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    Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium
    Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium
    Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium
    Ebook188 pages52 minutes

    Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium

    By Terry L. Griffith and Mayor Kirk Humphreys

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    About this ebook

    Since this wild frontier land was settled at the bang of a gun one April morning, Oklahoma City has grown rapidly, experiencing some of the most drastic changes of all over the past century. Many of the photographs in this new volume show construction and
    development as the city began to truly prosper downtown skyscrapers and modern highways, museums such as the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Kirkpatrick Planetarium, and major plants operated by General
    Motors and Dayton Tire & Rubber Company. Recent images highlight celebrations, including high school football games, outings to Bricktown and Myriad Botanical Gardens, and finally, Opening Night 2000.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 23, 2000
    ISBN9781439628133
    Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium
    Author

    Terry L. Griffith

    The insightful narration of local historian Terry L. Griffith breathes new life into Oklahoma City��s fascinating firsts, featuring many photographs that have never been published before. The area��s unique and vibrant past, as chronicled in this book, is sure to entertain and inform longtime residents and visitors alike.

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      Book preview

      Oklahoma City - Terry L. Griffith

      ago.

      INTRODUCTION

      As I write these thoughts, we have just embarked on a new century and a new millennium. We look back on the past 100 years and marvel at the change. We look forward to the next century with expectation and hope, and wonder at the changes to come.

      In 1907, months before Oklahoma joined the Union as the 46th state, my grandmother moved to the Oklahoma Territory with her family. She was a young girl, about the same age as my daughter is today. They arrived from Tennessee on a train; their common mode of transportation was a horse-drawn wagon. They came in search of free land, settling in the Big Pasture area of southwestern Oklahoma. They also came in search of opportunity, dreaming of a better life for themselves and their children. My grandmother has lived in Oklahoma ever since and has realized her dreams of opportunity and a better life. She is a survivor. Widowed at the age of 30 with six children, she made it through the Depression years by farming, driving a school bus, and taking in boarders. Five of her six children earned degrees from the University of Oklahoma; the sixth left college to defend our country in World War II and returned a decorated war hero.

      Terry Griffith’s work is important because it helps us remember and understand our rich heritage. We are the descendants of pioneers who came here with nothing but hope and an opportunity for a better day. We have overcome the booms and busts of the oil field, the ruin of the Dust Bowl, the economic ravages of the Great Depression, and, in recent years, the hatred of domestic terrorism. Like my grandmother, the people of Oklahoma City are survivors.

      As we move into the 21st century, Oklahoma City is gaining national attention for its renaissance. The MAPS Projects have spurred a billion-dollar investment by the public and private sectors, injecting new energy into our downtown. There is a renewed appreciation for the historic, with buildings being restored and long-neglected commercial districts and neighborhoods coming to life again. Bricktown, a century-old warehouse district, is a center of life in the city, sporting a new ballpark, a mile-long canal, and dozens of dining and entertainment venues.

      Terry Griffith has put together a wonderful photographic tour of our city’s history. I think I’ll get a tall lemonade, sit back, and enjoy it—I hope you’ll join me.

      Gratefully,

      Kirk Humphreys

      Mayor of Oklahoma City

      January 3, 2000

      One

      THE 1930S

      For the residents of Oklahoma City, January 1930 saw the most prolonged ice and snow condition in city history, with temperatures below zero and little relief for six weeks. The average temperature for that first month was 23.3 degrees. The city saw $43.5 million in construction permits and another $8 million in railroad revenues. By autumn, underground long distance cables were laid between the city and Tulsa and Dallas. The second local radio station, KFJF, went on the air in October 1932 as KOMA, operating out of the Biltmore Hotel. On July 22, 1933, George Machine Gun Kelly kidnapped oilman Charles F. Urshal from his house at 327 Northwest Eighteenth Street. By 1934, the Harbour-Longmire became the second largest furniture store in the nation. Carl C. Magee brought national attention to the city with the invention of the Park-O-Meter, in 1935.

      The last tie the city had with the War Between the States occurred in 1936 with the death of Colonel R.A. Sneed, Confederate States of America. In early 1937, the $650,000 Civic Center was completed and Kerr Drygoods Company put in its Uptown Store. The city’s first iron lung went into use in 1938. The device was delivered to area hospitals by the fire department while R.A. Young opened the first TG&Y Store on Northwest Twenty-third Street in 1939. The end on the ’30s passed quietly with Mayor Robert A. Hefner at the helm.

      MONKEY ISLAND, C. 1930. Constructed by the WPA, Monkey Island was one of the more popular attractions at the Oklahoma City Zoo. The simulated shipwreck offered a playground for the monkeys, whose antics and comical acrobatics were a constant delight to all visitors. (Griffith Archives.)

      OIL. After the discovery of Oklahoma City No. 1, the Oklahoma City fields were no longer a dream. Oilmen flocked into the city from throughout the United States. The first wells were sunk directly into the oil-bearing pools, but as the oilmen moved outward from well No. 1, they ran into nonproductive regions.

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