The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

In the fall of 1939 Hitler invaded Poland from the west and, two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany.  December 7th, 1941, Japanese forces attacked U.S. navel bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  World War II was in full swing.   According to several of elderly residents of the Renaissance Neighborhood, a strong sense of coming together, solidarity and community was present during this time.  One resident who has lived in the neighborhood 86 years, told of a victory garden built on the site where this home on Gary Avenue.   Reportedly, a child psychologist who lived in the neighborhood sought and obtained permission to use the land for a garden.  With her guidance neighborhood children tended the garden.  The activity served to keep neighborhood children busy and promoted a useful, helpful feeling for them during the early, uncertain days of war.   Authors Note:   The Tulsa County Tax assessor reports that this home on Gary Avenue was built in 1940.  However,  we don'

Remember “Daddy Tom” Sherry from the two story building on 11th and Atlanta Place? His son, Ray Sherry, was a police officer who married Beth Shirley. Beth Shirley became Beth Sherry. Ray ended up passing away in the front bedroom of their home. The unusual part about it was… they had a heck of a time getting to ‘ol Ray because his bulldog didn’t want to let anyone near him! After her husband passed away, Beth (Shirley) Sherry continued to live in the home and built garage apartments for her two brothers, Bill and Joe. Bill and Joe were real cowboys that had worked on the 101 Ranch. The 101 Ranch was a 110,000 acre ranch east of present day Ponca City. They had lived most of their life there but got too old and couldn’t cowboy. So, they would sharpen lawnmowers, this that and the other…in a little shop out in the back. The kids in the neighborhood would go down there and pester them and they’d show them rope tricks and all that kind of stuff…because they were real cowboy

“Daddy Tom” Sherry built the two-story brick building on the southeast corner of Eleventh Street and Atlanta Place in 1928. The first floor held a grocery store and there were four apartments upstairs. When Daddy Tom died, the Sipes rented the building and ran the Sipes Grocery on the first floor. During World War II, the building was transformed into a school that taught riveting. From there, riveters went to work for McDonnell Douglass. Other establishments in the building over the years included a Jewish Synagogue and a secretarial/office management business.  Today, the building is owned by BAMA Company and serves as a wellness center for their employees. References: Holderman, J. (2019, October 5). Personal interview. Also present were C. Holderman and P. Casey Morgan. Jones, L. (June 24, 2016) BAMA Companies invests in its people through employee wellness. Tulsa World. Retrieved from https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/bama-companies-invests-in-its-people-through-emp

Mr. Ed Wright lived in the Renaissance Neighborhood in this house: He owned and operated the Ed Wright Tire Company on Fifteenth Street and Florence Place, just south of Route 66. According to a book called Portrait of Route 66: Images from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives , Mr. Wright was well known around town for his “homespun, zany” radio advertisements. His establishment fixed flats, installed new fuel storage tanks and pumps and sold gasoline and new tires.  Mr. Wright snapped a picture of his service station and had six thousand black-and-white postcards printed up in 1950. In later years, he and his wife, Mamie, opened a dude ranch south of Tulsa which served disadvantaged Tulsa youths. Mr. Wright was also instrumental in the founding of Snug Harbor on Fort Gibson Lake, where he boasted “the largest fishing dock in the world.” Photograph from Curt Teich Postcard Archives.      Photograph by A. Mueller, 10/26/2019. References: Baker, Lindsay T