Tulsa People: Renaissance Woman

One Family- One House- One Hundred Years

Part I: Rosemont Heights Rosemont Heights was one of the earliest divisions or ‘additions’ of land that was graded, platted with lots for sale in what is now as the Renaissance Neighborhood. It was platted in 1911. Originally Muscogee Creek land, it was allotted to Mary Jane Perryman in the early 1900's. Mary Jane would have been about 17 years old in 1911. She had married young and by 1911 she and her first husband, John Robert Harkness, already had three children. It would be very interesting to know how much she was paid for the property when purchased by a Mr. John P. Given. According to her niece, Wavel Ashbaugh, interviewed in 2015 by Voices of Oklahoma, Native people were often taken advantage of with complex land contracts and white settlers"...didn't pay very much for it...". The present-day boundaries of Rosemont Heights are Delaware Avenue to South Florence Avenue and Thirteenth Street to Fifte...

O.U.R. Streetcar: The Trolley that Ran Through Renaissance

1911 Tulsa Postcard Courtesy of Tulsa Historical Society. Used with Permission. Tulsa’s transportation system has evolved from horse-drawn wagons and buggies to streetcars, jitneys, automobiles, electric bicycles, and scooters. (“Jitney” was slang for a five cent piece. Small buses that carried people for 5 cents a ride became known as jitneys.) From 1905 through 1935 an electric double rail trolley system wound through the city carrying hundreds of Tulsans to work, shopping, recreation and back home again. This is a short history of the Tulsa streetcar system, including one line that ran through present day Renaissance. Before the introduction of the trolley in 1905, horse-drawn vehicles were the primary mode of transportation. Tulsa's horses were well accustomed to the unpaved, dusty, and sometimes mud-filled roads. Hitching posts in front of homes and businesses were common at the time. In November 1905, Tulsa Mayor C. L. Reeder...

Tiny Cottage on Columbia Avenue

I’ve been on a personal quest to try to find out if and where Addie Perryman lived on her land. Several sources say that she raised her family on her allotment land, but US Census Records place her in rented homes near, but not on her land. One very old tiny cottage, located at 1302 S. Columbia Avenue, has been rumored to be “the original farm house” for the entire area so I wanted to investigate if this could have been Addie's home. I was able to contact the owner who shared some information and permitted me to check out the property abstract. I’ll jump to the punch line. Addie Perryman never lived there. But! Some interesting people with important history owned the property in years gone by. ...

The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

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