Residence at 15th and Norfolk, Then (1956) and Now (2009)

East 15th St and South Norfolk St (photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)

A photograph of this comfortable looking home is part of the Beryl Ford Collection. It has no information other than the note 15th and Norfolk. But if it is interesting enough to be in Beryl Ford's collection in 1956, I am interested in checking to see how it looks today.


When we look at it from the same angle as earlier we see it is looking in good repair. The major change from the outside is a change of paint from white to green with smart white trim, and some healthy looking trees; a Catalpa on the north side, and what I think is a Bradford Pear in the front.


When we slip around towards the side to peek behind the trees we see very much the same house with what looks like it might be a porch swing on the south side of the front porch and flowers planted along the planter which flank the front steps. A very nice house which has been cared for and still looks very inviting.

Colonial Building and Inn, 1927

1325 East 15th Street (Cherry Street)

The Colonial Building and Colonial Inn at East 15th and South Quaker Avenue in 1927. (photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)


With the exception of the smart red awnings, the weathered bricks, and a bit of shrubbery, the old Colonial building is remarkably unchanged in this September 2009 photograph. The handsome design has withstood the test of time.

Fifteenth and South Boston, Looking East

15th and S. Boston looking East in 1956.

It looks like the Tulsa police are working a fender bender involving what, at that time, would have been a new Buick. A crowd has gathered to kibitz and the street looks busy with parked cars and traffic. The men on the street are in shirtsleeves and the trees are leafed out so I assume this is summertime. (photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)


15th and S. Boston looking East in 1962.

There are fewer buildings on the left side of the street and less traffic. The trees are bare and garlands are strung on the buildings on the Southeast corner so I assume this is in December. The railroad overpass is still seen in the distance.


15th and S. Boston looking East in September 2009.

The service station and other businesses on the north side of 15th Street have all disappeared and a parking lot for a new medical clinic are in their place. On the southeast corner the same buildings are in place, now housing The Gadget Company and Mrs. De Haven's Flower Shop. The flower shop claims to have been business since 1905, although I rather doubt at this same location. The railroad trestle is gone and an overpass for South Cincinnati crosses 15th in the near distance. The rail right-of-way is now a bicycle path that runs to the pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas river.

The only things that appear in all 3 pictures are the southeast corner building that's now the Gadget Company, the small building beyond it, and a pair of manhole covers on this side of the street.

Sipes Grocery / Camille's, 1948

1342 East 15th Street

This was one of several Sipes stores in Tulsa. I don't have the date it was built but this photograph was taken in 1948. Although the Sipes stores were bought by Hale-Halsell in 1955, they continued to operate under the Sipes name for a number of years. The design is clearly along the lines of the Streamline Modern Art Deco. (photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)



The Remodeled building is now one of the 6 Tulsa locations for Camille's Sidewalk Cafe.


The store is large enough to house more than a coffee and sandwich shop. The remodeled structure makes up the Cherry Street Market and is looking for additional tenants.

Oak Lawn Cemetery Gates, 1930

1120 East 8th Street

The Oak Lawn Cemetery gates are listed as art deco treasures by Wikipedia but there is no information about the designer. Neither is it clear where they are located. Oak Lawn Cemetery is north and west of the intersection of East 11th Street and South Peoria Avenue. The gates are on the north side of the cemetery where the American Legion Post One is located. The address given here is that of the American Legion. Go north of 11th Street on Peoria and turn left (west) on 8th Street to the American Legion and look back south to the gates. If you go a little farther to the end of 8th street you will be at the Fire Alarm Building.


The gates are striking in their design. They have a "Frank Lloyd Wright"ish look about them that is clearly of an art deco influence. They are in good repair. When I first went to look at them a month ago they were being tuck pointed. I would like to know more about them and hope that a reader can add to the discussion.

Claude's / Van's Hamburgers, 1950

3834 South Peoria Avenue
(photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)


Claude's old fashioned hamburgers may boast that they have been in business since 1954, but before it was Claude's it was Van's. For a time there were several Van's hamburgers in Tulsa. Van's is long gone but Claude's still grills them up and serves them with that little dab of grease on the bun from being warmed up on the griddle. Just like they used to make.

