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THE E. W. MARLAND MANSION AND ESTATE
By Denise Browning*
In June, 1928, Ernest Whitworth Marland's new mansion northeast of
Ponca City, Oklahoma, was completed. To celebrate the occasion, he sent
out ninety-five invitations to children of the members of his polo club. They
were met at the west gate by pony drawn hayracks to escort them into the
300 acre game preserve in which his mansion was located. There they en-
joyed a picnic, a dog show and swimming in Marland's Olympic-size swim-
ming pool. As they left, Marland presented each child with a silver loving
cup memento with his name engraved on it.1
On the 300 acre game preserve, in addition to the mansion-known orig-
inally as Marland's Lodge-were the gate house, administration building,
swimming pool, caretaker's house, stables and a dog kennel. This was only
part of the 2,500 acres set aside by Marland as an extensive recreational area
for the people of Ponca City. By 1928 the following were already built and
maintained by Marland for public use: a landscaped golf course, attractive
floral gardens, three polo fields and recreational tracts for his company
employees.2
Three sides of his game preserve were planted with several varieties of
roses which had grown to completely cover the existing wire fence, thus
creating two miles of beautiful rose hedges. These were to be part of a six
mile entrance to the mansion around two sections of land which was to
be called Sunbonnet Drive. Within this area, Marland planned to create
an English-type village housing approximately 400 managers and em-
ployees of the estate and their families. The village would have all modern
conveniences: city water, sewage, electricity, paved roads and every pos-
sible comfort. While Marland's game preserve was being planned and
developed, he lived in an elaborate house in the heart of Ponca City at 1ooo
East Grand Avenue, a location presently used as the Ponca City Cultural
Center and Indian Museum. His first mansion was to be turned over to a
Catholic order for use as a vacation home for a period of three years.3
* The author, a resident of Ponca City, recently completed the Master of Arts degree in
history at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. This article was prepared in the
research seminar of LeRoy H. Fischer, Oppenheim Regents Professor of History. Special appre-
ciation is extended to Mrs. John Duncan Forsyth of Tulsa for her able assistance and to Mr. Ray
Falconer of Ponca City for generously providing the illustrations.
1 Invitation from Ernest W. Marland to Roy Stephenson, Jr., Ponca City Public Library,
Ponca City, Oklahoma; William R. Brown Speech to the Ponca City, Oklahoma, Rotary Club,
January 16, 1967, Ponca City Public Library.
2 Ponca City News (Ponca City), June io, 1928.
3 Ibid.
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