OF THE EARTH
Oklahoma Architectural History

EDITED BY

HOWARD L. MEREDITH

and

MARY ELLEN MEREDITH

Series Editor: Bob L. Blackburn

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma Historical Society
1980

OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

2100 North Lincoln Boulevard

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

Jack T. Conn, President

W. D. Finney, First Vice President

Q. B. Boydstun, Second Vice President

Mrs. George L. Bowman, Treasurer

H. Glenn Jordan, Executive Director

Bob L. Blackburn, Editor

Kenny A. Franks, Consulting Editor

Paul F. Lambert, Consulting Editor

THE COVER The painting of an Oklahoma Territorial house was done by Greg Burns, Oklahoma City artist who has painted or drawn over two thousand works, the majority of which were buildings. This work is the property of Robert Worthen of the Knight Service Corporation, with whose permission the reproduction is made.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79–90563

Copyright 1980 by the Oklahoma Historical Society
Manufactured in the United States of America

Second Printing 1996

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors wish to acknowledge the support of a number of people whose assistance and encouragement brought this work to publication as a part of The Oklahoma Series. Among these are: Mr. W. D. Finney, President of the Oklahoma Historical Society; Mr. H. Glenn Jordan, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Historical Society; Mrs. Robert Atkins of the Oklahoma Historical Society Library; Mr. Ralph McCalmont, President of the Logan County Historical Society; Mr. William Humphrey, President of the Pauls Valley Historical Society; Dr. Rollin Reimer, President of the Roger Mills County Historical Society; Mrs. Philip Viles, Board Member of the Cherokee National Historical Society; Dr. Kenny Franks and Dr. Bob Blackburn of the History Research Company of Oklahoma City, whose encouragement and timely efforts moved the Oklahoma Historical Society's publication program forward in a time of transition. Acknowledgment is made also of the early influence of Gayle Nunez Goddard.

Grant-in-aid assistance from the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior made this publication possible in part.

Thanks are also in order for Dr. Guy Logsdon of the University of Tulsa, Chairman of the Oklahoma Historic Preservation Review Commission, and especially Dr. Harry Deupree, former State Historic Preservation Officer, who has sacrificed time and health to preserve the heritage of the State of Oklahoma.

CONTRIBUTORS

MARTHA ROYCE BLAINE is Director of the Indian Archives Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

ARCHIBALD C. EDWARDS is Secretary-Treasurer of R. G. Edwards, Inc., and property manager since 1928.

ARN HENDERSON, AIA, is Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Oklahoma.

HARRY B. KELSO, JR., M. D., practices medicine in Galveston, Texas and is a professional photographer.

KATHRYN McKNIGHT is a Master's Degree candidate in Landscape Architecture at Oklahoma State University.

MOLLY S. MAYO is an archaeologist at the University of Oklahoma and Assistant Director of the Parris Mound Archaeology Project.

HOWARD L. MEREDITH is Dean of Instruction, Bacone College.

MARY ELLEN MEREDITH is Executive Director of Cookson Institute, Inc.

GUY R. MUTO is a former Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and was Director of the Parris Mound Archaeology Project.

MARY JO NELSON is a reporter and feature writer for the Oklahoma City Times.

BILL E. PEAVLER, AIA, is Senior Preservation Architect, Historic Preservation Office, Oklahoma Historical Society.

CHARLES L. ROHRBAUGH is a Ph.D. candidate in Archaeology at the University of Wisconsin.

MELVENA K. THURMAN is Architectural Historian, Historic Preservation Office, Oklahoma Historical Society.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Building Perspectives in Oklahoma

By Howard L. Meredith and Mary Ellen Meredith

The Prehistoric Architecture of Eastern Oklahoma

By Guy R. Muto, Molly S. Mayo, and Charles L. Rohrbaugh

North American Indian Structures in Oklahoma

By Martha Royce Blaine

The Soddy

By Melvena Thurman

Recollections of Oklahoma Vernacular Architecture

By Archibald Edwards

Oklahoma Architecture: A Pictorial Essay

By Harry B. Kelso, Jr.

Oklahoma Territorial Building Stone

By Howard L. Meredith and Mary Ellen Meredith

Joseph Foucart, Territorial Architect

By Arn Henderson, AIA

Solomon Layton: Architect

By Mary Jo Nelson

Bruce Goff's Riverside Music Studio

By Bill E. Peavler, AIA

People and Places in the History of Landscape Architecture in Oklahoma

By Kathryn McKnight

Suggested Readings

By Howard L. Meredith

Index

IN MEMORIAM

Paula McSpadden Love

Born: Chelsea, Cherokee Nation, 1901

Buried: Chelsea, Oklahoma, 1973

Eva M. Richardson

Born: Manor, Texas, 1896

Buried: Hammon, Oklahoma, 1975

BUILDING PERSPECTIVES IN OKLAHOMA

By Howard L. Meredith and Mary Ellen Meredith

In the Southwest, the interaction of civilizations has brought about unique adaptations to the physical environment. This phenomena is most pronounced in Oklahoma. Nowhere else in the world have more civilizations met and interacted in the formation of a heritage than here. The voluntary and forced immigration of peoples over the past 20,000 years into the area and their architectural response to this environment have brought about qualities of life and characteristics which are uniquely Oklahoman. Oklahoman in the sense, not of unity, but of diversities standing side by side to support a greater whole. For as each successive civilization's dominance faded before the intrusion of the next, the earlier civilizations did not melt away but have instead continued to add richness. They all have left their marks on Oklahoma and its architecture.

Although human life has existed in Oklahoma for thousands of years, structures or structural ruins date back only over a few centuries. In the period from approximately 2000 B.C. to 1300 A.D., changes in the population were reflected by changes in habitations. The cave and ledge shelters of the earlier inhabitants became the lowland villages of the larger, more secure groups. The earliest houses and monumental structures that remain are predominantly in Eastern Oklahoma. Significant concentrations are found in the Poteau River valley, the Arkansas River valley, and the Red River valley. The Habiúkut civilization flourished in the east between 700 A.D. and 1200 A.D. This civilization left an impressive building record for us. The Habiúkut constructed a number of urban areas which were population and ceremonial centers. Each center was dominated by large temple mounds surrounded by other earthen structures and numerous well built houses. The world renowned Spiro Mound was one such center. Others such as Harlan and Parris were smaller regional centers which are only now being fully explored. The standards and style created by the Habiúkut people influenced civilizations throughout much of North America.

With the passage of time, events brought other peoples into the Oklahoma area. The Caddo and Wichita came to live, hunt, and trade in the southern portion of the region. The Pawnee moved into the north. The Quapaw and Osage were pushed from the north and settled in the eastern portions. The Apache people from the arid Southwest ventured out into the plains of the southwestern portion of the state. Each group had its own cultural heritage, language, and building techniques.

In the more recent period, other Indian nations migrated or were forced into Oklahoma bringing their own complex heritage—Arapaho, Cheyenne, Fox, Kaw, Kickapoo, Miami, Potawatomie, Shawnee, Sac, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, Seneca, Wyandot, Modoc, Yuchi, Missouri, Ponca, Iowa, Comanche, Ute, Nez Percé, Kiowa, and Tonkawa, among others. Their impact on the area and its architecture occurred primarily in the nineteenth century during the height of the relocation and consolidation policy period of United States history. The great bulk of the buildings associated with these nations are in the territory of the Five Tribes in the eastern portion of the state. However, stone structures still exist in the western part of Oklahoma as well. The large public buildings in Indian Territory which show the influence of the Indian's association with European immigrants intermingle with a variety of single and multifamily structures built from many different materials in several different styles. These are fine examples of an attempt to bring beauty and grace to bear on the environmental demands of Oklahoma.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Indian civilizations were literally overrun by the great influx of Anglo-Americans who came to participate in the land runs and lotteries. Prior to this time, European movement had occurred sporadically since the sixteenth century, but now the American immigrants came to stay and dominate. The evolution of buildings was telescoped in Oklahoma Territory as never before in American history. In the same year, sod houses, log cabins, frame buildings, and brick and stone structures were constructed within riding distance of one another. In a very short time span, tent stores developed into frame and then brick or stone structures. The newly opened territory attracted immigrants from many nations—Africans, Asians, Mexicans, and Europeans of all sorts continue to come to Oklahoma and all add their flavor and make their mark on the state.

Now in Oklahoma many of these early buildings rich in architectural history are still standing and are still being used daily. Only the oldest structures, such as the Temple Mounds of the ninth and tenth centuries are museum pieces. All the rest form a living measure of current construction. Each brings the tension between material and aesthetic culture of the successive civilizations into a more critical focus.

Until very recently, Oklahoma has been so preoccupied with its self-image as a brand new state, an eternal fresh frontier, hard pressed to form unity among all its varying groups that it has not taken the time to appreciate its heritage—especially its architectural heritage. There is a sort of axiom of immigration which says that the first generation clings to the old country ways, the second generation repudiates the old ways, and the third generation values the old ways. Oklahoma, for the most part, is just now becoming a third generation state. The first generation sought to maintain its architectural heritage, bring it to bear on the environment. The second generation busily tore down and ignored the first generation's creations to find space for the new or covered up the old facades to emulate the latest look from the East or West Coast. But now, as Oklahomans are beginning to feel secure in the present, we are able to appreciate the difference of our past, to treasure its uniqueness and flamboyant heritage. Quite naturally, this awakened interest includes a growing awareness of the architectural past. This interest is reflected in a variety of preservation activities including the publication of several books on the subject. Among these are: Architecture in Oklahoma by Arn Henderson, Frank Parman, and Dortha Henderson (Norman: Point Rider Press, 1978) and Bartlesville, Rememberances of Times Past, Reflections of Today by Joe Williams (Bartlesville: TRW Reda Pump Division, 1978). A third book, on Tulsa's Art Deco Buildings, is presently being produced by the Junior League of Tulsa.

Because of its nature and location, Oklahoma has always been more eclectic than provincial. And even while people concerned themselves with knowing how to frame a barn so that it could stand the plain's winds, they were aware of the restrictions of judging architecture from a provincial point of view. Now, we are again coming to judge architecture within the framework of the civilization which created it against the universal standards. To study a provincial aspect of life, such as architecture, from a provincial point of view is restricting. Although earlier builders were preoccupied with utilitarian considerations of material and environment and purpose, from the very earliest times the buildings and structures which were made of this earth were copied because they stood up to these universal demands. So, now again, we should recover from our period of insecure imitations and judge and understand our architectural heritage on a universal scale. There are, after all, no substitutes for nobility, beauty, and wisdom.

THE PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA

By Guy R. Muto, Molly S. Mayo, and Charles L. Rohrbaugh

In eastern Oklahoma dynamic civilizations flourished between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries A.D. which produced an important segment of Oklahoma's architectural heritage. The remains of this architecture are understood only through the archaeological perspective. In eastern Oklahoma constraints placed upon the archaeologist by climate and poor conditions of preservation make concrete understanding difficult. One constraint encountered is that of reconstruction of a building and its structural elements. Since most prehistoric architects relied on wood and fiber, the humid climate and acid soils of eastern Oklahoma are less than ideal conditions for preservation. Reconstructions are based on patterns of post holes found in archaeological sites.

In rare instances when a structure burned, structural elements are present in a much degraded form. From evidence in a pile of burned rubble, the archaeologist must ascertain the difference between roof timbers, interior support posts, wall posts, rafters, stringers, and other structural elements of an unknown architectural style. To compound the problem, erosion, deflation, burrowing animals, agriculture, and other earthmoving factors have disturbed the context of most of Oklahoma's archaeological resources.

Another restraint in the study of prehistoric architecture is one which is central to anthropological study; that of the relationship of structure to function. The function of prehistoric structures is inferred from tool assemblages found in association and not on the basis of architectural style or form. There is no certain knowledge that architectural form varied with function. Also there is no certainty as to whether social status is reflected in architecture. Finally, in North America, the prehistoric inhabitants left no written records and did not (outside the Southwest) use mortar, cement, or durable plaster.

However, despite these constraints there is a sketchy picture of recent prehistoric architecture in eastern Oklahoma. At least two major classes of architecture existed, and an additional class exists to this day. They are: Domestic, Ceremonial, and Monumental. There is a developmental sequence in all three. Finally, there is enough information to present the first approximation of their structural detail. We can speculate about the number of occupants per dwelling, the activity loci in domestic structures, and the energy efficiency of heating mechanisms or thermal coefficient of native clay and silt walls.

Artist conception of the Lee Creek Ceremonial Center in eastern Oklahoma (Drawing by Fanny Dell).

The discussion presented here is chronologically oriented and presents a general summary of known architectural forms from the ninth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The early archaeological literature describes this as the Gibson and Fulton aspects of the Caddoan Tradition in Oklahoma. The more recent literature describes this as the Habiúkut period, which is composed of four phases. The Evans phase, which dates to sometime before the eighth century and extends in time to about the eleventh century is the earliest. Very little is known about this 300 year phase in eastern Oklahoman prehistory. It is defined on the basis of a pottery type which was produced primarily in south central Arkansas.

The first good architectural evidence in the prehistoric record comes from the Harlan phase which dates between the eleventh and the mid-thirteenth centuries. During Harlan phase times there is evidence of domestic, ceremonial, and monumental earthen architecture. During this phase regional civic/ceremonial centers became prominent in eastern Oklahoma. These early centers, in the southern Ozarks and Boston Mountains, provide the first glimpse of ceremonial and monumental earthen architecture in Oklahoma.

Domestic structures during this early time are of two types: round with no central roof supports and square with four central roof supports. The most frequently noted type is the square form which is probably a multifamily dwelling. They range in size from about thirteen feet on a side (169 square foot floor area) to thirty-five feet on a side (1,225 square foot floor area). The most frequent dimensions are twenty to twenty-two feet on a side yielding 400–500 square feet of interior floor space. These structures are located in community clusters of from three to twenty buildings, generally in a linear fashion, on the second or third terrace of the major streams and tributaries of eastern Oklahoma.

Construction of these early domestic structures is straightforward. The walls consist of vertical poles ten to fourteen feet long and eight to fourteen inches in diameter placed in individual holes in the ground. These vertical posts are on twelve to sixteen inch centers and form the primary structural element of the dwellings. The roof was supported in part by these posts as was the cane lathing which formed the wall. The roof was also partially supported by four large posts approximately twelve to eighteen inches in diameter, placed equidistant from the wall corners and the center of the structure. These four roof support posts were also placed in individual holes in the ground, up to three feet in depth, and must have been at least fifteen feet or more long.

The walls were plastered with clay rich silts, over a lathing of cane which may have been either vertically or horizontally lashed to the vertical wall posts. This prehistoric plastering technique, called wattle and daub, is known the world over and is in use in parts of rural Europe, Asia, and South America today. The clay rich silts are easily obtainable from the B horizons of the native soils in eastern Oklahoma, and are usually no more than one to three feet below the surface. The earth was moistened with water to the consistency of bread dough and applied to the outside of the house walls. This “plaster” varies in thickness from one to four inches and may have been “baked” by small fires around the exterior base of the house walls. We assume that the whole wall, from ground level to roof eaves, was plastered in this fashion; but only the basal portions fired to resist the erosive effects of wind, rain, and dripline spatter from the eaves.

To aid in weatherproofing the wall footings, these structures had an earthen embankment piled up against the wall to a depth of as much as two feet. This embankment extended out from the walls and tapered down to ground level at a distance of from three to four feet.

The main weatherproofing sub-structure, the roof, was the portion of these dwellings about which the least is known. It was supported by the walls and four large interior posts which were invariably the largest structural elements of the building. From this evidence we assume that it was a substantial sub-structure and from ethnographic evidence we presume it was probably of a hip roof design. Preservation of the vegetal elements is best in those structures which have burned, because charcoal is nearly impervious to decay. Split cane was used to tie the elements together, as (probably) was woven bark, grass, or rawhide. The covering of the roof was probably thatched native grasses tied in place. Experiments have shown that about an eighteen inch depth of grass will provide a waterproof roof. The grass, in the experimental structures, has been tied in bundles three to five inches in diameter and these bundles are as long as the stems naturally grow. The bundles are then tied to the roof as shingles; three to four overlapping layers are usually required.

Where there is evidence for building material the preference for wall and roof support posts appears to be cedar. Some pine is also represented. These trees have the labor saving advantage of growing straight trunks. Cedar, additionally, will last longer when buried in the ground.

Current evidence suggests that these early phase dwellings had only a single entrance. The entry was a short, arched, hallway between five and nine feet long. It was probably of the same construction materials as the house walls, though the vertical posts were usually of a smaller diameter. As yet there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that the structures or their entrances were oriented in any specific direction. There is a slight preference for the entryway to face toward the east or southeast. This may have social significance, or may merely reflect the direction of the local prevailing winds.

That these houses represented a considerable investment of time and effort in construction is attested to by the evidence for repair. The direct evidence is of two types and the indirect evidence of an inferential sort. Given the technology of eastern Oklahomans 1,000 years ago, with only stone, wood, or bone tools, and with only manpower as the motive labor force, the procurement of raw building materials was no mean task. Between 50 and 200 trees, ten to fourteen feet long and eight to fourteen inches in diameter had to be felled and trimmed with only a stone axe. Four large trees twelve to eighteen inches in diameter and at least fifteen feet long were also needed. Up to 100 post holes, of the proper diameter, to the proper depth, in a culturally or socially acceptable pattern were dug with wooden or bone-tipped digging sticks or a stone spade. Assuming an average thickness of three inches for the earthen plaster (daub), up to 300 cubic feet of clayey silts was procured. Additionally, grass for the roof, cane for the lathing, as well as binding material was gathered and prepared. Considering the above material needs plus construction time, we can infer that domestic residences were a considerable investment for these Habiúkut families.

In addition, the remains of many domestic structures indicate auxiliary post holes near the walls or near the roof support posts. These are interpreted as “repairs” to portions of the structure. In some instances a second row of post holes, parallel to a previous row, suggest that whole walls may have been rebuilt.

One labor saving variation in construction technique is noted in some instances. This technique is usually found in entryways and only occasionally in wall construction. A trench, rather than individual post holes, was dug and the posts positioned in this trench. This provided the labor saving advantage of reducing the precision necessary for post hole diameter and alignment. However, the technique had the structural disadvantage of providing less lateral support for upright posts. That this technique was used primarily for entryways, and occasionally for rebuilding or repair, suggests that this engineering shortcoming was known.

The internal arrangement and furnishings of domestic structures can be approximated by clusters of tools, implements, trash, pits, and small post holes. For instance clusters of broken pottery, milling stones, manos, and burned bone suggest a food preparation area. Clusters of flint chips, scrapers, and knives may suggest a hide working area. Alignments of small diameter post holes suggest partitions for specific activities such as food preparation or sleeping. Clusters of post holes suggest placement of benches, sleeping platforms, storage compartments, or other internal structures analogous to rooms, cupboards, closets, and chairs.

The central space in each domestic structure appears to have been a communal area, for this is where the fire was located. Fire pits (hearths) were circular holes in the earthen floor ranging in diameter from two to five feet depending upon house size. These pits were either depressions in the ground, three to eight inches deep, or elaborate twelve to eighteen inch deep clay lined fire basins up to forty inches or more in diameter. Central fires provided heat for cooking as well as warming the structure. Since there were also fire pits external to structures, we suppose that during the warm and humid summer of eastern Oklahoma, cooking and many other domestic activities were accomplished outside. In addition to fire pits, some domestic structures had other sub-surface pits which are presumed to have been food storage areas. Occasionally, in the larger structures, auxiliary hearths are indicated. The purpose of these features remains conjectural at this time.

