The Secret in the Wall

Linda and Yul 

Tudor Revival ~ 2378 sq feet 

3 Bedroom/2 Bath

Full basement/Multi-level attic 

Owners Interviewed on January 12, 2019

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Is there a particular home in the neighborhood that catches your eye or sparks your curiosity? I asked many friends and neighbors this question and several mentioned our featured home. 

Standing out on a double-corner lot, the large Tudor revival has a sweeping roof line, large recessed dormer window, and covered porch. 

The third owner, Mary Kingsolver Millard, was the longest owner of the property: 1965 to 2013. Many neighbors remember the bear statue that she kept on the front porch and decorated for every holiday. The bear was carved by Claremore chainsaw artist Clayton Coss.

 Also by Coss, a carved eagle is forever perched on an old cedar tree on the Northeast part of the property.

Linda and Yul are the fourth and current owners of the home. They were also attracted to the house over the years. One day when Linda was at a yard sale nearby, she noticed a small sign on the gate that said "For Sale by Owner" with an email address. Although they bought the home in May 2012, the sale was not final until March 2013. The purchase was complicated by a guardianship and had to go through probate. Once they finally owned the home, they started in with some projects. While working in the attic one day, near what was the kitchen chimney, Yul noticed a little hole with a pipe running through. Peering down the hole, he thought he saw something at the bottom. He explained, “I got a flashlight and looked down, and way down I see a can. A green and white can just sitting there. And I thought: hmmm, that’s a strange place to store a can. I’m thinking there's a story there. But I couldn’t fish it out. I knew one day we could get to it.”

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Before we go any further, we need to talk about the architect of the home, Joseph R. Koberling Jr. He is an important Tulsa architect who practiced between 1929 and 1956. (Incidentally, we talked about Koberling's father when we visited the Tulsa Cave House here.) Hungarian born, he emigrated to the U.S. in his teens and graduated from Tulsa Central High School. He completed his training in Chicago at what would become the Illinois Institute of Technology before returning to practice in Tulsa. He is responsible for both commercial and residential designs, many with an art deco style. Some of his notable work includes Nathan Hale and Will Rogers High Schools. Koberling spoke about his approach to Will Rogers High School:

We felt that it should be a worthy tribute and memorial to a man everyone loved so well…It seemed to us, that the building should be monumental in character. However, because it was a school, it should not be a somber type of monumental memorial…Rather it should be alive and joyous in character, not only reflecting his own outlook on life, but also the spirit and aspirations of the generations of young men and women who were to use this structure as a place of learning and training to become useful citizens throughout the coming years. 

Will Rogers High School:  Photograph- Beryl Ford Collection

Other notable works in Tulsa by Koberling include the downtown Tulsa City Library, the City Veterinary Hospital on Peoria, and the Public Service Company Buildingon the Southwest corner of 6th Street and Main Street. The Public Service Company Building has unique exterior illumination from chevron-shaped sconces that cast light up and down the building. Also, once known as the Transok Building, he also designed the Art Deco Lofts and Apartments. 

Public Service Building Downtown Tulsa: Photograph- A. Mueller

In 1934, a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Paul R. Trees, commissioned Mr. Koberling to design a home for their small, but growing family.

Norma Opal (McVay) and Paul R. Trees

Mr. Trees worked as a wholesale paper salesman for Tulsa Paper Company which was located here. His salary was about $300 per month and he worked long hours, often as many as 60 per week. Below are several canceled checks from the Trees for the property and the house plans.

Checks from the Trees for payment on the property

Checks written to Mr. Koberling from the Trees

Detail of Koberling endorsement and deposit stamp

The home was likely constructed/completed in 1935 or 1936. The Trees took up residence when their daughter, Radine, was just six weeks old.

The home under construction- Looking Southwest

The home has a large covered front porch where the Trees would sometimes sleep on pallets during hot summer nights. As one enters the front door, there is a hall and a staircase to the left. The dining room is ahead. To the right of the front door, one steps down into the living room, where one experiences a feeling of both intimacy and openness. In architect terms, this is called the compression/expansion effect. In other words, the smaller space of the entryway opens up to a higher ceiling and lower floor in the living room. The living room has a beautiful bay window facing East and a large fireplace on the North wall. The rich wood trimmed mantel, picture rails and base boards are made of Philippine Mahogany, which was something to be proud of in the 1930s and today.

