The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

The house that originally sat on this lot was owned by Grandma and Grandpa Waldrep.  They owned and operated the Waldrep Candy Company.  Kids in the neighborhood never missed trick-or-treating at their house…they gave out big chunks of fudge at Halloween.    A fellow blogger wrote about them here:  http://www.tulsagal.net/2010/06/candy-man.html .  Check out the post and see the Waldrep Candy Company Building on 3rd Street that still stands. Here are few pictures of the Candy Company from the Tulsa Historical Society Archives.  Also- the Tulsa Historical Society has the candy tin pictured below on display.   References:   Holderman, J. (2019, October 5). Personal interview.  Also present were C. Holderman and P. Casey Morgan. Tulsa Gal.  (June 14, 2019).  Retrieved from:  http://www.tulsagal.net/2010/06/candy-man.html

Obituary of a house.   By P. Casey Morgan My friend, Arena Mueller, writes house histories – intriguing stories that include past residents , original owners of the land, years of construction, unusual features and vintage fixtures . She weaves tales of candy store proprietors and brothel owners , of soldiers and bootleggers, of schoolteachers and juvenile delinquents. The ordinary looking house you drive by every day suddenly looks mysterious when you read descriptions of the locked drugstore safe in the basement or the 1940s time capsule found in the chimney by the current owners. She makes these places come alive.  This is a story about a house that is dead.  When I was growing up, my parents read both newspapers every day – The Tulsa World in the morning and The Tulsa Tribune in the evening. One August night when I was fifteen, my father (who usually read the paper without comment), said, “Hey! Honey, look – it’s our old house on Rosedale.” Mom and I lea...

  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.