Domestic structures appear to have changed architecturally between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This later style appears to have remained generally the same until around the sixteenth century. Chronologically this more recent part of the Habiúkut Period has been divided into two phases. The phase between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries is named the Spiro phase, after the famous Spiro site in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. The latest recognized phase in the Habiúkut Period extends from the fifteenth to approximately the middle of the sixteenth century and is termed the Fort Coffee phase, for a series of archaeological sites found near the historic fort of the same name in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. During the nearly four centuries after Harlan phase times it appears there occurred a population growth and consolidation in eastern Oklahoma. Increased ceremonialism took place at the Spiro locality and it became one of the major ceremonial centers in all of southeastern North America.

The architectural change during this period of cultural vitality can be measured along the four dimensions of shape, size, construction, and function. The shape changed from essentially square to rectangular with the very regular mathematical proportions of 17:22. Buildings decreased slightly in size, ranging from thirteen to twenty feet wide and from fifteen to twenty-two feet long. Usable floor area ranged from about 200 square feet to 560 square feet; the average was approximately 375 square feet. Although the basic construction methods of the earlier domestic structures continued, the details of the later structures are noticeably different. The post, wattle and daub methods remained, but the roof and its supports changed. Later houses had two central roof support posts on the mid-line of the long axis rather than four, and the roof design was probably based on a ridge pole rather than a single pitch hipped design. This design is a labor saving device and could reflect changes occurring culturally in population growth.

The earliest of the rectangular structures were directionally oriented with their long axis aligned east and west. Later rectangular structures do not show this rigid orientation to the cardinal directions. Again, the possibility exists that this was a domestic reflection of the changing societal impact of the ceremonial aspects shown at Spiro. Rectangular, as well as square structures, often had extended entryways located approximately mid-way along one of the longer walls. The post hole pattern, again, suggests that these entry halls were less substantial than the rest of the structure and were non-load bearing sub-structures.

Interior details are also noticeably different when compared to earlier domestic structures. The central fire pit was still a common feature, but interior partitions were more regular and patterned than in earlier houses. The common partition extended from the shorter walls, down the midline of the long axis, to the two central support posts. This had the effect of producing a “front room” adjacent to the entry portal and two “back rooms” at the rear quarters of the structure. A variety of this floor plan is also known, but much less common. The varient plan sub-divided the house on its short axis, which divided the domicile into two essentially square rooms; each with access to the entry portal and each with access to the central fire pit.

Rectangular style of construction during the early period of the Habiúkut Era (Drawing by Fanny Dell).

In summary, the domestic architecture of the Habiúkut Period relied on locally available construction materials and manual labor for construction. The basic structural elements remained the same for approximately 750 years, though size, shape, internal partitions, and roof design changed during the last 300 years of the Period. Concommitant with labor and engineering changes there was a noticeable change in the social organization in eastern Oklahoma, which was probably connected with the increased importance of the Spiro ceremonial center. The nature, magnitude, and direction of this change is currently only poorly understood, but current research is focusing on these problems of social dynamics and may add insight into the architectural aspects of the Period.

In eastern Oklahoma's Ozark and Boston Mountains, the Arcoma Basin, and parts of the Red River Valley a number of ceremonial centers were located. They first appeared about the beginning of the ninth century and initially seem to have been regional or sub-regional gathering points for local populations. By the eleventh century several regional centers gained importance and it appears that political and economic consolidation was underway. By the mid-thirteenth to the fifteenth century a real political, economic, religious, and ceremonial consolidation is indicated by the rise of the large civic/ceremonial center at Spiro and reduced activity at regional centers. The chronology for civic/ceremonial phases within the Habiúkut Period is essentially the same as for hamlets and villages of the domestic aspects of architecture.

The architecture of ceremonial structures, as well as the construction and engineering aspects, appears to have been identical to domestic buildings. However, several observations are pertinent at this point. The arrangement of structures at civic/ceremonial centers was around a central courtyard or plaza. This courtyard varied in size and shape from two to ten acres and the number of buildings at any one time ranged from four to seven. Buildings at early centers were primarily of the square variety and at later centers were primarily of the rectangular variety. That these buildings were located at places or loci of special significance is indicated by the extensive repair, reconstruction, and re-orientation which occurred. In some instances, such as the early Norman site in Wagoner County, at least four buildings were constructed one over the other. Internally, post patterns suggest a greater variety of partitioning than was found in domestic buildings. This suggests that “rooms,” “chapels,” or “sanctuaries” of different function may have been contained within these structures. Neither analysis nor speculation has indicated the specific activities which took place within the walls.

At some civic/ceremonial centers, extensive mortuary practices took place prior to burial or cremation. It has been reasoned that at least some of these buildings were specialized mortuaries or charnel houses where the honored dead were laid in state with death offerings until they were buried or cremated.

Some of these civic/ceremonial structures had extensive pavements or flooring of sandstone slabs, as at the Harlan site. Here too a combined rock and earth structure similar to an altar was associated with a ceremonial structure. Generally speaking, the major architectural difference between domestic and civic/ceremonial buildings was one of function, internal and external elaboration, position placement, and size.

By definition, monumental architecture is public, larger than life, awe inspiring, and enduring. Over 1,000 years ago in eastern Oklahoma, and in various parts of the mid-western and southeastern sections of North America, large public works projects produced a number of earthen, or earth and post structures which by any definition are monumental works of architecture. They have endured the centuries essentially in the form which their architects and engineers abandoned them. We have, in the past, tended to view them as something less than architecture, and have been less than precise by classifying them all as “mounds.” They have been treated as either elaborate foundations for special buildings or as mere earthen sarcophigi of the honored dead and their funeral furnitures. They have not been studied for the wealth of information they themselves can provide.

There is no question that these structures are mounds of earth, just as there is no question that the stone pyramids of Egypt or Mexico are pyramids. However, they are not only mounds of earth and pyramids of stone. They were designed, engineered, and constructed according to a cultural plan, which embodied social ideas and ideals. The architecture reflects both this plan and technological capabilities. The architecture was also modified, redesigned, and rebuilt periodically. In some instances, as at Spiro, Harlan, or in Lee's Creek in Sequoyah County, modifications included size, shape, and functional change.

Recent research at the Lee's Creek Ceremonial Center, one component of which is Parris Mound, has made initial attempts at understanding monumental earthen architecture. Although no broad area excavations were undertaken, and only a few tools were recovered, it is possible to make some statements about the mound's structure and function. The mound itself is a distinctive form of architecture whose major structural components are earth, daub, and wood. Earth is a highly plastic construction element. This factor allowed the mound to undergo structural changes as its function was modified within the culture. In this light, each stratigraphic series and each sediment can be viewed as analogous to the courses which a mason lays up with brick or stone.

Earth, as a building material, has both advantages and disadvantages. It is fire resistant on the one hand, but subject to erosion on the other. It can be formed into compound curved surfaces with ease, but will not maintain a stable vertical surface without support. Some sediment textural classes such as clay and silty clay loam compact well and make suitable foundation materials. Others, such as sand or sandy loam, are less coherent and are poor supports. There is no doubt that the prehistoric architects and engineers of Parris Mound understood this. The stratigraphic components of the mound show a distinct preference for different textural classes of earth in the construction of different elements of the mound. The soils of the surrounding area include most of the known textural classes from sand in the active floodplain, through silts and silt loams of the old river terraces, to the clay-rich deposits of the local shales. A second notable attribute of the mound is the color of the different sediments used for construction; reds, yellows, reddish-browns, and yellowish-brown hues predominate. Some white and light grey ash or ashy silt loads are present as well. Finally, once procured for a building site, earth is easily recycled; the same material can be used time and again for reconstruction or remodeling.

Today, Parris Mound looks like a single earthen structure. Yet, in the past, it was at least two distinct mounds, and perhaps more. Initially, there were only wooden ceremonial structures. They were burned and/or dismantled, and earth was piled up over the spot where they stood. As this process continued, the mounded sediments grew in volume and overlapped. At least three times major prehistoric excavations and rearrangements of the co-joined mounds took place. Each time the mound changed not only its shape, but its size. Historically it was probably reduced somewhat in height by John Duncan, an early settler whom the local oral tradition credits with levelling the top for a family cemetery.

Although understanding the structure of monumental architecture does not guarantee understanding its function, it is certainly harder to infer function without a structural description. By analog the mound, at its various stages, can be compared with a modern brick building. Each stratigraphic series of sediments represents a completed mound morphology, each distinctive sediment within the series represents a course of bricks, each individual load of sediment represents a brick, and the function of mortar is replaced by compaction of the trampled sediments.

With the above in mind it is easier to understand Parris Mound. Its final morphology reflects the numerous constructions and reconstructions which took place. In this light too, the sediments take on an added importance as artifacts in their own right. The sediments which covered the first two temples formed the first mound at the locale. It was a low, approximately 3½ feet, nearly square based (35x35 feet), truncated pyramid and may have functioned as a dance platform or elevated stage for the performance of ceremonies. The sequent stages appear to be enlargements of this platform. Additionally, a southern ramp, fashioned from the earth of a second mound covered a structure to the south of the initial temple loci.

The possibility for understanding the complete sequence of events exists at this Sequoyah County site and at one of the remaining mounds at the Spiro site, located to the south of Lee's Creek on the margins of the Arkansas River floodplain.

The situation at the Spiro site is very complex for several reasons. The site was, for a long period of time, a special place which underwent much civic/ceremonial rearrangement; it was partially destroyed by the commercial mining of artifacts by the Pacola Mining Company; it was excavated by the Works Progress Administration crews during the infancy of modern archaeology with minimal concern for stratigraphy. Furthermore, the data is just now becoming available after more than thirty years. Although incomplete, they do provide insight into some of the construction techniques and civic/ceremonial functions of the monumental architecture at the later major centers.

There are at least three classes of earthen architecture at large late centers: civic/ceremonial, mortuary/ceremonial, and unspecified. The unspecified mounds appear to be earth coverings of special structures. These have been referred to as buried house mounds. Speculation has it that these are mortuaries or charnel houses which, having fulfilled their purpose, were destroyed and sanctified by burying. During the earlier phases of the Habiúkut Period, these mounds may cover the location of several successive mortuaries. During later times, at larger centers, it seems that once used, a building was destroyed and remembered by a low (two to three foot) mound of earth. Many of these mounds have individuals buried in them. Instances of burial occurred after the mounds were constructed and add emphasis to the concept that the place was special, consecrated, or holy. Since it has not been shown that all buried house mounds are mortuary structures or civic structures, it is best at this time to leave them in the unspecified category.

The mortuary/ceremonial mounds, such as the now reconstructed Craig Mound at Spiro, represent complex architectural features which appear to change shape, size, and function in relation to the social climate of the times. There were at least three distinct monuments within the Craig Mound. Initially it was an earthen basin about eighteen feet in diameter which served to cremate the honored dead. Their ashes were buried to the southeast of this basin and an earthen mound grew at this loci. The second earthen monument was a co-joined, combined structure covering the crematory basin, the ash burial mound, and a newly constructed Great Mortuary to the northwest. The Great Mortuary had elaborate earthen embankments similar to those found on domestic structures, but which probably extended up the walls to the eaves and outward from the walls for a distance of ten to fifteen feet. Within this mortuary the honored dead were laid to rest with enormous caches of wealth items such as imported sea shells, copper, and pearls. After a period of time the mortuary was buried, a low platform mound constructed over this special place, and a wooden structure placed on its top. It is presumed that this structure also functioned as a mortuary and that high status persons were laid to rest in it prior to burial at the southeastern extremity of the growing mound. In this fashion the Craig Mound continued to grow to a height of approximately twenty-seven feet and a length of approximately 350–400 feet. We do not know how many episodes or the exact sequence of episodes which led to this quadriconical co-joined mound.

Square construction during the late period of the Habiúkut Era (Drawing by Fanny Dell).

Civic/ceremonial mounds on the other hand, appear to be primarily sub-structural foundations for civic buildings. They are most frequently square based truncated pyramids of varying size in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The largest one known in the eastern United States is at the Cahokia site in east St. Louis, Illinois. Known as Monks Mound, its base covers fifteen acres and it rises over 100 feet into the air. The top of this mound has a flat surface of over an acre and supported a religious or civic official building. This type of mound is also known in eastern Oklahoma from civic/ceremonial sites such as those already mentioned. These mounds also were constructed of selected sediments, in sequent stages, and supported important civic buildings of typical architecture. There is some evidence to suggest that immediately prior to the enlargement of these foundations, burial of selected persons took place in the sloping margins of the mound. Whether the mound building precipitated death and burial, or whether the reverse was the case is unknown at this time.

By at least five successive construction stages, the Brown platform mound at Spiro grew to over fifteen feet high and was a rectangular truncated pyramid whose basal dimensions were 200 feet north-south by 175 feet east-west.

For approximately 750 years a prehistoric culture was established, grew, flourished, and then disappeared from eastern Oklahoma. During this Habiúkut Period the architecture showed a definite style in engineering and construction techniques based on the extensive and efficient use of local materials. During earlier phases domestic structures were large, square, substantial buildings which required considerable effort and energy for construction. During later phases domestic structures incorporated labor saving and materials efficient construction techniques to build smaller, rectangular houses. They may have been directionally oriented due to social, religious, or ceremonial factors. Conversely, ceremonial and monumental architecture was dispersed over several regional and subregional centers in the early phases. Later it grew to heroic proportions at the centralized civic/ceremonial center at Spiro where multiple constructions produced a site of over eighty acres with nine earthen monuments. Only the most general engineering and architectural aspects of domestic, ceremonial, and monumental structures from this early cultural period are known; the details are not.

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN STRUCTURES IN OKLAHOMA

By Martha Royce Blaine

Before contact with the European, North American Indian people constructed and lived in various types of dwellings depending upon geographical location, the building materials present in the environment, subsistence patterns, and tribal traditions. The Indians of Oklahoma brought with them from their original homes ideas of a large number of structure types found across the continent. Within each of the many geographical regions represented, certain types of dwellings were built by men and women of each tribe. Tribal legend often stated that God revealed to their ancestors how their homes should be constructed.

In Oklahoma the Indian population is popularly spoken of as the eastern tribes and the western tribes based on their area of origin or their location in the state. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Yuchi, and Seminole are considered as eastern tribes along with the groups living in the far northeastern corner whose homes were originally north of the Ohio River and eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean. These include the Ottawa, Wyandot, Miami, Seneca, Mohawk, Peoria, Shawnee, and Delaware, groups of which live in central Oklahoma and southwestern Oklahoma.

In the central part of the State are the Sac, Fox, Potawatomi, and Kickapoo who originated in the same regions, chiefly in Illinois and around the Great Lakes. Like many others, the tribes above were moved westward by land cession treaties with the United States. Also in the central and northern part of the state are tribes who lived west of the Mississippi River along the large and smaller rivers that cut through the hilly regions interspersed with forests and prairies. These are the Ioway, Kansa, Osage, Missouri, and Quapaw. In the north central part of the state are tribes who lived in the Missouri River valley and its tributaries that ran from west to east through the plains. They are the Otoe, Ponca, and Pawnee from the present state of Nebraska.

The western part of Oklahoma for the most part is inhabited by peoples who were nomadic buffalo hunters and gatherers or dry land farmers before their removal to the reservations established for them. Their homes were on the Great Plains and even farther west and southwest. They are called the Apache, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa-Apache, and Comanche.

Oklahoma's indigenous people as far back as we can determine were the Caddoan language speaking tribes who were settled horticulturists living in villages from north to south along the rivers including the Arkansas and Red. They hunted westward on the plains and were in early contact with the Spanish and French traders. They are now called the Caddo and Wichita, the latter of which now includes descendents of the Anadarko, Waco, Tawakoni, and Kichai people.

Even the far West and Northwest were represented for short times during the removal period to Oklahoma and Indian Territory. These tribes were the Modoc from northern California and southern Oregon, and the Nez Percé from Idaho and eastern Oregon. One last group to be mentioned is the Tonkawa who came from Texas along with a small group of Lipan Apache. Other tribal entities that are not mentioned here bring the total number of groups that brought their varied dwelling types to this state to over sixty-five.

The earliest description of Caddo dwellings was made in 1687 in a region south of the Red River in Louisiana and Texas. “Their cottages are round at the Top, after the manner of a Bee-Hive or a Reek of Hay. Some of them are sixty Foot Diameter.” Over a frame of wood, grass thatch was tied into place. The grass house was an attractive adaptation to the semi-arid plains.

The earth lodge was perhaps one of the most structurally intricate of all American Indian house types, and was constructed by several tribes living in the middle and upper Missouri River valley along certain tributaries. The tribes included those listed above as well as the Mandan, Arikara, and for a brief time the Cheyenne. A description of a Pawnee village lodge in Nebraska in 1847 is as follows:

In the first place, the earth is dug out a little, slanting to the depth of about 18 inches in the form of a perfect circle about 44 feet in diameter. This forms the floor of the dwelling. Then there are 17 crotch posts let into the floor in a direction slanting outward so that the top of the crotch is about perpendicular with the outside of the circle, the foot being set about 18 or 20 inches from the base of the circle. In the crotches poles are laid across from crotch to crotch, and are sufficiently high for the tallest man to stand upright under them. At the distance of 18 or 20 inches from the outside of the circle are many smaller poles let into the surface of the ground, on an average of about a foot apart and leaning inward so that the top of the poles rest on the crosspieces which are supported by the crotches. The space between the foot of these poles and the edge of the circle forms a bench for seats entirely around the house, and there is room sufficient for more than a hundred men to seat themselves on it very comfortably. On the outside of these last-mentioned poles are laid a number of still smaller poles horizontally from the bottom to top from about 9 inches to a foot apart. These are lashed fast to the upright poles by strings made of bark. On the outside of these is laid a thick layer of long prairie grass and occasionally lashed through to the upright poles also. The whole is then covered with earth about 2 feet in thickness at the bottom and gradually thinner toward the top.

Pawnee earth lodge (Source, W. R. Wedel, An Introduction to Pawnee Archeology).

The southeastern tribes also built earth lodges called winter or hot houses which resembled in many aspects the lodge of the northern plains’ peoples. In 1775 John Bartram visited a Cherokee village, Cowe, and saw the town's ceremonial house with its earth-covered top standing on a mound in the village. Later, in 1789 he noted that near the Cherokee summer house, a few yards opposite the main entrance, stood a small conical earth-covered lodge used in the winter.

The Chickasaw winter house was constructed by digging out the earth to a depth of about three feet. These were circular in form and about five to six feet above ground level. Clay mixed with dry grass was then placed on woven lath split saplings. The Creeks also had a similar structure. Although varying in materials used to cover it, the basic structure was similar to the northern plains type.

The mat and bark frame covered house found among certain northern and eastern tribes varied in construction details and materials among the different tribes. Many of them were members of the Algonkian language group and they shared similar physical environments. They lived in forested areas where they hunted and farmed, and on prairie lands where they had small garden patches of corn, beans, and squashes near their villages. From east to west in this region north of the Ohio River the land changed from hilly forested areas to the prairies of Illinois and Iowa across the Mississippi. In the winter it was customary for many of the above tribes to depart from their summer villages and move into the forests where they lived in dispersed family groups in house types that were different from their summer homes.