Paul and Norma Trees with their young daughter Radine

A young Radine with Christmas tree in front of the East facing bay window

A breakfast nook is nestled between the kitchen--that has its original cabinets--and dining room on the North side of the house. The details of the woodwork in the breakfast nook and kitchen cabinets can also be seen on the architectural blueprints.

Another original feature is the phone nook to the right of the front door. Linda and Yul have the actual phone that the Trees installed in the 30s.

Built in phone nook to the left the front door

The second floor is a master bedroom/bath and walk-in access to the large attic space. There is about 1500-1600 square feet of open attic space on two levels. 

The home also has a large basement that played an important role in the daily life of the Trees in the 1930s and beyond. Because the basement was cooler, the children often played there in the summer. There was a gas stove in the basement where a pressure cooker sputtered away for hours canning tomatoes, beets, beans and other vegetables from the garden. There was a root cellar located under the living room for cool storage and preservation of root crops. In the hot summer evenings, Mr. Trees would use a hose to soak the brick on the South side of the house to help cool off the house.

Paul Trees planting a tree with his young daughter

Paul Trees built the brick and chain link fence that can be seen around the home today. He also planted several paper shell pecan trees and spent winter evenings shelling pecans in front of the fireplace. The Northwest part of the property had a tilled garden where the family grew a significant part of the their food. The Trees also raised chickens and had plenty of fresh eggs.

The home shortly after it was built

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As Linda and Yul continued to make progress on their projects, they put a new roof on the home and garage. They also took out the old kitchen chimney that ran from the basement to the attic. (They plan to install a dumbwaiter/laundry chute in the shaft.) Yul said, “We slowly took out all the brick and we finally got down to the level where I could reach in there and get that can.”

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In August of 1948, Paul and Norma Trees' daughter wrote a note and put it into a green and red candy tin. “This can was put in the wall of the house in which I have lived since I was 6 weeks old,” she wrote. “I am now 13.” 

She went on to describe herself, her parents and brother, and to list the subjects she was taking at Woodrow Wilson Junior High (now Mayo), as well as how she spent her time. 

She enclosed a stamp, several pennies--old and new--and a calendar page. The time capsule, she noted, was going into a hole in the plaster, which existed because of redecorating being done in the house. 

“I like to read mysteries,” she wrote at one point in the note. Earlier in the note, she proclaimed, “I am a girl and my name is Radine Trees.” 

Radine Trees Nehring grew up to be a successful mystery writer. Her eighth novel, “A Portrait to Die For,” published in 2016, centers around a possible crime at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. 

When Linda and Yul found the time capsule in the wall in March of 2016, they contacted Radine online and began an email correspondence with her. Radine, who has lived in Arkansas with her husband since 1988, was astonished and delighted to hear that the time capsule in the O’Brien’s Candies can had finally been unearthed, sixty-eight years after she had placed it into the hole in the kitchen wall. 

Through the email correspondence and a recent downsizing by another family member, a few pieces of furniture were returned to the house that had been there in Radine’s childhood. Pictures were exchanged of the house as it was then and as it is with current renovations (Most of the old pictures you have seen in this post.) Radine provided a great deal of information on original features of the house. 

The note from the past, hiding in the dark, its presence unknown for decades, holding clues to the house’s history – it’s as if the future writer created her first mystery with“The Secret in the Wall.”

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This post was written by A. Mueller & P. Casey Morgan.  If you would like to read the full text of the time capsule note, scroll to the end of the blog post.

Thank you

• Linda & Yul for opening their home and the history, story and correspondence with Radine Trees Nehring.
• Tom Neal of Tom Neal Design, Associate Member, American Institute of Architects for preserving the blueprints for the home and reviewing them for this post.
• P. Casey Morgan for editing
• Walter Foddis for editing

References
Dudley, K. April 28, 1999. Tulsa World. Retrieved from: https://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/blast-from-the-past/article_0ba95499-5f6c-5d45-8c4a-bb44da6332bb.html
Koberling, J. K. Jr. Obituary. June 10, 1990. Tulsa World. Retrieved from: https://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/retired-architect-koberling-dies-at/article_e5354c6c-ed54-53a2-8562-f74ab68b6183.htmlWikipedia contributors. (2019, January 24). Joseph R. Koberling Jr.. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:08, January 31, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_R._Koberling_Jr.&oldid=880017939

Nehring, R. T. Personal Correspondence. 2016.

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