law school at OU. Before then, though, there were some ties. I came to love Oklahoma City's old downtown (movies, John A. Browns, etc.) and general amusements (e.g. Springlake) and other ad hoc things (e.g., Toddle House near OCU, Beverly's north of the State Capitol Building, the nearby Park-O-Tell motor hotel nearby, Sussy's Italian restaurant on Lincoln Blvd.) during visits here for scholastic competition or visits to relatives who lived here. It was a "big deal" to come for a visit to "the City" (as well as the always engaging and somewhat scary experience of crossing the very long and narrow two-lane truss bridge which crossed the South Canadian river before reaching Oklahoma City). Before graduating from law school, I decided that I would live here after finishing a post-law school 2 year stint in the army in 1970, to work in the same law firm in which I clerked for 2 1/2 years.

After establishing my "permanent" home here in 1970 and during the better parts of Urban Renewal and as well as its bad parts, I came to love my home of both birth and choice as time went on.

However, my interest in Oklahoma City history only seriously developed around 15 or so years ago. Once getting that "hook," my interest in learning as much as I could about my home town increasingly grew. As it did, I increasingly came to value not only the city's future, but it's past, as well. Part of the interest had to do with tying together the individual pieces of my visits here, but, as time went on, I increasingly wanted to know more and more about my home town.

Probably, for me, it's kind of like a "family" thing. Most people, sooner or later, are interested in knowing more about their "family members" ... ranging from the dark side (e.g., family members who have gone to prison, etc.) to those who may have had more socially acceptable prominence. In my own family, I found one crook but none who became socially prominent. One takes what one gets. One's family includes the good, the bad, and the ugly ... all components form a part of personal identity, of who one "is." If one identifies with a city as part of his/her family and self-identity, as I do, the answer to your question may become easier to see.

One does not sever a tie with a family member very easily, hopefully never at all. For a city, those "old buildings" are part of this city's family and represent a part of who we are and how we came to be and for our appreciation for our town's future, as well. All of the parts form a piece of our collective whole, facets of who we are, and some parts are obviously more glistening than others but the darker pieces are just as much valued as the brighter, if not (sometimes) more.

But, even the forgotten parts are still there, like ghosts, remembered or not, just waiting to be recalled into present memory by someone who is living to see them there and make those parts of the city alive, once again. Every time that I learn something new (to me) about my town, I get a rush.

The pieces of our history that remain available to actually "be seen" today are few in number. To actually walk up to such a building and on the sidewalk to look at it, to touch it, to think about it, can transport one back in time if one is willing and one uses a bit of imagination. One can almost see those guys in their funny suits and hats and the gals with their bird-like hats and long dresses with bustles, the vintage vaudeville plays and early movies, and so on ... yeah, that's kinda weird, but it's really quite doable.

But one should not try such a thing unless one is willing to run the risk of infection. That caution I give to you.

Others will give you a different answer to your question, but this is mine.

[Doug Loudenback]

The one in the center with the columns was the one I couldn't find the name.





Even the archive entry calls it '? building'.

Shucks. I was hoping that your query would be the easy answer, but no, you want an answer that requires more thought and study.

OK. Here you are. The 3-story building flanking the east side of the Oklahoma Club Building was the 1923 Farmers National Bank, much earlier established at a different location as the Farmers State Bank in 1903. The new building's address is shown as 200 W. Grand. More often, then contemporary Oklahoman articles simply show the bank's address as "southwest corner of Grand & Robinson."

Here are two graphics taken from Vanished Splendor II (Abalache Book Shop Publishing 1983). The 1st shows the interior of the bank in 1923 and the 2nd shows Vanished Splendor's text associated with the building's postcard.




As stated above, the bank changed its name in 1930 and it became City National Bank. In addition to the very fine photo from OHS which you posted (looking north on Robinson at the Baum Building), here is another OHS photo showing the building in August 1949 as it prepared to move to its new location at the northwest corner of Grand & Broadway. The Biltmore, Oklahoma Club, and Colcord buildings are observable in the background, left to right.



In the above, notice the neon sign on top of the building, far right. The neon sign is prominent in this late 1940s OHS image:



As noted above, City National moved in 1949 to its new location at Grand and Broadway, shown in this 1953 image:



Postscript: This is just one more "rush" (see previous reply to oakhollow) ... thanks UnFrSaKn for the learning kick! Doubtless many more are to come. You are doing a fantastic job of chronicling today's existing buildings with our city's past. Keep up the good work.

[UnFrSaKn]

Thanks for doing some research on it for me. If anyone could find that out, it would be you. I've actually thought about picking up copies of the Vanished Splendor books, which are almost like a requirement on the checklist of Oklahoma history buffs.

I really like that design on the interior of Farmers National Bank. You might think on the outside that it's a standard two story building, but imagine the surprise if you first walked in...
In one of the latest videos, I got some shots of the City National Bank with some old photos. It's just one of a very few that have escaped untouched by the decades of change downtown.

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks for doing some research on it for me. If anyone could find that out, it would be you. I've actually thought about picking up copies of the Vanished Splendor books, which are almost like a requirement on the checklist of Oklahoma history buffs.

Indeed, they are. The books are well researched to present accurate text associated with (mostly) postcards and collectively present a great deal of our city's historic detail. The books (3 of them) are a bit pricey, but one can shop around on the internet and find the best prices.

[ljbab728]

They really ought to move those pieces of the Baum building to the Myriad Gardens or the new park when it's built. Hardly anyone gets to appreciate them crammed away next to the parking garage like they are.

Some pieces might survive outdoors in a park setting but I'm guessing that some may be more fragile and need to be indoors.