The Iroquois long house of the different tribes in the confederacy of New York area nations is famous for its great length and the numbers of separate families that it accommodated. According to Henry Lewis Morgan, a Seneca house was thus described:

It was from fifty to eighty and sometimes one hundred feet long. It consisted of a strong frame of upright poles set in the ground, which were strengthened with horizontal poles attached with withes, and surmounted with a triangular and in some cases a round roof. It was covered over, both sides and roof, with large strips of elm bark tied to the frame with strings or splints. An external frame of poles for the sides and of rafters for the roof were then adjusted to hold the bark shingles between them, the two frames being tied together. The interior of the house was comparted at intervals of six or eight feet, leaving each chamber entirely open like a stall upon the passage which passed through the center of the house from end to end…The bark that was used to cover the building could be ash or chestnut which was peeled off in six foot long square pieces. The smooth side was placed inwards and they were lapped one over the other on edges. In one Seneca dwelling there was only one door in the end with no chambers inside, just a large single area with the family fires placed down the length of the room.

In 1937 in Oklahoma, Annie Bumberry, a Seneca born in 1878, said that the Senecas had a long house on the reservation and used it chiefly for ceremonial events and council meetings. This structure stood near Bassett Springs, near Turkey Fork, a tributary of the Elk River. When the people came to hold their ceremonies there, they camped in tents nearby.

The protohistoric Sac homeland was in the eastern Great Lakes region in the present state of Michigan. From this area they moved westward and eventually founded the large village of Saukenuk in Illinois. In 1817 it was estimated to contain approximately 100 dwellings. Each house was dome-shaped with a frame of saplings stuck in the ground and tied at the top. About a foot apart, horizontal poles were laced between the uprights giving the effect of a large wicker basket upside down. This tightly woven frame was covered with thick woven mats of rushes.

In Saukenuk each clan had a ceremonial house where the clan ceremonies were held and the sacred bundles of their religion or sacred societies hung. These houses were bark covered and some were long enough to have five firepits. They were similar in form and construction to the summer bark houses occupied in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Oklahoma on the Sac and Fox reservation. The rectangular shaped building with a two pitch roof was built of heavy timbers and covered with large elm sheets. The sheets were held in place by a framework of upright and horizontal poles fastened over the exterior of both walls and roof.

The summer house is of heavier construction and larger size than the mat covered winter house used in sheltered places along the river banks where the Sacs hunted for furs to trade in the spring. Early travelers, such as Pere Marquette and Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, remarked how efficiently mats protected the inhabitants against wind, rain, and snow.

The Shawnees who lived east of the Mississippi over a widely diversified region from north of the Ohio River to the Gulf coast at different periods in their history, built houses similar to other Algonkian speaking peoples. Samuel Perry, a Shawnee, born in 1859 in Kansas described their dwellings as follows:

Long green poles would be secured, some ten or sixteen feet in length. The butt end would be placed in the ground, in a circular manner, ten feet, or more in diameter, according to the room needed, the top bent over and tied in the center, making a rounded top. This was covered with skins. They (the walls and roof) were made of elm bark, where it could be found. This bark would be taken from the trees, in four or five foot lengths, when the sap was up, and would be placed flat on the ground, until it dried out, where it would be used to make the sides of the houses. It was tough and lasted well. Later logs were used to build houses, which would have bark, grass, or skin covering for roof.

Potawatomi, also residents of the Great Lakes region, had dwellings similar to the Sacs consisting of a pole frame over which mats were placed. The advantage of this type of dwelling was that it was portable. The mats could be removed, rolled and tied, and transported from place to place. The frame could be constructed from saplings at hand in the forests where the people trapped and hunted. In the eighteenth century the Potawatomi constructed palisaded fortresses to live in when warfare became intense.

The region utilized for Quapaw villages and hunting grounds in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was along the Arkansas and Missouri tributaries in the present states of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Their dwellings were in most ways basically similar to the aforementioned tribes that resided north of them and to the east. The Quapaw were first described by Pere Marquette in 1673 who said they lived in cabins that were long and wide with the sides made of bark. In 1687 Joutel noted that they were rounded at the top, long and covered with bark and held several families. In the nineteenth century Thomas Nuttall wrote that their homes were bark frame covered and some were used for ceremonial purposes.

Mat and bark frame covered house (Source, Harold Driver, Indians of North America).

The Osage, linguistically related to the Quapaw and Kansas, lived in the habitation type described above, according to Lewis and Clark in 1804. In 1805 Zebulon Pike, the explorer, described posts that were about twenty feet tall with a crotch at the top into which a ridgepole fitted to support the roof. Houses were between 36 and 100 feet long, he estimated, and the side and tops were covered with matting, with doors built on the side. John Bradbury said, “Their lodges are of circular form not more than ten or fifteen feet in diameter, constructed by placing mats made of coarse rushes over forks and poles.” These houses were viewed in the Osage village near Fort Osage on the Missouri River in present Missouri.

The Osage temporary hunting camps were said by Henry Schoolcraft to be different in their manner of placement and construction from any he had observed before in his travels. “The form of the tent or camp may be compared to an inverted bird's nest or hemisphere with a small aperture left in the top, for the escape of smoke, and a similar but large one, at one side for passing in and out. It is formed by cutting a number of slender flexible green poles of equal length, sharpened at each end, stuck in the ground like a bow, and, crossing at right angles at the top, the points of entrance into the ground forming a circle. Small twigs are then woven in mixed with the leaves of cane, moss, and grass, until it is perfectly tight and warm…the dwelling of the chief is conspicuously situated at the head of the encampment.”

When George Catlin accompanied the 1st Dragoons (under General Henry Leavenworth and Colonel Henry Dodge) into Indian Territory in 1834, he mentioned that the Osages there lived in wigwams built of barks and flags or reeds. One village was located some forty miles from Fort Gibson. Some years later they were living on the Osage reservation in villages consisting of wigwams, tents, and tipis.

The Kansa lived in several types of dwellings, one of which is described as being very similar to the village dwellings of the Osage and Quapaw near whom they lived in the nineteenth century. Their houses were described as built of stout poles and saplings arranged in form of an arbor, with a ridgepole, and covered with mats, bark, or skins. The larger houses had two or three fires, signifying that each was used by an extended family in most cases.

The Five Civilized Tribes, like many Native Americans, utilized more than one type of structure made of different materials and in a slightly different manner. One of the predominant types was the house built in a rectangular shape usually with a wooden frame interlaced with withes that were covered or plastered with a mud or clay and grass mixture both inside and out. The roof which was separate and gabled was usually of thatch or bark.

An eighteenth century Cherokee description said their houses were “Built with wood and [they] ciel [sic] them with clay mixed with straw so as to render them tight and comfortable.” William Bartram in 1789 described the one story rectangular house as follows: It was made of logs “stripped of bark, notched at the ends, fixed one upon the other, afterward plastered well, both inside and out, clay tempered with dry grass and the whole covered or roofed with bark of chestnut trees or long broad shingles.” Inside, the house was divided into three compartments connected by doors. The summer council house was a spacious open large oblong building.

Creek houses and other structures in their towns were built around town squares. In 1796 Benjamin Hawkins said that their council house was round, wattlework protected or walled by clay. These were found along the Chattahoochee River. In 1800 around another town square there were four structures forty by sixteen feet wide with an eight foot pitched roof. For each there was a wooden frame, covered with bark slabs, open in the front, divided into three rooms. The walls were clayed up to the roof plates. Each of the four structures served a different function. One, facing east, was the chief's house, another facing south was the warriors’ house, another facing north was for the “beloved men” who were the elderly councilors and advisors to the chief. The last, facing west, was the cabin of the young people and their associates. In some Creek towns, the outside walls were smoothed with red clay on which figures of plant or animal life were drawn using white, red, brown, or bluish paste or chalk.

In 1771 each family in one Chickasaw community in Mississippi had three structures—a summer house, a winter house, and a corn house. The summer house was rectangular while the winter house was circular in shape. The former had a wooden frame daubed with mortar of clay and dry grass mixed. For another type, the logs for the frame were set in the ground, a roof gable was formed, small split saplings tied on to the larger logs, and the outside walls were covered with pine or cypress bark clap boards of the proper length.

No clear description of a very early Choctaw house has been preserved. The tribe lived in central and southern Mississippi when first contacted by Europeans. It appears that settlements were not compact, but were scattered within forested areas with each family having a small garden. An early eighteenth century description says that each cabin was constructed of “pieces of wood the size of a leg, buried in the earth and fastened together with lianas or vines.” There were no windows and the door was only three to four feet high. Over the dried mud walls cypress or pine bark slabs were placed. A hole left at the top of each gable end allowed smoke to escape from the fire made in the center of the floor below. Further south near the Gulf of Mexico there were two house shapes, round and rectangular. Palmetto thatch was used over a sapling frame. The smoke hole was in the center of the roof and the door usually faced south.

The Seminoles of Florida lived in thatched dwellings that measured approximately thirty by twelve feet and were constructed on platforms raised some distance from the ground. The walls were open in many instances and the thatch roof was placed over palmetto log rafters. Logs were laid over the thatch to secure it. There were often three houses in a group which harkened back to the Seminoles’ early Creek origins. The Seminoles living in the Everglades had houses like those described above which were adapted to the conditions there, while their kinsmen living in northern Florida had houses that resembled those of the Creeks.

Plains Indian tipi (Source, Harold Driver, Indians of North America).

The tipi, as this dwelling is called, was portable and met the needs of those tribes who were nomadic hunters, or semisedentary horticulturists, and who spent a considerable portion of each year hunting the bison and other game at considerable distances from their villages. Many tribes who originally had not had this form of dwelling adopted it as they moved westward as a result of warfare or land cession treaty.

The tipi was an esthetically pleasing form and a perfect solution to a migratory existence. It was conical with a base wider than its top. It was constructed by first tying three or four long poles together near the top and raising them into a tripod position. Into the notches formed where the poles were tied together, other poles were leaned at regular intervals around a circular base line. The hide cover made of sewn and fitted hides was then raised over the frame which could be made of as many as twenty poles. The covering was staked or weighted down at the base with stones or wood. The smoke hole was at the top and opening could be controlled by flaps that directed the wind and smoke flow. Often a hide or canvas liner was fastened inside the tipi to eliminate drafts and retain warmth despite the wintry blasts that swept the northern and central plains during the winter hunts that could last from November to March. During this period the sedentary tribes such as the Pawnee, Ponca, Otoe, and Kansa would abandon their villages for a hunt and return in the spring to plant their fields of corn, beans, and squashes.

Many tribes decorated the outside of the tipi with natural pigments showing warlike exploits of the owner. Sacred symbols could also be seen if the tipi was used for religious ceremonies or its owner was a leading figure in a sacred society. Today the tipis used by the Native American Church members often have the sacred water bird painted upon them.

In earlier times when the tipi was lowered, the poles were tied on the side of the horse and dragged along with the tips dragging the ground. Between them the hide cover was rolled up and tied on along with other household items. Before the horse the Spanish noted that the Apache used large dogs to drag the equipment that was taken along on a smaller frame called the travois by the French. Other tribes also used the dog in transportation.

In Oklahoma now live members of the Chiracahua Apache who were hunters of the plains and used a winter shelter which was a frame of connected poles covered with grass thatch or brush. It was usually dome shaped and taller than a man. The frame was made by setting poles a few inches into the ground in a circle, bending their tops over, and fastening them together. The poles were held in the proper arcs by horizontal poles fastened to them at intervals from the bottom across in rows to the top. For a larger house a series of arcs were constructed overlapping one another in a circle except for the space left for the doorway. These arches supported the main ribs which ran from the ground to the top. Thatch of bear grass was applied in overlapping courses and bound in place with yucca leaf strips.

Although the Comanche adopted the tipi in historic times, before then they were said to live in oval or conical brush or grass shelters. In 1853 they were observed using this type in certain areas. As can be seen from the above descriptions, many types of structures were built and used by the Indians who have lived in Oklahoma. There are several reasons for the differences that existed between tribal structure types such as geographic area, subsistence patterns, acculturative pressures, and economic factors. Each will be mentioned briefly here with examples from some of Oklahoma's tribal groups. It has often commonly been believed that most tribes of American Indians lived in only one type of dwelling, and popular myth often designates this to be the tipi or wigwam, terms used interchangeably. However, as the previous section indicated, many tribes lived in more than one shelter type during the course of the year. Tribes who were horticulturists or farmers needed distinctly different housing for the seasonal hunting expeditions that took place with all members of the family going along. At these times the entire band or village would migrate to the hunting area to camp and hunt for weeks or months at a time. Where this happened, the hunting season dwelling was often one that could be easily constructed of material at hand or that was portable, such as the tipi was for those tribes living near the bison migration routes of the plains.

Another type of temporary dwelling was found mainly in the East and the middle Mississippi valley where brush, pole, and hide covered winter dwellings were built in the forests along streams and other places convenient to the hunting grounds. In isolated places single families or extended families sometimes built their dwellings near one another. The Pawnee and other semisedentary people west of the Mississippi, such as the Ioway, followed a similar pattern of constructing a pole, bark, brush, or mat or hide covered house along streams in areas protected from the winter winds. From here they set forth to trap beaver and other fur bearing animals which would be taken for trading in the following spring.

Over the centuries from the late 1600s to the twentieth century the Indian moved or was moved from one geographic area to another. In many instances the move was to an area that did not resemble their home land either in climate, ecology, or natural resources available for building purposes. In these instances it was necessary to adapt different materials to old type dwelling forms or adapt a new mode of housing entirely. The Cheyennes now living in western Oklahoma once lived far to the north in forests near Lake Superior. Here it is believed they lived in structures similar to the bark and pole dwellings found in northern woodland areas. Near the end of the 1600s they migrated westward, settling along the Red River which forms a boundary now between Minnesota and the Dakotas. Later they were found in earthlodges living near the Arikara, Hidatsa, Mandan, and other Upper Missouri River villagers, where they raised corn and other crops. After they acquired horses sometime in the middle of the 1700s, they slowly made a transition to a nomadic life style, and it is known that by the middle of the 1800s they were nomadic plainsmen living in the hide covered tipi and following the migrations of the bison. When they removed to Oklahoma in the last century they continued to live in this dwelling type for many years.

Many tribes arriving in Oklahoma or Indian Territory found themselves in areas with fauna similar to that of their home region and they attempted to construct their traditional dwelling from the trees, grasses, sod, rushes, and other things in the environment. Even where there was difficulty in replication, efforts were made to hold fast to that which was dear and traditional. The Pawnees built a few earth lodges in villages in the earliest period after 1875. These were mainly used for ceremonial purposes in the nineteenth century, but served as dwellings also. Chiefs and leaders of sacred societies were especially desirous of maintaining this type of structure not only for its practicality, but because it was a link to the past and was the type of dwelling decreed by God for Pawnee residence and religious ceremonies.

Iroquois long house (Source, H. L. Morgan, Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines).

The Senecas of the great Iroquois confederacy also were keepers of sacred traditions and built long houses in which to carry out their religious rituals. How many of them were built in northeastern Oklahoma is not known except for the one previously described. The region into which the Senecas moved contained the proper materials for constructing the building. In this case and others, tribes were settled, whether by accident or design, in areas similar to those that they had inhabited during some period of their history. The eastern members of the Five Civilized Tribes were settled in the wooded eastern part of Oklahoma with its many streams, forests, and mountains. The Indians from north of the Ohio River for the most part settled in the northeastern and central parts of the state within the boundaries of the Cross Timbers where forests interspersed with prairies predominate, although the type of forestation in some areas differed significantly from the more northern homeland types. In spite of these differences the Kickapoo, Ioway, Sac, and Fox continued to build some bark, mat, pole houses well into the twentieth century, with the former tribe continuing to construct a few. These tribes found it necessary, in time, to substitute canvas for hides and bark, although retaining the pole frame construction of the oval shaped house in which summer camping is done during pow wows or tribal events. The traditional shade or arbor is also a part of such a campground. The Kiowas, Cheyennes, and other western tribes settled on the plains area of the state west beyond the timber zones of the forested eastern sections. These plains were similar to those from which they came, and in fact western and central Oklahoma was crossed by these tribes and used for hunting in the seventeenth century according to Spanish and French records.

From the beginning, acculturation was an important part of federal policy regarding the American Indian. It was deemed desirable to eliminate original cultural patterns and replace them with those of the white man. That meant among other things that living in log, then frame houses, was better than living in the traditional dwelling. Early treaties with many tribes specified that a certain number of houses would be built for important chiefs. Such an example would be the chiefs’ houses built for the Choctaws in Indian Territory. One, near Swink, still stands and has been restored as a historical site.

One purpose of the chief's house was to set an example for his people, but from the beginning mixed blood leaders or progressive Indians who acquired such items as houses were often criticized by more traditional tribesmen. However, as the years went by, fewer and fewer traditional house types were seen in all parts of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Government programs were initiated and Indian funds used to construct “modern” dwellings.

Among all people there are greater or lesser individual differences in the amount of wealth possessed and the manner in which it is displayed. Economic well-being is often reflected in the size and style of the house and adjacent structures. Many cultural studies among the American Indian have indicated that this was true, especially among the sedentary agricultural peoples from precolonial to present times, as the following section will illustrate.

By the time the eastern and southern tribes, including the Five Civilized Tribes, reached Indian Territory, log houses were the predominant type built. Social class differences were shown by size, material, and furnishings. The common man lived in small cabins, examples of which can still be seen in the remote hill regions of eastern and southeastern Oklahoma.

In 1937 Elizabeth Ross described the early Cherokee houses as follows:

The best and most durable of the houses were constructed of logs of large size which had been skillfully hewed to required dimensions. The logs were usually of red or white oak or yellow pine. Horses were used to draw logs into position with the aid of heavy ropes. Some houses were two-storied and contained several rooms with massive stone fireplaces. The smaller log houses were often built of comparatively smaller logs with the bark adhering. The interstices between the logs were filled split pieces of wood called chinking, and over this chinking, red clay instead of mortar was often spread.

The cabin of Sequoyah near Sallisaw, now preserved as a National Historic Site, is an example of this type.

In contrast to these smaller holdings was the Coodey plantation at Frozen Rock on the Arkansas River. It was built by the slaves of William Shorey Coodey in 1841. They cut the logs and built a two-story ten room house with a wide hall and two porches. Each slave family had “a good log cabin” with space for a yard, garden, and chicken yard. Furnishings for the large house were bought in New York City, shipped to New Orleans, then sent upriver to the Coodey landing dock. Coodey spent much time in Washington involved in Cherokee national affairs. For such trips the family took a maid and a nurse for the children.

In the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations, as well as in the Wyandot, Ottawa, and other northeastern tribes, the spectrum of house type and size also reflected the wealth, political position, and social status of the tribal population. After the discovery of oil on the Osage reservation in the early part of the century, newly acquired wealth enabled tribal members to build fine, large, substantial brick or frame houses. Cabins and summer houses were built near their old village sites at Hominy, Pawhuska, Fairfax, and Grey Horse. They were used during the summer dances held in or near the ceremonial Round House, as it was called, or in the arbors built nearby. Today iron or steel-framed, open-sided structures take the place of the Osage brush and pole arbor.

Among the western tribes social class distinctions are shown in the home of Quanah Parker, Comanche chief. It was a large two-storied frame building with upstairs and downstairs covered porches around it. It was located near Cache, Oklahoma, and a photograph taken around 1909 shows a well painted white picket fence around it and adjacent buildings.