Belleview/Lincoln Elementary School, 1909

1330 East 15th Street

Built in 1909, Bellview School sits at the northwest corner of the Swan Lake Historic District. Until its closing in 1990, this elementary school was the oldest operational school in the city of Tulsa. (photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)


Originally named Bellview, the name was changed to Lincoln in 1914. The original three-story building was built outside the city limits and had no running water or rest room facilities. Perimeter buildings were added between 1916 and 1922. Patio areas originally extended off each classroom. These were later enclosed to make hallways. The bell tower in the original building was taken down in 1967 after being struck by lightning. (Post card from Familyoldphotos.com)



The west side is The Gray Snail Saloon.

Notable graduates of Lincoln Elementary School include Tony Randall (known to his classmates as A. Leonard Rosenberg), Bill "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, and Moscelyne Larkin, co-founder of Tulsa Ballet Theater.


The entrance on the south (back) side still has the Lincoln school name.

The old school was converted into a retail/office complex in 1993 and renamed Lincoln Plaza on Cherry Street. A groundbreaking was held on July 9, 1993 by the developers, Orcutt Development Company (named in honor of the area’s founders). Architect Michael Dwyer developed the plans for the new center."


The north side faces Cherry Street and is Jason's Deli.

Today, Lincoln Plaza's shops and restaurants remain a busy and lively focal point of the neighborhood, enjoyed by people from all over the greater Tulsa area. This is also the site of the Cherry Street Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings from April to October. (Excerpted from Tulsa Preservation Commission)

Booker T. Washington High School, 1913

507 E. Easton Street

Legally segregated schools for African-American students began shortly after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. In 1908, a two-room frame school building was constructed on Hartford Avenue between East Cameron and East Easton Streets. The small school served grades 1 through 8. In the fall of 1913, Dunbar Grade School began operation in an eighteen-room brick building and a two-room frame building located at 326 N. Hartford Avenue. That first year’s enrollment included 241 lower grade students and 7 high school students. That same year the original Booker T. Washington High School was constructed. Its four-room frame building, designed by Leon B. Senter, was located at 507 E. Easton Street. Its first principal was E. W. Woods. This is now the center of the OSU Tulsa campus just north of Greenwood and Archer.


507 E. Easton Street

As Tulsa grew the four-room school soon became inadequate. A larger 3 story brick school was built on the same location in 1920 which served Tulsa's African-American community until 1960.


Booker T. Washington High School number two.



1631 East Woodrow Place

The third Booker T. Washington High School at 1631 East Woodrow Place began serving students in 1958. The first class to graduate from this school was the class of 1961.

The Tulsa Public Schools district was slow to react to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that de jure racial segregation was unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed all racial segregation in the United States. However, in 1973 Booker T. Washington was chosen to be the vehicle for Tulsa's school desegregation program. At that time in Tulsa, most Caucasians lived in south Tulsa, whereas most African Americans lived in north Tulsa. As Booker T. Washington was built during American Segregation, it was in north Tulsa. The Tulsa School Board chose to bus in primarily Caucasian students who did not live near the neighborhood that Booker T. Washington had served, while continuing to accept students who lived near the school. This method was used by several school districts, and is called desegregation busing.



Although a fourth Booker T Washington High School was built in 2003, the front section of the previous school was retained for its historical significance.

After 1973, Booker T. Washington became a magnet school; it no longer had a home neighborhood from which students were accepted, instead, students had to apply for admission to the school and came from all over Tulsa. A racial quota system was established; until the 2004-2005 school year, 45% of the students accepted identified themselves as "white," 45% identified themselves as "black," and 10% came from "other" ethnic categories. However, because of the 2003 Supreme Court Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger decisions Booker T. Washington was forced to accept students using a different method. The school now uses a system that accounts for the geographical location in which a student resides. Because Tulsa remains rather segregated, this method maintains the ethnic diversity created by the old quota system.


Today, the student body of Booker T. Washington boasts championship basketball, football, and soccer teams, a nationally ranked academic bowl team, a physics team, a nationally competing science bowl team, a robotics team, a forensics team, and a competitive cheerleading team. Booker T. Washington was the first Tulsa Public High School to offer Advanced Placement courses and began offering the International Baccalaureate in 1983. The 2003-2004 school year marked the 90th anniversary of Booker T. Washington and the dedication of a new school building.



