The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

  Oklahoma Historical Society:   Sod House Museum The Marshall McCully Sod House is Oklahoma’s only remaining sod home.  Built in 1894, the home is located in Alfalfa County in Aline - thirty miles west of Enid, Oklahoma. Marshall McCully poses in front of his sod home Marshall McCully took part in the land run in September of 1893, when the Cherokee Outlet opened for settlement.   After securing his homestead, McCully lived in a dugout on a creek bank while constructing the sod home using buffalo prairie earth blocks in August of 1894.  A team of horses pulled a sod plow and cut the earth into long rows.  A flat shovel was then used to cut the rows into 18 inch blocks.  The blocks were stacked like bricks to form walls, rafters were made with the timber and also covered with sod.  Finally, McCully plastered the interior of the two-room home with an alkali clay.  The McCully family lived in ...

Texas Circulation Managers Meeting:  L.E. Gillett, P. F. Fincher and L. W. McFetridge with a cigar. In 1913, twenty year-old Lyle W. McFetridge began what would become a lifelong career in the newspaper business. He started selling papers on the street downtown and then working in the mail room of the Tulsa World. He had four years under his belt when he was called to serve in the U.S. Army for World War I. In the spring of 1918, McFetridge deployed to France and served in the 141st Field Artillery Unit. He earned the rank of Corporal and returned home after Armistice Day on the Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month. McFetridge married Miss Mildred Lois Hughes on Christmas Eve of 1919. They started their life together at a home in the Riverview Neighborhood. In 1923, they purchased a lot in the new Pilcher-Summit Addition of Tulsa.  Recall from THIS post, the Pilcher-Summit Addition was established in 1920 and included the land between what is now Eleve...

The Signal Addition, where the property at hand is located, was established in 1923 by Miss Pearl May Alexander.   Miss Alexander was the daughter of Mr. C. P. Alexander, one of the largest property owners in Tulsa in the 20’s and 30’s.  He probably arranged for his daughter to have the property in her name since, according to the 1920 Census, she was 31 years of age and unmarried.    Mr. Jack Edmond Stegall bought a number of lots in the Signal Addition, possibly for development, but also, it turned out, for himself.    He purchased nearly the entire east side of Evanston Avenue between Twelfth  and Thirteenth  Streets. Jack Edmond Stegall Jack Stegall was one of those men who lived in the early 20 th century and blazed his own path.   According to his  granddaughter: “My grandad was a real self-made man. He was a cowboy, surveyed for the railroad, carpenter, house builder, cabinet maker and, most impressive, an antique clock hunter an...

  The Colonial on College has stood steady sentinel for almost one hundred years. The walls have sheltered college professors, an early Tulsa oil man and a real-life Lois Lane. The home has seen hopes and dreams come true, disappointments, sorrows and tragedy, rowdy celebrations and deep family bonds. But we, of course, must start even before the house was built, when College Avenue was part of assigned lands in Indian Territory. Mary Jane Perryman The history of the land on the east side of the Renaissance Neighborhood starts with Mary Jane Perryman. Dan and Mollie Pilcher The Pilchers were early Tulsa pioneers who acquired land from Mary Jane Perryman.  They developed the area where the College Colonial would eventually be built. According to their great-granddaughter: Dan and Mollie Pilcher were my great-grandparents. They moved to Tulsa from Pierce City, Missouri in 1901. I know he dealt in real estate, but don't know the details. One family story, unverified, was tha...