The nomadic hunters and gathering societies that were removed to Oklahoma in the last quarter of the nineteenth century for the most part had had less contact with government policies than had the Eastern tribes. For the most part the Apaches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Kiowa Apaches, Arapahoes, and Comanches endeavored to retain their traditional house types, the tipi, wickiup, and brush arbors for some years.

Historic Southeastern Indian style of construction (Source, H. L. Morgan, Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines).

The last decade of nineteenth century brought the results of the federal policy implemented by the Dawes Act of 1887 which sought to allot land in severalty to the Indian people. There was great resistance to this as the Indians envisioned more of their land being taken to make farms and towns for non-Indian settlers. Although this was a major purpose of the Act, a minor purpose was to break up villages and camps of the tribes in order to settle them apart from one another on individual homesteads, so that they might be persuaded to become farmers and adopt more modern ways.

By 1897 the Kiowa agent claimed that three-fourths of the 3,100 tribesmen of the above tribes, including the Wichitas and allied tribes, were living in permanent homes upon their allotments. But a later agent in 1925 said. “A considerable number of Indians were living in small one room log houses with dirt floors twenty-four years ago (1900). There were very few creditable houses of any kind on the land owned by the Kiowas,” he added. This condition was not by choice. Continued poverty made it impossible in many instances to live in any other manner. After 1900 the “regulation” house appeared on Indian allotments across the old reservation areas. It was a simple frame structure of one or two stories, built with Indian trust fund monies. More detailed plans were presented in a publication called, “Plans and Specifications for Indian Homes and Improvement” by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs. This appeared in 1926 with twenty house plans. J. A. Buntin stated in the Foreword that the plans had been in use for the previous three years with great success. The bungalow type with various floor plans predominated. The number of rooms varied from three to seven depending on family size and the amount of funds available. The Jim Thorpe home in Yale, Oklahoma, although built a few years before this time, is representative of this period. Also shown in the booklet are plans for barns, chicken houses, and of course, the ubiquitous “out house.”

Today the newest programs for Indian housing are largely under the auspices of the tribal governments with each of those participating in federal programs having a Tribal Housing Authority of some type. Attempts continue to upgrade the quality and quantity of housing and new brick or frame homes can be seen in various parts of Oklahoma. Sometimes men and women after a life time of working away from the reservation area retire and build homes on their land there. The architecture of newly designed tribal centers and other edifices, such as museums, across the state, attempts to recreate cultural themes of the tribes’ traditions.

However, the American Indian living in Oklahoma has not forgotten or completely stopped using the traditional dwelling types. In the summer at pow wows, or during the year at meetings of the Native American Church, tipis are raised and used in a spirit of reminiscence. At the summer gatherings alongside the tipis are tents, campers and mobile trailers. At the Osage campgrounds the old bell tolls near the round house at Hominy to call the people to the ceremonies and dance. There are still a few pole and thatch dwellings built and used by the Kickapoo, and some tribes have constructed replicas of their traditional houses near their community centers. An excellent example is found at Tahlequah in the historical reconstructed Cherokee village.

THE SODDY

By Melvena Thurman

As the pioneers began their trek westward, they found themselves faced with the problems of securing food, adjusting to a harsh environment, and constructing shelter, regardless of the section of the country they chose. Oklahoma Territory was officially opened for settlement in 1889, and thousands scrambled to secure land. Those who had settled in the eastern regions found timber plentiful enough for the construction of houses. However, central and western Oklahoma are grasslands with scarce timber resources. As in other parts of the prairie region, settlers demonstrated resourcefulness by building their crude homes with the only available material, the earth.

After the land openings, the pioneer's first concern was to establish his claim to the land, then his attention turned to erecting a house. A tent was usually the first dwelling on the property, with the wagon serving as a bedroom for some members of the family and as storage for the family's possessions. While this living arrangement was only temporary, strong winds, heavy rains, and even blizzards caused these early settlers even more discomfort.

Either a dugout, half-dugout, or a soddy was chosen as the first type of structure built for a house. If a dugout was chosen, a bank or wall of a ravine was selected, and an excavation of as much as fourteen feet into the slope was made. A roof of split poles, hay or brush, and dirt was made with a length of pipe through the top to let out smoke from the stove. A crude door was placed in front and sometimes a window was installed. It was not uncommon for a traveler to ride over the top of such a house at night causing dirt to fall onto the sleeping inhabitants, and cave-ins were common occurrences. A half-dugout design was another consideration. This involved digging a hole, perhaps four feet deep, and then erecting sod or frame walls, depending on the availability of materials.

While many dugouts and half-dugouts were built, the most commonly used structure by the early Oklahoma settlers was the sod house. After the site for the soddy was selected, the size of the house, determined by practical needs, was considered, and the inside dimensions were marked on the site. The floor was leveled; sometimes it was dampened and packed to make a hard, smooth surface. The dimensions might also be squared by use of a rope or harness lines. Sizes of soddies varied, but sixteen by twenty feet was about average. The next step was the breaking of the sod. A site where the sod was the thickest was chosen. The buffalo grass so plentiful in Oklahoma had an extensive root system which made the sod very tough and easier to handle. However, this tough prairie sod was difficult to cut. The invention of an improved breaking plow made this task much easier. The plow consisted of a knife in the front with two parallel rods that turned the sod over in long, unbroken strips. The plow was called the “grasshopper” because the rods were set in a way that resembled the wings of an insect. Two horses, mules, or oxen pulled the plow. Oxen pulled straighter, thus were preferred for the work. After the sod was turned, a sharp spade was used to cut the ribbons into bricks of sod to be hauled to the construction site. The size of the bricks was determined by the moisture in the soil and the strength of the builder. They were usually approximately two to three feet in length, one to one and a half feet in width, and three to four inches in thickness. The sod was cut in the morning, and only enough was cut at a time for use that day, as the sod blocks were easier to handle and cut smoother while still damp. About one acre of land had to be broken to provide enough material for building a house fourteen by sixteen feet in size. The sod was loaded onto a wagon or sled made from forked poles and transported to the building location.

Breaking the sod (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

After the sod had been cut and transported to the site, the next step was the erection of the soddy's walls. The inside dimensions of the house had already been marked on the ground. The builder began to lay the sod walls at the corner of these markings. Usually two or three widths of sod were placed to form the thickness of the wall. These were laid unevenly, in the fashion of clay bricks, to add strength. The grass side of each sod brick was placed downward. This process continued until the point was reached where the door was to be located, and a plank frame for the door was propped in place. The placing of the sod continued. After three or four layers of the wall had been completed, a layer was placed crosswise of the other rows of sod. The crosswise layer added strength to the wall by binding the widths of sod together.

It was very important that the walls be strong and as straight as possible. The heavy roof that was typical of sod houses would cause an inferior wall to collapse. As the pioneer had brought few tools with him, he had to rely on a “straight eye” to make certain the walls rose in a vertical line. When the construction reached about one half of its projected height, the wall's inside surface was shaved with a sharp spade to make the wall more attractive and a suitable surface for plastering. This process was repeated when the wall reached its final height, approximately seven and one half feet. Like the door frame, window frames were propped into the wall at the desired position and sod was placed around them. When the construction reached the top of the frames, a plank was placed across the top of the frame and the row of sod bricks to provide added strength so that the layers of sod would not cause the window frame to collapse or the glass to shatter, should the inhabitant be fortunate enough to have glass window panes.

Having completed the walls of the soddy, the structure was ready for a roof. If the pioneer home builder was fortunate, he would be able to afford board gables and rafters and have a wood shingle roof. This might also be possible, if there was timber available on his claim. Still others would place a layer of sod over the shingle roof to give more insulation from the harsh climate extremes of Oklahoma. However, most early settlers in Oklahoma had little money and found little timber on their homesteads. Therefore, the roofs of their homes were made of sod.

Because the roof was constructed of sod, it was extremely heavy and good supports were necessary to prevent the roof from collapsing or crushing the walls. The most common technique was to place forked poles at either end of the soddy to support the ridgepole. Then the gable ends were filled up with blocks of sod using the same process as in the erection of the walls. Next the roof itself was completed, and there were various methods of accomplishing this. A “car roof” was made by nailing boards to the ridgepole and extending them several inches over the top of the walls. Then the boards were covered with tar paper and a layer of dirt. A substantial roof was achieved by using “two-by-four” rafters with two or three “one-by-six” beams. Then one inch planks could be used as sheathing. The settler might then cover this with tar paper or canvas and finish by overlaying it with blocks of sod. However, most early Oklahoma settlers were forced to use a cruder method of roofing their dwellings. Their houses were roofed with what was easily obtained. The longest and straightest pole that could be found was selected for the ridgepole. As a perfectly straight pole was rarely found, the roof of a soddy often appears to sag. Cottonwood, willow, and blackjack were used frequently as sod house roofs. Then, poles were attached to the ridgepole and extended over the walls to form eaves. This was sheathed with a layer of brush, grass, and perhaps hay before adding the sod bricks. The number of layers of sod blocks varied, and some accounts note as many as five layers were used. The sod blocks were placed with the grass side down, if it was planned to plaster the roof with a fine coating of clay. However, when the grass side of the sod was placed upward, the vegetation continued to grow and produced a root system that helped hold the sod together. This also resulted in an interesting feature of the soddy, a crop of grass and sunflowers on the top of the prairie dwelling.

The roof of a sod house was the source of many problems for the settler and his family. Because of the building material, the roof was extremely heavy and required much support. As lumber was scarce, a low pitched roof was desirable as it required shorter supports. However, a low pitched roof was more susceptible to leaking during heavy rains, as it absorbed more water. A steep roof required long support, and also presented the problem of weakening the walls because of the weight and its distribution. Furthermore, the sod cover would often slide off a steep roof during a rain storm. Another difficulty was that the fill dirt placed in the cracks between the sod blocks had to be replaced periodically, as it washed away. The roof could not be secured, and depended on its weight to hold it in place. This weight was an advantage in view of the strong prairie winds, which easily blew away a lighter wooden roof structure. For this reason, a homesteader might choose to put a layer of sod over his shingled roof; also, the sod provided excellent insulation and protection from fire. Wide eaves provided protection from erosion of the walls.

Undoubtedly the most perplexing problem associated with the sod roof was its tendency to leak. Whether the builder had wood sheathing or merely brush and grass, it was impossible to prevent the leakage. The sod absorbed the rains, and for days after the clouds had cleared away, muddy streams still dripped from the ceiling. The inconvenience caused by this phenomenon is demonstrated by pioneer reports that after a storm, someone had to hold an umbrella over the cook stove and the cook, so that the meal could be prepared without mud dripping into the food. Another account pointed out that many times a guest at dinner received the surprise of a drip running down his neck or splashing into his plate. It was almost a source of pride for the pioneer woman to know exactly where to place vessels to catch the drips so that what furnishings the family had could be protected. A young Oklahoma couple had an overnight guest one evening, and a heavy rain came. The only dry place in the abode was directly beneath the ridgepole. Therefore, they rolled up the mattress and placed it under the ridgepole. The couple perched themselves on it, and took turns throughout the night holding their baby. The guest moved his bed onto some chairs and held his slicker over himself all night to keep dry.

Sod walls under construction (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

With the walls and roof completed and the frames for windows and doors in place, the settler added the finishing touches to the structure. There was usually only one door in the soddy, and it was generally located in the center of the eave side of the house. The eaves extended over the door and afforded some protection to the entrance. To make a door, three or four planks were joined by cross pieces and hung in the door frame. One settler reported that this simple door could easily be taken down, placed across wooden boxes, and used as a dining table when several people were to be served.

The soddy was naturally dark inside, as the thick walls allowed little light through the window openings. Therefore, windows were planned where possible. Glass was expensive, so windows were often covered with oiled paper, which did permit some light into the small house. Also, cheese cloth served as screening material to keep out insects while allowing air and light to enter. The window covering was placed near the outside surface of the wall. This provided additional shelf space inside the house and kept water from draining onto the outer window sill and causing excessive erosion of the outer wall.

Because lumber was so scarce, few soddies had wooden floors, unless a cellar was constructed under the house. But the pioneer housekeeper was able to keep the floors neat. After about a month, the dirt floors became packed so hard from the movement of the inhabitants, that the floor could be swept quite clean and even mopped. Some pioneers added an extra touch to the decor of their homes with carpet. An old rag carpet brought from a former home was sometimes placed over a padding of straw and secured to the dirt floor with pegs.

Upon seeing where they were to live after reaching the prairie homes, many women could only cry. The living conditions were not greatly improved until other things requiring the family's funds, such as fencing the land, had been accomplished. But, until that time, most of the women eventually accepted the conditions and made adjustments. They decorated the interiors of the soddies with what was available. Several techniques were used to improve the appearance of the dark walls. Rags were braided for use as rugs, as well as wall coverings. Canvas liners for the walls were made so that they could be taken down and laundered. Still others papered the sod walls with old newspapers, catalog pages, and even letters. One woman made an unbleached “domestic” covering that was attached to the ridgepole and rafters to help protect the contents of the house from the falling debris from the roof. When more than one room was needed, an old carpet or blanket was suspended from the ridgepole as a curtain. One means of treating the inside walls was to white wash or plaster them. A “…white powdery looking dirt called ‘gyp’ (gypsum)” was easily obtained in Oklahoma. This substance, when mixed with ashes, sand, or other materials, produced a white wash that was applied to the smoothed surface of the interior. One woman reported carrying it in tubs to her home, mixing it herself, and painting the one room structure. Other decoration included such things as hanging lace curtains brought from former homes.

The furnishings of the typical sod house were sparse and very crude. The homesteaders were usually unable to bring very much furniture to the homestead. Perhaps one good piece of furniture, such as a bureau, as well as a bedstead and stove were all they transported. The rest of the furnishings were make-shift. Wooden crates were as plentiful as cardboard boxes are today, and a large dry goods crate served as a kitchen table. Other smaller boxes, nail, vinegar, and cider kegs were used as stools and chairs. For cupboards, soap boxes were mounted on the wall and supported by a post driven into the dirt floor. A curtain might be hung across the box to protect the contents. Rough cottonwood lumber was also used frequently in furniture construction, but it soon warped and cracked. Some families had to manufacture their bedsteads. Many were crude wooden bunks. Or, they might be constructed by driving four forked posts into the floor and placing willow poles or two by fours in the forks as a frame. Willow slats then supported a tick stuffed with straw or feathers. The bedding consisted of sheets and homemade quilts. The stove and table were usually placed at one end of the room, and the bureau and trunks sat at the other end near the bedstead.

Roofing a sod house (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

The soddy was heated and the cooking done on a cast iron stove hauled to the claim from the former home. However, not everyone had such a stove, and fireplaces were built. Some were made of stone, but most were fashioned from sticks and clay. The chimneys of these sod fireplaces drew fairly well; however, it was difficult to start the fire as they leaked severely.

Interior of a common soddy (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

Life in a sod house was difficult, and in addition to the problems of a leaky roof, there were several other vexing characteristics of these structures. Dirt and straw continually dropped from the ceiling and made house keeping a never ending chore. If walls were not plastered, sheets were hung behind clothing storage to protect them from touching the earthen walls. In some instances, clothes and linens were kept in the covered wagon near the house for protection. When a rain storm was brewing, goods that were to be protected were moved from the house into the wagon until the roof finally dried out. The roof or walls might collapse because their weight was so tremendous after a prolonged rainy period.

Bugs were another disagreeable feature of life in the soddy. Furniture made from wooden crates and lumber cut on the claim were the source of the pests, as well as firewood. This was especially true of the bed. Many an early settler was awakened to the bite of a bedbug. The insects harbored in the bed posts and the mattresses stuffed with straw. No matter what the technique, the pests were never completely exterminated. One method of extermination was to jab as many bugs with a pin as possible and stick the pin into the bed post as a warning to others of their species. More sophisticated techniques were also employed, such as the use of chemicals available from a druggist or storekeeper, but this gave only temporary relief. Sometimes the mattress was burned, and a new one placed on the bedstead; however, the problem was never eradicated. Other insects were also found inside the houses. For example, inhabitants often heard the movement of centipedes behind the newspaper which covered the sod walls.

Though there were many undesirable characteristics of the sod house, there were also advantages to such a structure. Oklahoma's geographic location makes it subject to strong winds. The sod structure could withstand these high gales, while many frame buildings were destroyed. Also, the thick walls and roof, which often had as many as five layers of sod blocks, provided excellent insulation. The houses were warm in winter and relatively cool during the extreme temperatures of an Oklahoma summer. Another positive trait of the soddy was its resistance to fire. Prairie fires were a constant threat to the pioneers. Also, houses were threatened by sparks from their own chimneys, but the accounts of many pioneers indicate fires never destroyed soddies.

Not only were homesteaders in need of buildings for homes, but they needed structures for schools, churches, and for outbuildings. Soon after the various runs into Oklahoma, schools and churches were established. The sod construction was used for these as well. One pioneer school teacher recounted that she taught in the first schoolhouse built after the run into the Cheyenne and Arapaho country. It consisted of one sod room for fifty-one children, had dirt floors, and no glass in the windows. It was not unusual to hear a scream from a student whose lap had just been the landing place for a mouse or centipede falling from the roof. Religious services were held either in schoolhouses or in soddies erected for worship services.

The soddy was built to last an average of six to seven years. However, most pioneer families lived in them about half that length of time. By the end of about three years they were able to afford frame structures and abandoned the one-room dwellings. The soddy was then used for other purposes. Often it was converted into a barn for the cows and horses or used as a hen house. Structures made in the half-dugout fashion made cellars for storage of vegetables, such as potatoes, that required a cool storage place. Also, sheds for storing livestock feed, tools, and other items were needed, and the old soddy was adapted for this purpose. In some instances, sod blocks were even used to construct corrals for the livestock, or to serve as windbreaks for the stock.

By approximately the time of statehood, the families that had come to Oklahoma in the various land openings were beginning to build more permanent frame houses. The more pressing tasks of planting crops and starting herds of livestock were well under way, and there was enough cash to consider construction of such dwellings. This came as a great relief for pioneer women who had endured the difficult conditions of life in a soddy, including leaky roofs, dirt covered furniture, and annoying insects. Even though the new house might only be two or three rooms in size, it had a wooden floor and glass in the windows. Though her new home was quite modest, one pioneer woman stated that compared to the soddy it was a “palace.”

Across the western half of Oklahoma there are still sod structures standing today. Many of these are still serving a useful purpose, such as storage sheds, or in one case, a sod room is part of a house which is still occupied. Because these soddies were protected in some way, the weather and wind have not destroyed them. Some are covered with sheet metal and others were stuccoed. The Marshall McCulley sod house, owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society, has been preserved as a museum and is covered with an outer shell building. The fact that these structures still remain indicates that they were sturdy structures, even though very unpretentious in appearance.

Those early Oklahoma pioneers faced many hardships in their effort to establish new homes and provide a better way of life for their families. There were many adjustments to be made in the new country, but they did adjust to the environment and established their claim to the land. Providing a home for the family was difficult. The sod house met this need and was the most common structure seen on the Oklahoma territorial landscape for several years after the first land opening. There were advantages and disadvantages to life in a soddy, and one pioneer Oklahoma woman stated that they were “a tribute to their resourcefulness as well as an evidence of their poverty.”

