The Shoefstall family was one of the first families to settle along Eleventh Street in what is now the Renaissance Neighborhood. They lived just east of the corner of Eleventh Street and Lewis Avenue at 2516 E. Eleventh Street. (About where O’Reilly Auto Parts sits today.) According to those that knew him, Mr. William "Bill" Shoefstall was a very fine person. He and his wife, Beulah, had four children, Bill Jr., Eddie, Anna Mae and Alice. Mr. Shoefstall worked as machinist. When his two boys were old enough, they contributed to the family income. Bill Jr. worked as a shipping clerk and Eddie as a grocery clerk. Alice Shoefstall Anna Mae Shoefstall Mr. Shoefstall spent evenings, with a few other neighborhood men, hauling and shoveling gravel by hand to build the alley that ran behind his home. Unless you have lived in a big city, crowded with buildings and homes, you may not fully appreciate the utility of an alley. Back alley ways allow f...
The Renaissance Neighborhood is defined by 11th Street on the North, 15th Street on the South, Lewis Avenue on the West and Harvard Avenue on the East. This is the heart of midtown Tulsa.