Booker T. Washington High School’s new 213,000-square-foot building was completed in the fall of 2003, as the school began its 90th year. The new high school is an unique achievement; a state-of-the-art, expansive, and technology-rich facility that also celebrates a distinctive heritage within the Tulsa community. The top public high school in Oklahoma, Booker T. Washington is also one of the top-rated schools in the nation. The 1,250-student school is considered a cornerstone of north Tulsa’s African-American community: it began as a one-room segregated schoolhouse in 1913, and in 1973 it served as a model for Tulsa Public Schools’ voluntary desegregation program.
(photos courtesy of Robert Hicks and the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society) (Excerpted from Wikipedia and Tulsa Preservation Commission)

The Abundant Life Building,1957

1720 South Boulder Avenue

The Abundant Life Building was built in 1957 to house the Oral Roberts Ministries. It is very striking in its appearance because it has no windows. To make sense of the building requires at least a brief understanding of Oral Roberts.

Oral Roberts is an pentecostal minister and faith healer. He started his ministry as a pastor in the Pentecostal Holiness Church. He came to believe he had a special gift for spiritual healing. In April 1947, he began holding healing services in his church on Sunday afternoons. His reputation as a faith healer spread quickly and by May, the crowds were so large that he had to rent larger facilities. In June, he announced to his congregation that he had received invitations to conduct healing services in eight states and had decided to resign his pastorate. In 1949, he began a series of radio programs. By 1950, he was traveling the country with an 18,000-seat tent simultaneous broadcast on 63 stations. Within two years, his radio and television programs were being broadcast on 400 stations in the United States, Canada, Alaska and by short-wave to listeners around the world.

At the time the Abundant Life building was built Oral Roberts was raising literally millions of dollars through his traveling tent meetings and from radio and television solicitations. The name "Abundant Life" is a reference to the passage from the Gospel of John 10:10, "... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly". This and other scriptural references are the basis of what is called "the gospel of prosperity" His life and ministry have been the subject of considerable controversy. He is regarded by some as a prophet and by others a fraud. Nevertheless, he and his ministry have prospered.

The Abundant Life building was the headquarters of this ministry and contained a large television sound stage which could simulate the tent meeting and film the opening and closing segments of the weekly broadcasts. This was also the destination for the large donations which supported the ministry. Much of this money was sent in the form of cash donations and the security considerations of handling and accounting for this money were implemented within this building.

The scale of donations provided for the establishment of a a Christian university which Roberts named for himself. In 1964 Oral Roberts University was opened on South Lewis. By the mid-70s the activities of the Abundant Life Building were transferred to the university and the original building was closed.

Southwestern Bell telephone used it for a time then but since the early 1980s it has been empty. It has changed hands several times but attempts to convert it into a multi-use facility have not gone anywhere. It remains empty at this time. For more on this see this post in Lost Tulsa.



The windowless facade looked very striking when illuminated at night.


This photo taken in July 2009 shows it looking rather shabby with several missing exterior tiles. I know of no one who has seen the inside. It is something of a mystery.

A fairly concise biography of Oral Roberts and his ministry is HERE.
A Wikipedia article on Roberts is HERE.

Cherry Street at Peoria: 1924, 1959, 2009

East 15th Street and South Peoria, "Cherry Street"

Looking north on Peoria from Cherry Street (15th) circa 1924. On the far right is what is now (2009) the Palace Cafe. Next to it is a lower building and then the Alhambra Theater which was remodeled as the Plaza in 1930. The 3 story apartment building in the distance is still there.

In its early days the Tulsa Little Theater performed plays at the Alhambra Theater. The smaller building is still there but the Alhambra Theater is now a parking lot. (Photo courtesy of the Tulsa Historical Society.)


The photo above reveals that this was still known as the Alhambra area in 1959 when this picture was taken. I know this has been the location of a number of businesses over the years. I bought a pair of stained glass panels here in the early 1970s when it was an antique shop. (photo courtesy of Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society)


This most recent reincarnation is as the "Palace Cafe, Nouveau Cusine" and the "Wood-Stone Studio". The building has a nice fresh coat of paint and looks good. We wish them luck.

The restaurant has a nice web site where you can look over their menu. Any place that has a Lobster Corndog as an appetizer has to be interesting. Sue and I will have to look into this. See their web site HERE.