RECOLLECTIONS OF OKLAHOMA VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

By Archibald Edwards

The earliest dwellings are a part of the architectural heritage of Oklahoma that I should like to see preserved, most certainly. The settlers built for themselves when they came to town and they built in a hurry. As I discuss this very particular aspect of Oklahoma vernacular architecture, I will mention the people and the way they lived as much as the houses themselves.

I have never heard of any sod houses in Oklahoma County, but in the northwestern part of the Territory in 1889, and even much later, numbers of them existed. Just think of the slabs of tight primeval prairie sod cut like adobe bricks and laid up without plaster—sides and roof. That was all there was to it, except the roof had a pitch to it, as a rule, instead of being flat as in adobe construction. That was the first house.

On a farm, the next house was board and batt. I remember some of them that I used to see on my way to school in Oklahoma City, when I wore knickers and black cotton stockings with those hard darned knees. There were many servants’ quarters built in that fashion, where the McKesson-Robbins warehouse presently exists. When I was in grammar school, our cook used to let me walk home with her every Sunday to that section, where I played with her personal forty-five caliber Colt revolver and her husband's Knights of Pythias sword. Another large group of these houses existed on the north side of Park Street and south of Eleventh Street, between Hudson and Harvey. This is just north of the present American Red Cross Building.

In 1892, my father, R. J. Edwards, was a judge at Perry, Oklahoma Territory. He told me of standing on the tongue of the wagon load of lumber to build a “Batt” house, while he performed a marriage ceremony for the young couple starting out into what in a later day was called the wild blue yonder. My father had come to Oklahoma in July of 1891. The first night he went to dinner at the old Grand Avenue Hotel. It had high glass windows in front of the lobby, and every evening there were chairs put out in front. My father went out to sit on the sidewalk after his first dinner and ran into Ed Overholser and his father Henry Overholser, who had come to town at the run or shortly after, with a lot of knocked down houses and business buildings, enough to fill a whole block along Grand Avenue. Sometime in the 1890s the Overholser Opera House was built. It had one of the best auditoriums the town has ever known and ample space for most productions that come here now. The Royal Ballet with Fontayn did Swanhake there in the 1950s. Why it was wrecked, I do not know. As early as I can remember, the Opera House was flanked with brick front buildings, some of which had very interesting caryatids along the capitals on the roofline. An editress of The Daily Oklahoman, who compared notes with me on local architectural minutiae, insisted that the caryatids were wearing external rubber plumbing devices. My sense of decorum permits me to mention this only in professional company. Be that as it may, the Overholser Opera House (later the Warner Theatre) should have been preserved for its auditorium. If we still want to preserve something that is fine architecture, we should protect the Colcord Building. That and the Terminal Building, now destroyed, were designed by the same firm, if I do not err, and had an arcade planned—very popular after the turn of the century—and the materials were the very finest known. There is a tremendous amount of marble and metalwork still there to see in the Colcord.

Board and batt construction (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

The houses I am really interested in are the smaller ones, the ones that a new family or an old family who had gone broke in the east and north could afford. I am particularly interested in the houses built between 1889 and 1910 in Oklahoma. The history of Indian Territory is much different from Oklahoma Territory and I just did not grow up with it. The houses I speak of in this category were built in a traditional style indigenous to this part of the country and of primarily native materials. At first little brick was used although I used to fish for crawdads while riding across a pond on an old wooden millwheel at a brickyard where McKinley Park now is, at Northwest Tenth and McKinley. Bear in mind, the official part of World War II ended over thirty years ago and I was born when Oklahoma City was only fifteen years old. The house where I was born was surrounded by corn fields. I could look across bare ground and see the lone lorn building of St. Anthony's Hospital standing free in a pasture.

Some of the earliest houses were those of frame construction. One type is the board and batt house which is illustrated, located in the short side of the end of the Kiamichi at Moyers, Oklahoma in Pushmataha County. It is in the Indian Territory I grant you, but I happen to know the approximate date of this house and know the construction. It dates from the territorial period, with a tin roof which was not original. It is the third roof since 1932, to my positive knowledge. The roof before this one was made out of split boards which are no longer made. A board is a pine shingle and is rove or made by splitting a block of pine into shakes or boards over an inch thick at the butt. The roofs do not last long enough to justify the labor nowadays, especially since Weyerhaeuser and Campbell Soup have come into the territory and bought up labor. There is a very light frame of two by fours put up for this house and the sides of boards were put vertically on it and covered with batts. The interior of the house was covered by a certain type of heavy cardboard that comes in rolls and either is blue or red, nailed on with large headed roofing nails, and a tin washer. Later on, magazine pictures and newspapers for warmth and interest were pasted on the wall. This house as far as I can discover was always occupied by a tenant.

Better construction of some houses like this one provided for better finishing on the walls of the interior. A popular material was one-half inch by four inches tongue and groove ceiling stock with about three grooves running down the center, for the walls and ceiling. A friend of mine was born in 1911 in a similar house which had been his grandfather's homestead.

Early farm houses of clapboards throughout the territory were sealed with this type of boards. Most often when two stories were built there would be a very narrow cramped staircase going up the side of the room that one entered, being the living room. There would be no attempt at ornamentation, probably with no railing for the first two or three steps, which would make an abrupt turn and go up in a walled off passageway to the second floor. The barns were of like but heavier construction. Both those houses and barns are rapidly disappearing in Oklahoma. For a place in the country, they are what I would like to have rather than some of these tawdry colonial jobs begotten by a whiskey ad out of an oil well. I know of one farm house, which is illustrated, with one story, up near Stillwater that is clapboards over the original log cabin constructed by a homesteader. I found one board and batt house near Chandler that was brick veneered. The bricks were on the inside, however. It was novel and very attractive. At least it was better than some of the imitation stone siding one sees. It would make a fetching bar and grill, if a large public were at hand.

Rural territorial clapboard construction (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

The third illustration is of the type of frame house done in town. It is in the four hundred block of Southwest Second Street in Oklahoma City. I investigated the house with some risk of my life, because the tenant thought I was from Urban Renewal and he had been chased out of his rooming house five times already. I did not go in the house but he told me how it was arranged. The kitchen is so small one can hardly operate in it and there is a long wing in the rear which I think possibly was added for a new kitchen. It now is a lumber room. I am sure the stairs that I could see through the window are the narrow type without railings, mentioned above. The windows are constructed with four panes of glass which are rather unattractive in proportion. There was no entrance hallway in this house and at the present time it is finished inside with plaster on wood laths. That is the sophisticated town gesture. I find this house very handsome. It is a bit on the cramped side on the interior, however, because of the cost of material, the cost of labor, and the cost of heating, which was done by a coal stove, although there is gas for stoves there now. This house had some cracks in it stopped with newspapers that the tenant told me had the date of 1909 on them. At that time it was not a fashionable address, but it was not bad. It was a respectable one.

Two-story frame house constructed in 1891 in Oklahoma City (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

In the territorial period, the area along the Canadian River in Oklahoma City was a very good address. Wheeler Park attracted better housing, for the park had an attractive zoo and greenhouses when my father came here. Someone named Wheeler lived in a house at the edge of the park and Geronimo used to be brought up here from Fort Sill where he was being held prisoner and be placed with a cigar and a bottle of whiskey in the Wheeler kitchen to shake the hand of the curious who went in for that sort of vicarious grandeur.

Native stone construction with decorative courses (Drawing by Frederick A. Olds).

The fourth illustration is of a stone house. The black family who lived here was named Smith and the house has a charming French appearance. I remember riding over there on horseback about 1932 and finding a very gracious elderly black man reading the National Geographic Magazine. I was most unhappy to see the house in ruins when I went over to photograph it several years ago. The house was built by Eli Rogan, a mason who learned his trade by laying dry stone walls in Tennessee. In the area between Aluma Chulosa Lake and the Nine Mile Flat due eastward on the Canadian River a number of these charming little stone houses existed. Now most of them are entirely in decay. There were two ways of laying stone, one shiners or crazy laid and the other Rubble Ashlar. The Ashlar was by far the better looking and the stronger. The most difficult problem was the soft stone. If the stone was too soft, one could throw a bucket of water against the wall and not a drop would hit the ground. It would all go through. In the spring of 1932, Eli Rogan built the house I live in, from rock dug up from the place on which I live. At the turn of the century almost all of the foundations to houses were of this sandstone laid in lime mortar. The small stone houses in Oklahoma County had plastered walls on the inside, some papered and some not. They were rather tiny and there was no place for grand staircases.

Of a later vintage is another type of house built with the environment in mind. This is the aeroplane bungalow. I do not know how the name arose, probably because the second story was smaller than the first, like the cockpit of an airplane, and designed to catch the prevailing breeze. There are many examples of the aeroplane bungalow in various materials including stucco, in the northwest part of the city. These came into vogue in the decade after the territorial period.

This gives you a bare idea of what smaller houses in the territorial period looked like before every town in the country north, south, east, or west began to look like the next one. These houses were built in simpler days and the customs were very much alike in all parts of the United States with a few regional differences. Churches were very prominent in social life. Entertainments were often musicals. An artist would be hired to give recitals either in larger homes or the Apollot Hall where I took dancing lessons down about Third and Robinson. I remember, before I went to school, getting stepped on in the kitchen while my mother was having a big bridge luncheon. Parties were often quite formal. I remember hiding under the table once just for kicks and seeing a crack in the table with the light coming through the tablecloth. I poked my finger up in it and upset a glass of water and I can tell you people stayed a long time at the table. It was God's mercy no one kicked me and made me squeal. This was the first time I saw white tie and tails. The younger people had house dances and they were lots of fun. There were even Ethnic clubs here. There was a German club in town that I used to hear about but knew no one except servants who belonged to it. Concerts and dance recitals were generally held in the enclosed horse show ring at the old fairgrounds. Horse shows were quite a thing back in those days. I do not think I am old enough to be a laudator temporis acti, but around 1910 Oklahoma City's cultural level, compared to that of the eastern seaboard or the old South, was higher than it now is. The theater musical artists and food were almost the same in the provinces as they were in New York and Boston. People in towns were younger people from the old cities who had come here to enjoy the profits of business with the rural settlers, and rapid transport to get to New York for dinner or to Paris or even Shanghai for breakfast did not exist. The city was all the people had and they made the best of it. And they did very well.

OKLAHOMA ARCHITECTURE: A PICTORIAL ESSAY

By Harry B. Kelso, Jr.

Bonfils Building—Guthrie. After the Run of April 22, 1889, the hastily constructed frame buildings in the central business district were replaced by substantial brick and stone structures such as the Bonfils Building. This structure bears the name of the business leader who had it constructed and the style of the leading architect of Guthrie, Joseph Foucart. Guthrie contains one of the most important collections of late nineteenth century architecture in the nation.

Boston Avenue Methodist Church—Tulsa. Modernistic with a free interpretation of Gothic detail, the Boston Avenue Methodist Church stresses verticality in its design. Chevrons and frets are employed throughout the building. The firm of Rush, Endicott, and Rush of Tulsa was selected as architects and Bruce Goff as designer of the building, although some controversy remains about the concept of the building. Some credit Adah Robinson with the conception of the building. In any event it remains as one of Oklahoma's most imposing churches.

Carnegie Library—Guthrie. This domed structure with its imposing portico was the scene of the inaugurations of the last Territorial and first State Governors of Oklahoma. It was built in 1901 as the first Carnegie funded library in Oklahoma. As F. B. Lillie, President of the Carnegie Library Board of Guthrie in 1902 stated: “Whether or not the work so well begun shall endure and be of permanent and lasting benefit to the people of this city and community, rests largely with our citizens.” In the current rebirth of activity in Guthrie, the citizens are providing the preservation of its cultural heritage.

Old Central of Oklahoma State University—Stillwater. This brick and stone structure was the first permanent structure on the campus of the Oklahoma Territorial and Mechanical College in 1894. The building was completed with sixteen rooms, including the chemistry laboratory, classrooms, assembly hall, and the president's office.

Williams Center—Tulsa. Minoru Yamasaki's Williams Center is a fine example of his eclectic New Formalism which has influenced the post-World War II period with architectural use of expensive materials and the suggestion of old classical forms restyled to fit current needs. The site of the Williams Center, at the end of an urban street, used existing structures to provide an excellent context for the structure.

Cherokee Female Seminary—Tahlequah. After the disastrous fire that destroyed the Female Seminary at Park Hill, the Cherokee Nation decided to rebuild its school for girls in Tahlequah. The Romanesque building has round-arch style with rock-faced masonry which contrasts with the red-brick walls of the structure. The result is a massiveness reinforced by the depth of the windows. Square towers are crowned with pyramidal roofs. It remains the most imposing structure on the campus of Northeastern Oklahoma State University.

Riverside Music Studio—Tulsa. One of Bruce Goff's earliest designs is the Riverside Music Studio from 1928. As Goff wrote: “…imitation is a dead-end street and that when it comes—beauty goes” (Takenobu Mohri, Bruce Goff in Architecture, p. 205). This Modernistic structure is a delightful surprise with its geometric lines offering a clean break with the popular eclectic revivals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church—Okarche. This red brick structure, with its dramatic spire. dominates the town constructed by the Central European immigrants and their descendants. Its massive buttresses taper inward from ground level, reinforcing a sense of strength.

Ingram Ranch House—Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Earl Ingram and his family began construction of this two story ranch house in 1928. The red native granite used in the construction came from the surface ground around the structure. The family collected and graded the flag stone and the cobble stone which give the house much of its character. This was the center of a working ranch until it was taken as a part of Fort Sill in World War II.

Air Plane Bungalow—Oklahoma City. The first adaptations of the Indian bungalow to impact the American architectural environment were in California. These were primarily small singlestory houses with broad gables that presented a porch-veranda in the front street side. The Oklahoma version of the bungalow became popular in the period of the First World War. It added a second story as square projection above the low pitched roof. This second story had windows placed on all four sides to catch the breezes from any quarter. In addition, this second story allowed the heat build-up in the rest of the house to rise and create air circulation throughout the day.

Colcord Building—Oklahoma City. The architect William A. Wells designed this masonry structure for the prominent builder and civic leader Charles A. Colcord for construction in 1909–1910. This elegant twelve story structure is one of the few remaining buildings from the early statehood period left in downtown Oklahoma City as a result of its urban renewal efforts. The magnificent terra cotta ornamentation on the lower and upper levels stands out in contrast to the concrete slab siding of the new construction in the area.

McBirney Mansion—Tulsa. This three story brick structure in the Riverview Historic District was the first property on which a preservation facade and open space easement was taken by the Oklahoma Historical Society and the City of Tulsa. It is situated at the southern end of the District overlooking the Arkansas River. This is the site of the spring and ferry landing used throughout the history of Oklahoma and Indian Territory.

Library Building of the University of Oklahoma—Norman. Solomon Andrew Layton and associates designed the Library, which is now known as the Bizzell Memorial Library. Layton's interpretation of the late Gothic Revival style with decorative stone bands, stone quoins, incised carvings, and the Gothic window openings established the tone of the University of Oklahoma campus through much of its existence. In addition to the Library, Layton's firm designed the original Law Building and the west wing of the Memorial Stadium at Owens Field.

Seay Mansion—Kingfisher. In 1890, a bill passed the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature to remove the Capitol from Guthrie to Kingfisher. This was vetoed by Governor George Steele. But, in 1892, Judge Abraham J. Seay of Kingfisher was sworn in as Steele's successor and hopes grew once more. Seay built a mansion, suitable for the Governor's residence, but as his appointed term ended, so did the hopes to gain the Capitol. The three story house with its distinctive dome-roofed tower room remains a landmark in this western Oklahoma city.

Mattie Beal House—Lawton. This fourteen room mansion was constructed in 1909 as the finest home in the frontier town of Lawton. The finish was a gray stucco, highlighted with the native multi-colored sands from the Wichita Mountains creek beds, so that in the sun, the exterior walls become polychromatic. Mattie Beal took advantage of the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche lands to obtain land in the lottery. She made the transition from telephone operator to city builder with no difficulty.

OKLAHOMA TERRITORIAL BUILDING STONE

By Howard L. Meredith and Mary Ellen Meredith

When the people of Oklahoma Territory began building permanent commercial and residential structures one of their main concerns was material. Long range transportation of stone was impractical, so builders relied heavily on local quarries to supply their needs. The variety, strength, and beauty of local stone determined how much and how it was used. It is no accident that, for example, in Pawnee, Ralston, and Newkirk, the majority of the towns’ buildings were constructed of grayish-white sandtone and limestone. In the southeastern part of the Territory, more brick and concrete blocks were used. The stones there lacked beauty and hardness and were unsuitable for finishing stone.

Although the railroads used large quantities of crushed limestone and granite for ballast and several companies quarried red granite near Granite for monumental stones, the greatest demand for stones and rock was for building purposes. In fact so great was the demand and so dependent were the builders on local stone, that several quarries opened for the purpose of supplying the material for a single structure. For example the Apache State Bank, completed in 1902, was constructed from good quality yellowish-brown sandstone from the hills immediately southwest of town. An earlier example was the stone wings and tower added to the brick, three story structure that housed the Territorial Normal School in Edmond. The original structure was completed in 1892, and the native red sandstone elements were added in 1894, thus it became the “Old North Tower.” The sandstone was quarried on a farm five miles northwest of Edmond. J. W. Fullerton opened a limestone quarry expressly for the purpose of construction of the Fullerton Dam, which retained water from Turkey Creek for irrigation purposes. Fullerton quarried the stone from immediately to the southwest of the construction site in Jackson County beginning in the mid-nineties. In the case of the Fullerton Dam, both the quarry and the dam were placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a single nomination.

The Territory's igneous rock was gabbro, granite, and granite porphyry, with granite predominating during the period. The majority of the quarries were opened in the Wichitas just after the turn of the twentieth century. The stone quarried during the period was little more than a surface product.

The granite in the Wichitas varied from a fine crystalline in some localities to a coarse granular in others. It was a reddish pink and gray in color and took an excellent polish. It was particularly valuable for ornamental purposes. Companies in the region of Territorial origin included: Abeline Granite Company, Apache Granite Company, Mount Arrie Granite Company, Oklahoma Granite Company, Red Mountain Granite Company, and Ruggles Granite Company. Abeline Granite Company operated the largest and best equipped quarry in the Wichitas. Located on Quarter-master Mountain, it was situated practically within the city of Granite and within half a mile of the railroad. The quarry consisted of an opening approximately two hundred feet in length, sixty feet in width, and twelve to twenty feet in depth. Surface covering consisted mainly of rough granite boulders of varying thickness. Immediately below the weathered surface was a heavy bed of fine-grained red granite from twelve to eighteen feet thick. The Abeline Company established a well equipped polishing plant. As granite was taken from the quarry it went directly to the plant to be dressed and polished for monuments. The fine-grained red granite had a specific gravity of 2.5 and the coarse-grained red granite, 2.6. The specific gravity of the gray granite was approximately the same, 2.59. The quarry was opened in 1900.

Oklahoma territorial quarries.

The Ruggles Granite Company also operated at Granite. It owned one hundred and sixty acres along the south slope of Headquarters Mountain. It used a twenty-five ton Lidgerwood steam hoist and a twenty-five ton, seventy-five foot Oregon fir derrick. It constructed a twenty-four by one hundred and eight foot polishing shed, with two seven-foot polishers and two ten-foot polishers, as well as a thirty-six inch by twenty foot column lathe and polisher. It also had a cutting shed eighty feet long, equipped with a Kotten surfacer and a Kotten Junior surfacing machine.

