The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

  Written by a neighbor on our community facebook page which started a thread of sharing.  In order to further preserve this mosaic of memories- the History Project Blog will serve as keeper of the memories. ***** Just a thought. How about a piece of human history? Those of us old farts that have been here for however-many years (maybe 20/25 or so)? You know, our childhood/first/only home, why here, changes, old friends. Through a recent post, I've come to realize that I'm not the only one. PS- Every post needs an attention-getting photo so here's my house when I bought it in '85... I felt like Cinderella the first time I looked at it. And Impressions was right around the corner... Stella A. There's SO much that all of us can comment upon living in our old houses! For instance, -all of the rock on our house is from the Keystone Lake area. I've hauled tons of rock from around Keystone to do our gardens. The 'notch' on our chimney was empty. I carved a li...

A couple named Walt and Virginia Logan lived in the Renaissance Neighborhood at the house pictured above. They were very nice people and well liked by folks in the neighborhood.  Walt had a confection business called “Logan Concession Supply” at 326 E. 1st Street downtown. He was known for selling “Walt’s Awful Fresh Goobers,” (popcorn and hot peanuts) at high school ball games and at Skelly Stadium.  His wife, Virginia, was a school teacher. Logan owned a grouping of buildings on 1st Street between Detroit and Elgin Avenues in downtown Tulsa. His primary building held the main office and showroom. Another held the peanut roaster room and storage for some 40,000 pounds of peanuts. A third building was used to manufacture snow cone syrup and make caramel candy at Christmas time. Logan rented the upstairs of one his buildings to Ms. Pauline Lambert.  Her business operated out of the second floor from 1936 through 1979:  Tulsa's May Rooms. Pauline was a...

Juanita and Russell Bennett lived here.  The Bennetts were self taught musicians.  In the evenings when the weather was nice they'd be sitting with folks on the porch playing guitars.  And Juanita would be jig dancing.  References:  Holderman, J. (2019, October 5). Personal interview. Also present were C. Holderman and P. C. Morgan.

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.                                                                       ...

A lady named Ethel Iverson lived here with her two children. Her husband passed away in 1928 when her little boy was just two years old.  According to an article from The Oklahoma News she dealt with being swindled out of $2,020 worth of building and loan stock in 1938. She was, by all accounts frail and ‘stooped’ over as the years advanced.   She raised her two children by herself. Navigating the depression, being swindled and taken advantage of as a widow she persevered.  Ethel helped her children through school and saw that they both went to college. Her son became an engineer with John Zink.  References: Holderman, J. (2019, October 5). Personal interview. Also present were C. Holderman and P. C. Morgan. The Oklahoma News.  Widow charges bond swindle.  October 27, 2938.

Mr. George Ramsey built the two-story brick building that once occupied the Northwest corner of 15th and Delaware Avenue. The Renaissance Neighborhood sometimes called it the “Bead Merchant building.” Mr. Ramsey was born in Missouri in 1895 and was in Tulsa by the mid nineteen teens. He built the building and operated the Ramsey Market out of the first floor. It is believed that he also built and lived in the home directly North of the two-story building on Delaware Avenue (still there today).  The building contained a grocery through the 1950’s. Children attending Wilson School would stop along their way to and from school. From left to right: John Warren Holderman, George Ramsey and his sister, Safrona Ramsey Holderman.   Picture from private collection of John Holderman. Over the years the building housed a variety of businesses. These included a printing business, Rhodes Antiques and the Bead Merchant. The buildings to the west of the grocery, now torn...

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 th...