The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

Part II: We return to the story of the American Foursquare, built about 1906 in downtown Tulsa.  If you didn't read Part I, you may want to check it out here first.  Part II of this epic tale will share how the Foursquare found a new home and a new family at 1212 S. Birmingham Avenue.   The Foursquare at a new address on Birmingham Avenue. Image shared by current owners. **** In the early 1920’s, houses were being moved out of downtown Tulsa and further east and south to burgeoning neighborhoods. Tulsa Democrat, March 1917 It must have been a remarkable sight to see a large house being jacked up and rolled along a carefully plotted route to a new site. A huge undertaking, not to mention dangerous! Newspapers of the day are filled with tragic accidents and mishaps related to moving houses. You can read a story about one of them Here .  Some up and coming neighborhoods didn't allow houses moved in from elsewhere and even  advertised that they didn’t allow ...

An American Foursquare is style of residential architecture popular from the mid 1890’s through the 1930’s.   Plain and box shaped, the style was an American response to the complicated, ornate, Victorian revival style popular during the last half of the 19 th Century.   Generally, the homes are 2-2 1/2 stories high with a hipped roof (A roof that peaks in the very center of the square) and dormer windows (windows that peak out from the roof).   The exteriors are usually frame with clapboard or shingles, but can also be brick or stucco.   Symmetrical windows, and a large front porch with supporting columns and wide stairs are prominent.   Inside, the rooms are square and the flow of space is sensible and economical, both to build and maintain.   First-floor dining rooms often feature a bay window to break up the boxy exterior.   Beautiful but functional woodwork such as pocket doors and built in bookcases are common.   Form and function find a ba...

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...