Other quarries in the area were owned and operated by W. B. Sprague and W. H. Kettell. These were located about two miles northwest of Granite on the southeast quarter of section twenty-one, township six and range twenty-one west. Most of this stone was a coarse-grained gray granite, which took a fine polish.

Large deposits of gabbro and porphyry were exposed in the north and eastern portion of the Wichita Mountains. Both were hard, compact rocks, and made good building stone. The gabbro was rather fine-grained or crystalline with a bluish-black color. It was referred to as “Black Granite,” although it also varied from greenish to gray. Gabbro outcroppings occurred in three separate localities in the Wichita Mountains, two in the main range, and the other one west of it. The first exposure existed along the north side of the mountains on both sides of Medicine Bluff Creek and extended northwest and southwest paralleling the range from the east end of Mt. Scott to the east slope of Saddle Mountain. The second exposure ranged along West Cache and Quanah creeks. The third rested in the Raggedy Mountains.

The porphyry was a hard massive rock with grayish ground mass, containing numerous red crystals. It weathered more rapidly than either of the other igneous rocks. This was exposed in the original Fort Sill Reservation area, also on Mt. Scott, Signal Mountains, Calton Mounds, Medicine Bluff, as well as along Blue Creek Canyon. Much of the porphyry was not used in the Territorial period because of transportation difficulties.

The sedimentary rocks, including limestone, sandstone, dolomites, shales, were widely distributed geographically. Much of the quarrying activity was located in the northeastern and eastern part of the Territory. Limestone was one of the most important stones quarried in Oklahoma. It was found principally in two general areas—the northeastern part of the Territory and the Wichita Mountain region. The northeast had the largest quarries of the Territory, extending through the eastern portion of Kay County and the western part of the Osage Nation. The rock of the region is of the Permian and Pennsylvanian series. Outcroppings along the hills of eastern Kay County were thought to be the southern extension of the Winfield Concretionary Limestone. East of Newkirk there were six to eight heavy ledges of Limestone outcroppings which varied in thickness from five to thirty feet.

Much of the limestone bore the imprint of fossils and varied considerably in texture and color. The stone ranges from a white or light yellow to a dark bluish gray. The lighter colors predominated. As a rule, the stone was quite uniform in color throughout single beds. The limestone in this region was used principally for buildings, sidewalks, curbing, roadmaking, and bridge construction. A little was used for making fenceposts and rustic monuments. The heaviest concentrations of these quarries were Newkirk and Uncas in eastern Kay County.

Many of these limestone quarries in Kay County were situated along the bluffs of the Arkansas River, three or four miles east and southeast of Newkirk and around Uncas. One of the large quarries was owned by J. C. Armstrong and located four miles east of Newkirk on the southwest quarter of section twenty-two, township 38, range 3 east. This quarry was opened in 1899 and produced stone throughout the remainder of the Territorial period. It consisted of one opening two hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet wide, and fourteen feet deep. It faced east and had a covering of red shale. The stone varied in thickness from four to ten inches. Immediately under the shale was a boulder formation or irregular layer of stone ranging from twelve to eighteen inches in thickness. Another thin layer of shale then appeared. Below that occurred a heavy ledge of white limestone from eight to nine feet thick, which was quarried in blocks from one to eight feet square. Beneath this were two layers with a total thickness of five feet with a thin strata classed as “strippings” beneath that. The lowest strata was stone of a rather coarse grain with heavy fossil imprint. The white limestone was relatively free from imperfections and of medium hardness. It was the one quarried for saleable stone and was readily worked by the masons. The specific gravity of the stone was 2.48 and 2.5 as tested with the Jolly Balance. It was a very porous stone and if saturated would have given higher result. The average porosity of the stone was .18.

Stone carts in eastern Oklahoma territorial quarry (Courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society).

In strength tests four inch cubes were crushed in a Reikle Testing Machine and stood pressure of 41,000 and 42,500 pounds of pressure per square inch. In testing a beam four by six by twenty four inches, with a distance of twenty-two and one-half inches between fulcrums, the beam broke at 5,560 pounds of pressure. Stone from the Armstrong quarry was used principally for buildings and road construction. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Station at Oklahoma City were constructed from this stone. Both of these buildings have been demolished. Other public buildings constructed from this stone include the territorial period elementary school, high school, and City Hall in Newkirk.

The Miles Fuller quarry was located near the Armstrong quarry, on the northwest quarter of section twenty-seven, township 28, range 3 east. The stone was bedded in distinct fashion, being separated into about five layers varying in thickness from six inches to four feet. This quarry consists of one opening approximately three hundred feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and eight to twelve feet deep. The texture resembled the stone from the Armstrong quarry and the color varies only slightly from almost white to a light buff. The quarry was opened in 1889 and was worked only at intervals through the Territorial period. The stone was sold for rubble, sills, posts, and paving purposes.

Stifford's Quarry was one of the first opened in the vicinity of Newkirk. It operated continuously from the spring of 1894 through the remainder of the Territorial period. It was located two miles east of Newkirk on the southeast quarter of section thirty-one, township 38, range 3 east. The quarry was about two hundred and fifty feet long, two hundred feet wide, and six feet deep, running from north to east. The surface ledge was very irregular in thickness, predominantly a rough boulder formation. The few layers were broken stone classified as “strippings.” Beneath this were five layers of stone varying from four to twelve inches in thickness. This was one of the several quarries noted for its excellent flagging stone.

The Jesse C. Feagin quarry was located about six miles northeast of Newkirk on the northeast quarter of section 31, township 29, range 3 east. The quarry was irregular in shape, about three hundred and fifty feet long, two hundred feet wide, and six to twelve feet deep. It faced the east and the north. The surface covering consisted of red clay and from eight to ten layers of shale, varying from one to four inches in thickness. Beneath this appeared three heavier ledges of stone ranging from one to two feet in thickness, which were split into four, six, and eight inch layers. The quarry was noted principally for its excellent flagging stone, used primarily for local sidewalks. It was of a fine texture and a bluish-white color.

Some of the best stone in Kay County for building purposes was taken from the John Baker quarry. It was located one mile northwest of Uncas on the northeast quarter of section twenty-three, township 27, range 3 east. It consisted of two openings. The first was one hundred and eighty feet long, sixty feet wide, and nine feet deep. The stripping was about eighteen inches thick and increased in back of the face of the quarry. Beneath the covering was a six foot ledge from which most of the stone was quarried. Below that was a stratum of blue limestone, approximately two feet thick. The second opening on the side of the hill stood about six hundred and fifty feet to the north of the first. It was nearly twice the size of the first with essentially the same stone, but with no blue stratum. The white stone was about ten to twelve feet thick, uniform in texture, easily worked and very durable. The stone was crushed at 48,500 pounds of pressure and a beam of four inches by six inches, by twenty-six inches between fulcrums twenty-two and one-half inches apart stood pressure of 8,950 pounds. The specific gravity of samples ranged from 2.25 to 2.52, with an average porosity of .112. The most famous territorial structure constructed of this quarry's stone was the Santa Fe Station in Shawnee, which is being restored through the efforts of the Potawatomie County Historical Society.

Finally, the Santa Fe Railway owned a large quarry near Uncas from which it obtained its ballast for its line beds.

In the northern part of Kay County on the Chilocco Indian Reservation, the government operated a large quarry from which all of the stone for the Chilocco School buildings came. This stone ranged through three colors—bluish-white, blue, and cream. The blue was the finest grain. These buildings are in danger as the Bureau of Indian Affairs cuts back its programs. Only the presence of the Chilocco alumni have prevented their destruction.

These operations were the principal ones in Oklahoma Territory, with the exception of the government quarry on the Fort Sill Reservation, which was opened in the 1870s. All of the buildings within the Fort Sill National Landmark District were constructed from the stone from this quarry. A few small quarries near Hobart supplied the foundation stone for many of the territorial structures in that city. Local preservation efforts led by the arts council are attempting to preserve these buildings.

Large deposits of dolomite, which were considered a part of the upper Permian of Oklahoma and southern Kansas, occurred in west central Oklahoma Territory. True dolomites and dolomitic limestone occurred in certain localities in Greer and Roger Mills counties. While in Blaine, Caddo, Kingfisher, and Woods counties deposits ranging from magnesian limestone to arenaceous dolomite existed. In southern Blaine County near Geary, the reddish-white stone was hard and durable, and had a rather streaked appearance. This stone taken for local building purposes was quarried primarily in the Coyote Hills, three miles east of town, and in the Red Hill nine miles northwest of Geary. The dolomites were quarried for general building purposes and road construction. In a few places it was burned to manufacture lime.

Sandstone was distributed more widely over the Territory than any other rock. It occurred in considerable abundance in every county, although extensive quarries were located in only a few particular localities. The color ranged from white to dark red, with a variation in hardness from loose soft sand to the hard compact silicious sandstone. A large percentage of the stone contained a considerable quantity of iron oxide.

Hoist in a territorial quarry (Courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society).

The best sandstone for building purposes occurred in the eastern part of the Territory. Extensive quarries were operated in the vicinity of Ralston, Pawhuska, Perry, Pawnee, Skedee, Stillwater, Chandler, Shawnee, Oklahoma City, and Tecumseh. The quarries around Ralston were practically the only ones which shipped much stone to other towns for building purposes. The ledges in Woodward and Caddo counties were extremely hard, the hardest in Oklahoma Territory. In general the stone was used for buildings, bridge abutments, culverts, foundation work, sidewalks, and road construction. Most of the public and government school buildings through the eastern sandstone area were built from local stone. For example, the Government Indian school buildings at Pawhuska, the Territorial period buildings on the Oklahoma State University campus, including Old Central which is currently being restored, and the high school building at Pawnee, were all built of local stone. The ledges from which this stone is quarried, found along the hills and bluffs of the region, have at times a thickness of thirty feet.

Work crew in territorial era limestone quarry (Courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society).

Some of the more important quarries across the Territory include the following:

In the Osage Nation area, there were central and western outcroppings of sandstone of the Carboniferous age. These were durable of even texture, fine grained of a buff color. The quarries of note were located near Pawhuska. One was the J. B. Hale quarry located on the side of a hill almost three-quarters of a mile southwest of Pawhuska. It was two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide and four feet deep. There was a twelve inch covering of shale and clay, with a three foot ledge of yellowish-brown sandstone underneath it. The stone was rather soft when broken from the quarry, but it hardened upon exposure to the air. It was used principally for foundations and building construction. E. S. Palmer owned another quarry in the area approximately one and one half miles west of Pawhuska. It was one hundred and fifty feet by forty feet by five feet, with six inches of clay over eighteen inches of soft white sandstone over three feet of hard buff stone.

In the Pawnee area, stone outcrops were found along streams and hills a few miles west of town. This stone was durable, fine-grained, and easily worked. The yellowish-white color with numerous dark-brown spots gave it a mottled appearance. Most of this was used as a finishing stone. Another good quarry belonged to J. W. Lambertson near Ralston, on the northwest quarter of section thirty-four, township 24, range 5 east. It was three hundred feet long, two hundred feet wide, and four and a half feet deep. There was a thin layer of flagging stone one and one half inches thick over a two inch layer of shale, over a fourteen to eighteen inch bed of mottled sandstone. Blue clay of an unknown depth rested under that. The quarry was opened in 1903 with an average yearly output of five hundred cords of stone. It was sold to local builders for $2.50 per cord. In testing, a four inch cube crushed under a pressure of twenty thousand pounds. The specific gavity on samples ranged from 2.44 to 2.5, with an average porosity of .16. The A. Calett quarry one mile east of Pawnee provided the stone for the construction of many of the business blocks of Pawnee. The quarry was in the northwest quarter of section thirty-four, township 24, range 5 east. It was a heavy bed twenty feet thick of a light color sandstone. In the Payne County area the quarry industry concentrated near Stillwater and Cushing. Both red and white sandstone was produced for local use. The Hopkins Brothers’ quarry in the northeast quarter of section 1, township 17, range 5 east produced mottled color sandstone used for buildings in Cushing. In southeastern Oklahoma Territory, in Lincoln, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, and Cleveland counties, the sandstone was softer and darker in color. Much of the stone was too soft for building purposes. One notable exception was the sandstone quarried near Stroud, which was mottled with pink and white. Many of the business blocks of Stroud were constructed from this stone.

Most of the sandstone quarries were simple affairs with the equipment used being a hand drill, crowbar, wedges, hammers, and powder. One of the greatest mistakes made by quarrymen was the extensive use of powder. They destroyed large amounts of stone and also injured the strength of the blocks they produced by shortening the life of the stone through concussion. As regards Oklahoma Territorial stone, probably mechanical abrasion played the most important part in external cause of decay. Wind, rain, and running water have produced disintegration. Over the years the sandstone has changed color, primarily white to buff. However, the stone containing iron oxide had less susceptibility to change of color.

As Charles Gould, Professor of Geology at the University of Oklahoma during the Territorial and early Statehood periods, wrote: “Architecture is an index of civilization. The first settler in a new country builds his house of the material nearest at hand. In a timbered country he builds a log cabin. If the country is rocky with little timber, he erects a stone house. On flat prairie, where there is neither timber nor stone his home is built of sod or perhaps it is a hole in the ground called a dugout. Cost is always the controlling factor. Next to cost and intimately connected with it is the matter of transportation facility. Durability and beauty are matters that are only incidentally considered in the matter of building, until a country has progressed farther towards stable conditions.

“In Oklahoma we are just passing out of the pioneer stage, and into the period of settled conditions. As in other new countries the first buildings were constructed of the material nearest at hand. In the eastern part of the State there are still standing thousands of one-room log cabins. In the western counties there are many sod houses. These were the first homes of the settlers. As better conditions have been brought about, as cities have grown up, and farms developed, the character of the buildings has gradually been changed until at the present time all of our cities and towns contain buildings constructed of brick or stone.” In Oklahoma Territory, this process was telescoped over a relatively short period of time. The oldest limestone building in the Indian Territory was the Chickasaw Rock Academy near Wapanucka built in 1852, while the stone structures in Oklahoma Territory were all constructed after 1890, with the exception of the buildings at Fort Sill.

The Territorial stone buildings represent a unique part of the Oklahoma heritage. Their beauty rests in the fact that local building stone in large areas was durable, workable, and of pleasing color. The stone quarried in the Territorial period is irreplaceable. The buildings constructed then are the best measure of the buildings being constructed today. Their richness in texture and materials does not pale below what is presently being built, rather they are enhanced by comparison.

JOSEPH FOUCART, TERRITORIAL ARCHITECT

By Arn Henderson, AIA

Foucart's office on Harrison Avenue in Guthrie (Author's personal collection).

Given the task of characterizing the architecture of Guthrie, it is very tempting to retell the story of its birth—with all the romance and mythology that have become part of the Guthrie legend. But that story has already been told—and my role is to try to illuminate the architectonic elements of Guthrie and discuss the contributions of this remarkable and talented individual, Joseph Foucart.

By way of introduction though, one point deserves emphasis in the development of this Instant City. Guthrie from the very first was an urban community. Although the “tent city” image is one of the cornerstones of Guthrie mythology, it is a fleeting illusion. The very day they were pitching tents, they were also constructing wooden buildings. The same year of its birth—1889—fireproof buildings begin to appear, stone buildings first, then brick buildings. And throughout the decade of the 1890s the people of Guthrie built an urban community with all the amenities of urban life—electric lights, streetcars, and a thriving commercial district of remarkable visual continuity and cohesiveness.

The man responsible for the design of many of these buildings was an architect named Joseph Foucart. Although his buildings are conspicuous, Foucart as a person is elusive as a shadow. Little is known about his background or his life in Guthrie. We don't know with certainty all of his designs. Most of the best buildings in Guthrie we believe are his, but this is based largely on local oral history. There are few records that identify his buildings or give a precise account of his activities from 1889 to 1907.

Foucart was born in Arlon, Belgium, November 14, 1848. He attended local schools and later studied at an engineering and architectural school in Ghent, where he completed the course in 1865. He worked first for a railroad, then as a mining engineer. It was not until 1872 that he became involved in architectural projects. From then until he left Europe he worked on a number of large projects, including the new city hall in Paris. In 1888, when he was forty years old, Foucart immigrated to America. He lived in Texas for three months and then moved to Kansas City where he remained until settling in Guthrie in June 1889. One month later advertisements appeared in the newspaper:

The Parisian architects M. Villeroy and M. Foucart are very busy now getting up plans and specifications for various buildings here. They have just completed plans for the Catholic Cathedral and two brick blocks that will be completed here in the near future. These gentlemen are fine workers and should be liberally patronized. It will pay anyone to call on their office and examine their drawings.

Not long after that buildings begin to appear. One of his earliest designs, completed in 1890, is the building at 115 West Harrison. Foucart also had his office in this building for several years, in the third floor tower, Room Number 10.

It is difficult to sort out the influences on Foucart with so little information on his formative years. Surely the writings of the late nineteenth century French architectural theorist, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, must have affected him. Indeed, it is unlikely that any European architect working in the closing decades of the 1800s could have failed to have heard Viollet-le-Duc's gospel of an architectural trinity that embraced rational planning, structural determinism, and Gothic styling.

In Foucart's buildings we see evidence that he responded to the lessons of Viollet-le-Duc. From a planning standpoint his buildings are entirely rational and efficiently served the needs of commerce. They are most often set flush with the sidewalk with business establishments on the lower floor and professional offices and apartments on the second floor with private street-level entrances. Moreover, in buildings at the corner of a block, Foucart bevels the corner and sets the entry on this diagonal so that it can be seen and approached from either direction.

Former bank building in Perry (Author's personal collection).

Structurally, there is little question of the buildings’ integrity: they are load-bearing masonry walls and they offer a visible argument to the spectator. There is no doubt of what is supporting what. Walls are penetrated with arched openings; the lintels of these arches are often accented with contrasting stone to signify their structural importance; pilasters and engaged piers are expressed as vertical supports; and in some cases, cast iron columns are used in a completely undisguised manner.

When we consider the question of style, it is clear that Foucart's buildings reveal a predilection toward the Gothic. From a composition standpoint they are often asymmetrical and very picturesque which of course was one of the fundamental tenets of the early stages of Gothic Revival. Yet the most telling Gothic element—the ubiquitous pointing arch window—is missing completely in Foucart's work. In its place we find rounded arches and arches that are keyhole shaped that evoke a Moslem feeling. There are other influences—the domes on the turrets and oriels on some of his buildings suggest a Russian influence. There is even a hint of an influence by the nineteenth century American Romanesque Revival architect H. H. Richardson with the rough-cut stone walls and rounded arch windows that often combine stone lintels with voussoirs of contrasting color.

Deford Building in Guthrie—constructed in 1890 (Author's personal collection).

Another element in Foucart's design vocabulary was patterned sheet metal. Around the turn-of-the-century this was a popular material for architects and building designers. Moldings, trim pieces, finials, pinnacles, spires, and sheets of patterned metal could be factory ordered in a variety of sizes, shapes, and styles. These pre-fabricated parts could then be assembled on the job into any sort of composition the architect had designed.

Located in Guthrie, this native sandstone building is a classic example of Foucart's style (Author's personal collection).

Thus, when we consider the question of the Foucart “style”—a style that embodies Victorian Gothic, Russian, Moslem, and Romanesque Revival elements—we must conclude that Foucart's architecture is eclectic. Now in former times this characterization of eclecticism would be a pejorative comment—for eclecticism, that is, the combining of several historical styles in one building—was disdained by the great influencing architects of the early twentieth century. But we must remember that Foucart was a product of his age, and eclecticism characterizes the entire nineteenth century of both American and European architecture. So we can say with no apologies whatsoever, that Foucart's architecture is gloriously eclectic—and it is an eclecticism done with vigor, with exuberance, and with considerable imagination.

We can make other observations about Foucart's approach to design. In the DeFord Building, done in 1891, Foucart charges the design with a great sense of ambiguity. Now ambiguity in architectural design is a concept that few architects have consciously dealt with. In fact, throughout history most architects have opted for the opposite, that is, for clarity and continuity. Ambiguity is really a literary idea and it has been a powerful motif or theme in our literature of recent decades. Ambiguity is also a concept that has attracted twentieth century painters. When Picasso founded Cubism with his famous painting “The Young Ladies of Avignon” he shattered forever our traditional notions about space. We look at a Cubist painting and we perceive the forms as convex, then we look again and we perceive them as concave. But we simply do not find very many examples of an architect deliberately striving for ambiguous designs. Foucart, I believe, is an exception. In the front facade of the DeFord Building Foucart creates an asymmetrical composition of tall, narrow arched and rectangular windows and crowns it with a delicate profusion of sheet metal ornament. The ornament, like the pattern of windows, is also asymmetrical. When we see the front of this building we perceive the rhythm of solid and void and we build up a series of anticipations of what we expect to see on the side facade. But what we see is something totally unexpected. When we turn the corner on the building we are surprised—Foucart dazzles us with a new vocabulary. Is it concave or is it convex?

The early years of the decade of the 1890s was a time of rapid growth for Guthrie. It was also an extraordinarily productive period in the life of Joseph Foucart. Buildings which appear within two years of the founding of Guthrie are eloquent testimonials to the variety and range of his creative imagination. Among the earliest are the building at 115 West Harrison, where Foucart had his office for several years, and the DeSteiguer Building on East Oklahoma Avenue. The DeSteiguer Building originally housed the Guthrie National Bank. Both of these buildings are similar but yet they are very different. Both are in the middle of a block with other buildings on either side of them, thus there is only one primary facade. Both were built of the same material, red sandstone that was quarried locally. Yet from a composition standpoint the two buildings are very different. The Harrison Street building is assymmetrical and predominantly vertical while the DeSteiguer Building is largely symmetrical and horizontal.

One of the most prominent early buildings in Guthrie was the Grey Brothers Block. It is believed that Joseph Foucart was the architect. Although it is stylistically consistent with other work that we can identify as his, there is no known record of the original design for the building.

The building was built for the brothers William and George Grey who came to Guthrie on April 22, 1889 after operating a grocery business for several years in Kansas. They established a wholesale grocery near the present site and in 1890 constructed the first half of the building at the southwest corner of Oklahoma Avenue and Division. The building originally measured 25 feet by 80 feet, about half its present size. In 1893 the building was enlarged to 50 feet by 140 feet by expanding into the lot immediately west of the building and to the south to completely fill both lots. The addition on the south, devoted to storage and service functions, is not stylistically consistent with the original structure. However, since there is a rather large reveal for a service entrance, the addition does not even appear to be visually attached. The west facade of the addition, facing Oklahoma Avenue, was carefully integrated and is consistent with the original design. Although the rhythmic elements of the cornice are more widely spaced in the addition and the fenestration is narrower, the overall design appears completely unified. Shortly after they completed the new addition, the Grey brothers dissolved the mercantile firm and went into the real estate business. From 1894 throughout the remaining Territorial Period one of the primary and most substantial tenants of the building was the Bank of Indian Territory.

Guthrie City Hall—razed in the 1960s (Author's personal collection).

Like many Guthrie buildings located on a corner lot, the corner is chamfered with the main entry set on a diagonal. Attention is drawn to the corner by the projecting oriel on the second floor that is capped with a Russian dome. One of the most striking yet subtle visual attributes of the building are the variations in scale. The lower portion of the facade is pierced by several large arched openings with rough-cut stone lintels. The rhythm of the second floor then changes to a series of closely spaced doublehang windows, each crowned with a recessed panel of patterned and corbeled brick. At the cornice is an elaborate sheet-metal band composed of a small-scale, decorative square motif and accented by large pinnacles that extend both above and below the band and project beyond the brick surface. The effect, then, is one of a progression or gradation of elements of different visual scales and textures ranging from large, rough elements at the bottom to small, smooth elements at the top.

State Capitol Printing Company Building in Guthrie (Author's personal collection).

Foucart's first major commission was the 3-story Victor Block at 202 West Harrison, completed in 1893. The building was a speculative venture erected by one of the most successful developers of the commercial district. One of the early tenants of the building was the drugstore of F. B. Lillie, first pharmacist of Oklahoma. As in other corner buildings Foucart beveled the corner and accented it with an oriel. Although there is great variety of window sizes and shapes, continuity is established by common sill heights and a decorative sheet-metal cornice. A facade element that shows great design sensitivity are the recessed brick panels in the three bays at ground level. These are important visual elements that maintain the continuity of rhythm established by the windows in all the other bays of the facade.

Another major commission was the State Capital Publishing Company, later known as the Co-operative Publishing Company. It is a remarkable building, particularly for the simplicity and subtlety of the wall surfaces and fenestrations and details. The primary facades are unusually “flat” and restrained. Because of this facade austerity the three-dimensional tower is a powerful, sculptural counterpoint that draws immediate attention to the corner of the building.

The building was designed for the newspaper publisher Frank Greer in 1902 after an earlier building had burned. Greer had very definite ideas on how a building should function and it is likely the client exerted a restraining influence on Foucart. Frank Greer is important in the history of Oklahoma because Greer played a prominent role in the events which ultimately led to the removal of the capitol to Oklahoma City. Greer was one of the original Sooners who was staunchly loyal to Guthrie and his newspaper editorials varied between glittering praise for the town he helped found and bitter attacks on those he felt might have a destructive influence. Greer's rhetoric could be absolutely scathing. In one of his editorials he described a rival thusly:

Two thirds of the hell which has been raised in this town, and always in behalf of bad causes, has been raised by this mouthy egotist whose actions have always been as small as his brains. Having found a man who would loan him money enough to erect a building on lots he gained through the misfortune of a poor widow whose husband happened to be a sooner…he has since been bloviating to the disgust of all modest people on “what I have done for this town!”

Greer, a Republican, later became embroiled in a devastating dispute with Democratic Governor Haskell which led not only to the dissolution of state government in Guthrie, but also to the demise of the State Capital Publishing Company. Nonetheless, during its lifetime of newspaper publishing, it was one of the largest and best equipped operations of its kind west of Chicago. And the building continues to dominate a corner of downtown Guthrie with a dignity and grandeur that has been seldom equalled.

Frank Greer was also instrumental in obtaining the Guthrie City Hall commission for Foucart. Built of red brick and trimmed with red sandstone, the design was entirely symmetrical. The main block of the building was striated horizontally by a sandstone base, a band of square-headed windows on the first floor, arched windows on the second floor, and capped with an elaborate cornice. The vertical, frontal tower was accented with a series of circular openings. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed in the 1950s to be replaced by a more “modern” structure.

Gray Brothers Building in Guthrie (Author's personal collection).

There are three houses in Guthrie it is believed Foucart designed. One of these, a small bungalow on the west side of town, is identifiable as a Foucart design primarily by the keyhole arched window on the front facade. But there are no records which indicate that Joseph Foucart was indeed the architect. Another house, on East Warner Avenue, is also probably a Foucart building. It is not a spectacular design and the building has been extensively remodeled in recent years with disastrous results. The third house, located at 401 East Cleveland, is definitely a Foucart design and it is a gem. Foucart used a drawing of the front elevation of the house as an illustration in an advertisement for his architectural practice in the 1898 Guthrie directory.

Foucart designed the house for P. J. Heilman, a Guthrie businessman. In the territorial days Heilman had a harness shop and later manufactured canvas awnings. Heilman had an extreme fear of tornadoes and instructed Foucart to design him a house that would withstand any severe storm. Foucart responded by providing massive sandstone and brick walls. Completed in 1895, the house was the first masonry residence built in Guthrie.

Victor Business Block in Guthrie (Author's personal collection).

Stylistically the house can be generally classified as Victorian Gothic. It is asymmetrical and very picturesque. Yet there are other elements in the design, such as the keyhole-shaped windows and Russian dome, that give it great originality and vigor. Like many other Foucart buildings there is an enormous hierarchy of scale and texture. The rough sandstone with large arched windows are at the base of the building and the smaller, smooth-textured elements are at the top. An important interior feature in the foyer is a delicate wood screen separating the stair from the entry. The keyhole opening in the screen provides a subtle echo of one of the dominant themes in the composition.

Although most of Foucart's work was in Guthrie, he designed several buildings in other communities. In Perry he did a small bank building in the 1890s. Both in size and scale it is similar to many of the Guthrie buildings. Built of red brick, the facade has a great variety of elements—rectangular windows, rounded arch windows, a broken arched pediment over the entry, and the familiar keyhole window. Unlike many of his other designs though, the voussoirs of the arch for the keyhole window are smooth-cut stone. Terminating the top front corners of the building is another element that Foucart developed endless variations on—the engaged pinnacle. In the Perry Building these elements were built of rough-cut stone and look almost like a stack of marshmallows protruding from the building corners.

Line drawing of the P. J. Heilman House in Guthrie (Courtesy of the Historic American Building Survey).

P. J. Heilman House (Author's personal collection).

Decorative stairwell in the P. J. Heilman House (Author's personal collection).

During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century Foucart became the premier architect of Oklahoma Territory. He received two important commissions outside of Guthrie—the library for Oklahoma A&M College at Stillwater and the main building of the Northwestern State Normal School at Alva. Neither of these buildings exist today. The building at Alva burned during the 1930s and the Stillwater building was demolished and replaced with a new structure.

The building at Alva, nicknamed the “Castle on the Hill,” was probably Foucart's most important and substantial project. It cost $110,000 in 1905. Constructed of red brick and trimmed with sandstone, it was a massive building of great complexity. The components of the structure were all highly articulated with the central element approximating a three-story cube crested with battlements. On either side were lower two-story elements that extended beyond the front face of the cube and were rounded at the corners with large turrets. Bisecting the central cube were two smaller turrets that framed the entry and also rose above the central mass to terminate in an asymmetrical configuration of small-scale towers. There is a strong sense of tension created between these vertical elements and the horizontal series of arched windows at the second floor. Moreover, the building was essentially a symmetrical design, though the pattern was varied by a very subtle means—all the towers and turrets on the right-hand side of the structure were capped with a conical roof, while all those on the left-hand side had battlements. It is through this imaginative combination of directness and subtlety in design that Joseph Foucart left his imprint on Oklahoma. Though he worked in a nineteenth century tradition, he created a remarkable vision of elegance and grandeur when he designed the “Castle on the Hill” at the edge of the frontier.

Foucart left Guthrie sometime around statehood. We do not know exactly when he left. The records of Trinity Episcopal Church in Guthrie show that his wife Marie was removed from the register in 1906 and no transfer was recorded. We do not know why he left nor do we know where he went. His own relatives do not even know where he is buried. But he left behind a profound and beautiful legacy—one that is complex and rich with a visual interplay of form, rhythm, geometry, ornament, and variations in scale. It is this legacy that stimulates our aesthetic emotions today.

SOLOMON LAYTON: ARCHITECT

By Mary Jo Nelson

More than any other man in early-day Oklahoma, Solomon Andrew Layton shaped the style of architecture. From 1902 until his death in 1943, Layton lived and practiced in the heart of the territory and state, working all but five years in Oklahoma City. With different partners at times and a staff of draftsmen, he designed more than 100 public, educational, and commercial buildings and about a dozen private residences. In a solemn footnote to his career, more of his designs than any other architect's fell victim to urban renewal in downtown Oklahoma City, most in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the best are gone. Still, a majority remains in 1979. Very few large firms have surpassed the total output of Layton and partners even now, in the estimate of longtime practitioners.

Layton is widely described not only as the major designer of early and pre-statehood days but among the most influential architects in Oklahoma history. Historians Joseph B. Thoburn and Muriel H. Wright wrote in 1929 that the building of Oklahoma “has been powerfully influenced by (this) one man of ability and artistic talent.” They refer to Layton and partners as architects of more public structures in the state than any other designer or firm, “probably two or three times as many…and the style of their architecture and spirit of artistry have become permanent contributions.” In his history of construction in Oklahoma, Walter Nashert calls Layton “the daddy of architects, one whose work stood alone, Oklahoma's greatest architect” whose work withstood the test of years. A compiler of architectural and building history, Nashert did not know Layton personally although they were contemporaries. He came to be an admirer through long study of Layton and his products. Nashert finds Layton buildings distinct. “I don't care who his partners were. His work was his work and you can spot it immediately,” Nashert declared in 1974. Ornamentation and sturdy construction set Layton buildings apart, he said.

A native of Red Oak, Iowa, where he was born July 22, 1864, Layton had little formal education beyond high school. He apprenticed with an Iowa architect whose name is listed simply as Weisel in a half-dozen biographical sources. He came from a family of carpenters and builders, but all his life credited British poet John Ruskin with inspiring his ambition to design. Framed copies of excerpts from Ruskin's “Lamp of Memory” hung in Layton's home and office. One was salvaged and is displayed prominently next to Layton's portrait in the home of Mrs. Lowe (Alice Escoe) Runkle, one of three Layton granddaughters.

As a young man newly married, Layton succumbed to the lure of the west. With a friend, he went to Wyoming intending to start an architectural practice. The friend planned to open a grocery store, but the two lost all their possessions and nearly lost their lives in a mountain flash flood. Soon after the experience, Layton moved on in 1886 to Colorado where he was hired as a superintendent of construction for mines. A practice he opened in Denver the next year was exceedingly successful until the mining boom collapsed. Later ventures included making the Cherokee Strip land run in 1893. Newspaper accounts of his eventual success gloss over Layton's “failure to find a suitable claim.” But his granddaughters learned as children that their forebear and his brother, George, had staked a claim, but were driven off by a gun-wielding late arrival. After that Layton managed a commission for a building on the Southwestern University campus in Georgetown, Texas. An account in a 1944 volume of The Chronicles of Oklahoma—written by one-time Oklahoma Governor Robert L. Williams—states that Layton was chosen for the commission over other applicants when he quoted Ruskin from memory. The university official who interviewed architectural candidates was said to be greatly impressed. Permanent residence in Oklahoma came years before statehood. The family settled briefly in Perry, then in El Reno where Layton opened his office in 1902. A house he designed there remains today, and the early Canadian County courthouse (destroyed in 1964) was a Layton product.

He shifted the practice to Oklahoma City with statehood in 1907, remaining there until his death on February 6, 1943. There began an astonishing number of designs accomplished by the partnerships which followed. An application and record book the Layton and Forsyth firm submitted to the United States War Department in April, 1941, lists seventy-five buildings under the heading “Some of the larger buildings for which we have been architects.” Discussions with family members, with Mrs. Lenna Pugh, Layton's secretary for twenty-five years, with currently practicing architects and many available references reveal this is a modest statement of work. The Record Book identifies nine downtown Oklahoma City office and commercial buildings, another at Northwest 13th and Classen Drive, forty-six buildings for the Oklahoma City Public School system, the original University of Oklahoma football stadium, the first OU law building, sixteen courthouses throughout Oklahoma with the Grady and Oklahoma County seats of government specifically identified, and an El Reno school.

It seems appropriate, if not symbolic, that the Layton and Forsyth Record Book lists first the Oklahoma state capitol, one of the state's magnificent designs. Layton is given essential credit for the capitol's relocation from Guthrie in newspapers of the day and in historical references, including a 1923 Harlow's Weekly. An article titled “Oklahoma's Leading Builder,” reads in part:

Southern view State Capitol Building in Oklahoma City (Courtesy of the Oklahoma Publishing Company).

The bringing of the state capitol to Oklahoma City was as much if not more the work of Mr. Layton than of any other one individual in the state. He worked tirelessly and unceasingly for the capitol transfer…putting thousands and thousands of his own money into the contest, which by the way, towards the last he directed.

Architects Layton, S. Wemyss Smith and James W. Hawk were awarded the capitol design contract on January 7, 1911, and the construction contract was let to James Stewart & Co. on October 24, 1914, according to official minutes of the State Capitol Building Commission. But Hawk left the firm soon after the architectural work began. His name does not appear on later documents relating to the project. A plaque at the second story level, west wall of the grand staircase states work began on the capitol July 20, 1914, and was finished June 30, 1917. The Capitol is one of four Layton designs in Oklahoma City listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The fourth successful nomination placed Layton second behind only Joseph Foucart—territorial architect of Guthrie, Perry, and Stillwater—in number of buildings so commemorated. The capitol was built under direction of the State Capitol Building Commission, whose chairman was the governor, with a citizens’ advisory committee appointed to help speed the project. During and after construction, architects Layton and Wemyss Smith were dissatisfied with some of the Bedford limestone facing material. They complained about “doubtful uniformity of color and texture.” Official minutes reflect that a special committee was appointed from the commission and citizen advisers. With a draftsman, members inspected the stones—each individually numbered—and in a report dated November 22, 1918, pronounced eleven to be “not now of uniform color.” Fifteen were declared “slightly non-uniform.” The minutes record further that Governor R. L. Williams, as chairman, adjudicated the matter. He is quoted: “I elect on the part of the state to take pay for same to be set in place in lieu of same being replaced by said company.” The record does not indicate how much the general contractor or supplier paid the state for the non-uniform stones, their off-color clearly visible today from four sides of the capitol. The neoclassical building with huge Corinthian columns on all elevations has undergone interior alterations through the years. Added walls close off some of its vast halls and barrel vaults for office space.

Most recent alteration was construction of eight glass-walled conference rooms, four on either side of the grand staircase. Located at the fourth and fifth floor levels, the rooms overlook the marble stairs. Occupied frequently for legislative meetings on respective House and Senate sides of the capitol, the glass rooms configuration are identical. East and west of the stairs are a larger two-story room, with two smaller compartments tucked under a fifth floor chamber. In the fifth floor rooms conferees get a closeup view of the capitals which crown pilasters and columns, stained glass skylights and other adornments Smith and Layton added. Project architect for the 1975–1976 conference room alteration, Paul B. Meyer, declined to follow one legislative suggestion—that walled-off vaults on the third floor be turned into the needed conference rooms by dropping down a grid ceiling. “If you did that, it (capitol) would never be restored like it was,” Meyer said. Meyer developed “great respect” for the original design, noted especially the designers’ advanced ideas. He disclosed his work on the remodeling had fostered an ambition to see the building restored as nearly as possible to the original. To Meyer, the initial project was “astronomical for so new a state” to have accomplished in 1914–1917, when construction techniques were primitive by modern standards. “Reinforced concrete (construction) was not unique at the time, but certainly it was special. It was quite an achievement considering the means they had,” Meyer said.

An early contract for Layton, Smith, and Hawk was design of a building for the first high school organized in that portion of Oklahoma Territory opened to homestead settlement on April 22, 1889. First titled Oklahoma High School and established in 1892, the school met in a Methodist Church before its permanent home was ready at Northwest 7th and Robinson. Oklahoma City donated half the land on a raw prairie for the school and funds for building came from a bond issue promoted by the students themselves. Construction began in 1908. Classes met in the unfinished building in the autumn of 1909 and the first seniors graduated the next spring. The name was changed to Central High School after the city grew so large it needed another and Classen High School was added in 1919. Records in the school administration office fail to show the year it became Central, but a 1922 diploma issued to Fern Hoover came from Oklahoma High School. Two years later, graduate Maybelle Conger got a diploma from Central High. Central's prairie surroundings of 1910 developed decades ago. With integration in 1955, it became a secondary school, admitting junior high students for the first time. News stories in the Oklahoma City Times made much of historic opening day when Central became the first fully integrated school in the Oklahoma City system. A sweep past sticky juniper trees today uncovers its cornerstone, declaring architects to be Layton, Smith & Hawk. Looking virtually the same as in photographs of 1920 and 1930, Central was added to the National Register November 7, 1976. Records at the Oklahoma City school administration offices are incomplete as to the number of buildings which came from drawing boards of Layton and associates. One with ample documentation is the original Webster Junior High School, a 1921 project of Layton and George Forsyth. Both site and structure excite historians—the building went up beside the glen where Captain David L. Payne and his Boomers encamped nine times, only to be removed by troops of the United States Army. Their persistence was significant in the decision to open central Oklahoma to homestead settlement. Webster was the first school in Oklahoma to have a swimming pool. Mrs. Runkle remembers that during planning stages, her grandfather traveled west while partner Forsyth headed east to inspect schools they considered outstanding. Besides bringing water sports to city school children, innovations included lockers, said to be the first installed in a state school. Webster was renamed F. D. Moon Junior High School after integration and closed as a school in 1973, when it was acquired through eminent domain by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority. Today it blends with newer structures on the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus.

Oklahoma City school plant records identify Layton, Smith, Forsyth, and a later partner, Jewell Hicks (shown in Oklahoma City directories as a firm member between 1925–1935) as designers of Classen High School, 1919; Capitol Hill High School, 1928–1929 and a 1934 addition to it; Taft Junior High School, 1930, and additions in 1934 and 1937. The Record Book also specifically lists Douglass High School. Abandoned and destroyed schools have been removed from current records at the school plant services office, but the different firm names appear again and again on existing records. Letters contained in the 1941 Record Book from two one-time Oklahoma City school board members credit the firm with design of all five senior high schools and at least five of the six junior highs (one letter says all six) then existing. Further, Layton and partners are said to be responsible for a majority of elementary schools built at that time. Education buildings in the designers’ repertory extended to higher learning and well beyond Oklahoma City. Gene Cunningham, AIA, an Oklahoma City practitioner, recently discovered the Layton name on the Hugo High School cornerstone. “Some of his work marks practically every college campus in the state,” Walter Nashert said. Some other authorities that refer to Layton as a primary architect of Oklahoma college buildings are Thoburn and Wright in their Oklahoma, A History of the State and Its People, Volume III:

Mr. Layton's firm brought into existence a vast number of beautiful public buildings in the state. They built the state capitol, the law buildings of the University of Oklahoma, the Southeastern, Northwestern and Central Teachers’ Colleges and scores of other public structures.

An undated clipping from The Daily Oklahoman in the Runkle family collection contains the reprint of a letter Layton once wrote to the State Board of Affairs. In it, the architect protested plans to tear down an 1897 building (not a Layton design) on the Northwestern State College campus at Alva, following a fire. Layton revealed he had been asked by alumni and men “who had pledged their fortunes to build this building to help save it from destruction.” The writer disclosed a careful examination had established “these walls the fire could not destroy…standing almost intact.” The damage easily could be repaired, he assured the state board. Layton suggested officials scrap plans to replace the building at a cost of $250,000; spend half that amount to “bind up the wound and recondition this noble structure,” and invest the other half in a library. “Let no man tell you that in this building was not incorporated every principle of good schoolhouse construction which we know of today,” the letter continued. Later the writer quoted from Ruskin :

For indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones nor in its gold. Its glory is in its age, and that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in walls that have been washed by the passing wave of humanity.

In addition to the original OU law building, completed in 1913, Layton and associates created the first portion of the university library (now Bizzell Memorial), completed in 1929, and original sections of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at Owen Field. A Layton granddaughter, Mrs. Homer (Annabelle Escoe) Cones treasures two monk figures, carvings left over from the library project interior decoration. Mrs. Cones also owns a small dog done by the same Italian woodcarver, who her grandfather often employed. It bears the name Lorenz, but family members and the secretary have forgotten the first name. The OU stadium was developed in stages, with the original west wing completed in 1923 and expanded in 1925. Records of the University of Oklahoma public information office show the east wing added in 1928 also was a project of Layton. A picture for the 1941 Record Book shows the distinctive graceful curve of the stadium. Later engineers who worked on a major expansion in 1949 remarked on its solidarity. The stadium was sound enough to support addition of a deck on the west side in 1975.

A private institution, Oklahoma City University, also bears the Layton mark. Its fine arts auditorium was designed by his firm, finished in 1928 and renovated in 1967 to retain the original style. The year 1928 must have been furiously busy for the entire architectural staff of Layton, Hicks, and Forsyth, located at 906 Braniff Building in downtown Oklahoma City (another Layton design). At least eight major projects were under way—the Oklahoma City University auditorium, Capitol Hill High School, the east half of the University of Oklahoma stadium, the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company building, the University of Oklahoma library, an addition to Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in downtown Oklahoma City, Crippled Children's Hospital and the original building for the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. The latter two were finished in 1928, and Children's Memorial Hospital (its later name) was renovated and expanded in 1973. Ed Hudgins, AIA, of project directors Hudgins-Thompson-Ball & Associates, described the hospital as one of the soundest structures he had ever seen. On the northwest corner of Northwest 3rd and Broadway in Oklahoma City, two buildings testify to an architectural rarity. Side-by-side, the structures memorialize the architects considered early statehood's outstanding designers.

Southwestern Bell Telephone Building in Oklahoma City. The original portion of the structure (on the left) was designed by William Wells; the larger addition was designed by Solomon Layton and John Forsyth (Courtesy of the Oklahoma Publishing Company).

William A. Wells, who practiced in the capital city from 1904–1914, fashioned the seven-story Pioneer Building, a simple structure of straight lines, varied fenestration, and terra cotta ornamentation. Towering over the corner building is a sixteen-story stone-trimmed creation of the Layton-Forsyth-Hicks partnership. The Wells building is faced with limestone; the later Bell building with yellowish buff brick. That the company may have planned to replace the Wells building is illustrated by an architectural rendering included in the Record Book. The drawing shows an addition of the brick building replacing the Wells structure. Reasons why the expansion never happened are lost on present Bell spokesmen. Thus, a rare example of the artistry of two early contemporaries is left us. Another example of neighbor buildings by the same architects are the Baum and Colcord, both built in 1910 at Robinson and Sheridan. The Baum was part of the Layton legacy. Wells designed the Colcord. Later generations of Oklahomans know best the works of Layton and partners which disappeared with urban renewal in the heart of Oklahoma City.

Probably the most elaborately decorated of any buildings in city history were the Baum (also known as the First Equity Building and later, Fidelity National Bank), and the Patterson (later named the Equity and finally, assimilated as part of Kerr's Department Store). Both were the subjects of futile efforts against destruction, initiated by the late historian George H. Shirk and the late Tom Sorey, Sr., AIA. Layton and Smith fashioned the Baum after the Doge's palace in Venice, with cupolas, arches, marble columns, window variety and frequent use of marble. Shirk often referred to it as “an architectural gem,” and sponsored a campaign to have it picked up whole and moved from Robinson and Sheridan to near city hall. Discouraged by engineers, he proposed another site for the six-story Baum—across the street by the Colcord. At his own expense, Shirk hired a Los Angeles moving company noted for its successful transfer of tall buildings to examine the Baum and come up with a cost figure. Shirk and the Oklahoma City Historical Preservation Commission struggled with the question from October, 1971, until the following May before giving up the effort as too costly. Wrecking began July 19, 1972, and took less than two weeks. The building's nineteen foot mural depicting Oklahoma history was saved by Jack Conn, board chairman, and removed to the new Fidelity Bank, N.A. building. Cupolas were salvaged piece-by-piece. One is anchored outside the Oklahoma Historical Society; another in the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce courtyard.

Patterson Building in Oklahoma City (Courtesy of the Oklahoma Publishing Company).

Sorey considered the Patterson to be the finest example of terra cotta ornamentation. Built—as was the Baum—in 1910, it was named for the original owner's daughter. He called it the Dora Patterson Building. Its address in the 1911 Oklahoma City Directory is “Main and Terminal,” part of the streetcar and interurban terminal which extended from Main to Sheridan (formerly Grand Avenue) east of Hudson. Original owner L. E. Patterson was prominent in early day development and operated one of the city's three street car lines. Patterson's franchise covered south Oklahoma City and after acquisition by the Oklahoma Railway Company, became the interurban line to Norman. The terminal in 1911 extended north and south with the Patterson facing east, its most beautiful facade overlooking the terminal arcade. Its crowning feature was twelve cast iron baroque lighting fixtures along the cornice. Each held a huge opaque glass light globe. The holders were bought for salvage by Shirk and distributed to friends after the building's destruction. It is interesting to note that neither the Patterson nor the Baum is listed in the 1941 Record Book, illustrating that ornamental styles of architecture were passing from popularity. Dora Patterson inherited the building and relatives loaned money in an attempt to keep it. Letters to the editor of the Friday Forum, Oklahoma City Times, in November, 1974, from Albert S. Gilles of Norman and Ed J. Story of Elk City relate the aid was futile. The building passed to other hands. A similar fate befell the effort of Sorey. Sympathy was about all he was able to muster in his campaign to save the building. The Patterson was destroyed by wrecker's implosion on December 14, 1975.

An architectural rendering bearing the Layton and Smith name in the 1911 directory tops an advertisement which describes the building as “absolutely fireproof.” The ad boasted “ice cold water, two fast elevators, base plugs for electric fans, gas connections, and compressed air for dentists’ service.” The Patterson also had a central vacuum system—as did the state capitol—all advanced features for a frontier city in a new state in 1911. The ad does not mention that walls and floors were solid marble, the stairwells upright slabs more than two inches thick, features noted during a tour of the building shortly before it was blown down. The Record Book lists only part of the downtown Oklahoma City buildings to come from the Layton and partners drawing boards. Not among the nine it identifies is one later taken into Kerr-McGee Center. Originally the Braniff Building, it was headquarters for the architectural firm for many years, and built in 1922–1923 for Thomas E. Braniff, financier and one-time president of Braniff Airlines. Except for first floor remodeling after Kerr-McGee bought it, the building at Northwest 3rd and Robinson remains much as it was designed. Another Kerr-McGee acquisition was the Petroleum Building, now Midland Center. Disproving claims of urban renewal planners that it is cheaper to destroy and rebuild, the energy corporation skillfully renovated it without destroying the original character. It is an outstanding example of adaptive re-use. Jack W. Roach, since retired, was director of buildings for the fuels corporation when the structure was remodeled in the 1950s. “It was hell for stout,” Roach remembers. Architects for the renewal, Coston-Frankfurt-Short (later Frankfurt-Short-Emery) ran into a problem matching exterior facing bricks, Roach said. The original design is unusual: Bricks change color—graduating from darker to lighter brown—as the building rises. The reinforced concrete building was doubled in size with addition of a 50-foot-wide extension, a duplicate of the original. Owners and architects were determined the addition would be an identical copy. “We had one hell of a time matching the bricks as to size and color. But we kept at it until we found them, and it sure makes a beautiful sight,” Roach said with pride. “Go look at it,” he urges.

Among other historic buildings to come from the Layton and Smith era was the Mercantile. It served as Oklahoma state offices before the capitol was finished. Brothers Sam and Leon Levy built the first five stories in 1910 and added three more in 1926. The Huckins Hotel was considered the capitol because the official state seal was located there after its transfer from Guthrie. But city directories list Mercantile Building addresses for the governor's office and several state agencies between 1910 and 1917, when the capitol was completed. A few weeks before the Mercantile was destroyed, a son and nephew of the original owners discovered a stack of official state files for the year 1910 shoved under a basement staircase. Harrison Levy donated the files to the Oklahoma Historical Society along with one of the pens used to sign the bill making Oklahoma City the state capital. The pen had been donated to Leon Levy by the first governor, Charles N. Haskell, who signed the capitol removal act in 1910. The Mercantile was kept in superb condition by three generations of Levys until its demolition on February 29, 1976. Its cornice was lined with twenty beastly gargoyles. Some were salvaged for the Oklahoma City Historic Preservation Commission. When destruction came, the building appeared reluctant to fall. The first three attempts to ignite 250 pounds of explosives met with frustration. Finally, after chance had commuted its death sentence for an unscheduled hour, a wiring short was repaired and the Mercantile crumbled. It took six seconds.

There is also the Oklahoma Publishing Company building, an Oklahoma City landmark since 1909 and a National Register property. Designed by Layton and Smith for the company newspapers, the Oklahoman and Times, its plans had another hand. The late E. K. Gaylord, for more than seventy years the company president and publisher of the newspapers, personally spent about six months of 1907–1908 planning layouts for each department and floor. In 1972, Gaylord said the building was faced with the same Batesville marble used at Central High School. Quarried in Arkansas, the mineral resembles limestone although is much harder. A half-century after its construction, Gaylord had the building appraised and was told it was one of the sturdiest structures the appraiser had examined. The five-story structure follows classical architectural styles, primarily Greek revival. Besides National Register status, it has been designated a historic site by the Oklahoma City preservation commission.

A victim of urban renewal was Halliburton's Department Store, completed in 1920 after a Layton-Smith design. The store opened in Oklahoma City in 1897 as Mellon's. With owner changes and stock sales, it became Scott-Halliburton and finally, Halliburton's. It was by the latter name that generations of Oklahomans knew it for four decades. The store ran into financial difficulty in the 1950s and was sold to a national chain. Its 180 employees were stunned at a morning meeting on January 20, 1961, when they were told Halliburton's was in business no longer. The place that had been called “Oklahoma's wonder store” in the 1920s became an abandoned building. It was vacant until 1964 when a private trust organized by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce bought it for resale to the city. It was used as a city hall annex until condemned by the urban renewal authority in 1976. It was located at Main and Hudson, less than a block from the Municipal Building. The Bedford limestone structure was leveled by explosives on April 17, 1977.

A downtown Oklahoma City building that looks almost the same today as it did when Layton-Forsyth-Hicks created it is the one-time Medical Arts Building, completed in 1925 and listed in the 1941 Record Book. Built co-operatively by a group of physicians, the building housed medical offices and a bank, which required walls twenty-seven inches thick for its vault. Interior Medical Arts walls were finished in acoustically treated silk fiber. Marble and bronze were used elaborately throughout. Ceilings were lined with silk and edged with silk-covered moldings treated to absorb sound. All woodwork was American walnut. Floors were Italian travertine stone. Facing stones were Tennessee tavernelle and plate glass windows set in cast bronze frames, according to a description in The Daily oklahoman April 6, 1925. With pride Mrs. Runkle remembers when the Medical Arts went up, her grandfather urged the doctor-owners to excavate a tunnel across Broadway to the east and to add multiple-level open parking across the street. “I can remember his saying ‘That's the wave of the future,’” Mrs. Runkle said. However, half-a-century would pass before a multi-level parking garage would rise immediately east of the spot Layton suggested. Santa Fe Plaza opened in 1972, a runaway success, with a waiting list of 200 names several years old. Layton succeeded in convincing one downtown land owner to build tunnels, however, and these formed the nucleus of Metro Concourse when that extensive underground system was excavated in 1973–1974.

The first tunnels linked the Skirvin Hotels, built, owned and operated by oilman William B. Skirvin. In her autobiography, “Perle, My Story,” Skirvin's elder daughter, Perle Mesta, describes her father's “300 room hobby.”

Father called in his pal, S. A. (Sol) Layton, the best architect in the state of Oklahoma, and within a week they were working out plans for a six-story hotel. Early in 1910, the Governor of Oklahoma, Charles N. Haskell, helped Father turn the first shovel of earth…One night in September, Father went over to Sol Layton's office to celebrate the completion of the fifth floor framework. One drink led to another and Sol kept insisting that at the rate Oklahoma City was growing, a six-story hotel would be too small. By 3 a.m., Father thought so too, and the next day, he increased his order to obtain enough Malakoff brick to cover eight stories.

Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City (Courtesy of the Oklahoma Publishing Company).

Later celebrations as the framework moved upward resulted in the Skirvin's rise to 10 stories with two wings when it opened for occupancy in September, 1911, Mrs. Mesta recalled. Five more stories, a third wing, a roof garden and elaborate ballrooms were added in later years. The Skirvin has sheltered presidents, world figures, famous personalities, state and national politicians to this day. Guests remembered by Skirvin's daughter and son, O. W. “Bill” Skirvin include Al Jennings, the notorious bank robber; cattlemen such as the Miller brothers of the 101 Ranch; Indians of many tribes in full regalia and oilmen—among them Bill Skelly and Walter Ramsey—“usually covered with oily mud which they tracked all over the lobby.” Mrs. Mesta speculated the oily deposits were the reason Skirvin refused to have rugs in his hotel lobby. The youngest Skirvin child, Bill, always had an assortment of animals in the hotel, despite the fact his father didn't allow pets. They caused frequent crises, as did the Skirvin heir's attempts to launch a homemade airplane off the hotel roof. Mrs. Mesta considered the Skirvin home for the rest of her life. Her first party was at the hotel and she conducted more lavish social events there after she became a national leader in the Democratic party, Washington's best-known party hostess and minister to Luxembourg. Bill Skirvin, now of Shawnee, remembers especially the friendly banter that sparked the friendship of Layton and his father. “He (Layton) never missed a day coming over to the hotel to visit with Dad. He would come over from his office and they sat in the lobby. It was his great hobby to kid my dad,” Bill Skirvin recalls. “My dad used to sweep the alley. Nobody else could ever do it to suit him. He would time it so Sol would catch him doing it. One day Sol brought him a new broom and made quite a ceremony out of presenting it. I wish I could remember some of their conversations. They were wonderful,” Skirvin said.

One interesting Skirvin Hotel design feature is rounded bays dividing first and second and second and third wings, running the full fifteen story height. The unusual window wings are visible only from the front of the hotel, on the south. A second hotel, the Skirvin Tower, was added across Broadway in the last decade of Skirvin's ownership. Construction began in 1931, but the depression and a controversy with the city over construction of the tunnels delayed the Tower's completion until 1940. One of the Layton-inspired tunnels ran east and west under Broadway to connect the sister hotels. Later on, it led Skirvin guests to the luxurious Tower Club, added in 1949 in the Tower basement. The second tunnel extended north from the Tower and led to property on which Skirvin planned to build either parking or another hotel. It was used for storage until Metro Concourse became an extension of the subterranean walks. Among longtime tenants of the Tower were WKY radio station and the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. It closed as a hotel in May, 1972, after its sale to Continental Savings & Loan Association. In a rebuilding project that required two years, the Tower's buff brick and green terra cotta exterior was stripped away, exposing girders and the concrete frame. Mirror glass replaced the stone in an adaptive re-use renovation which turned it into an office building. A spokesman for Continental said the project cost about one-third the price of a new building. Bill Skirvin remembers that terra cotta for the Tower was designed by the architects and fabricated in Illinois especially for the luxury hotel. It was a shade of green rarely seen in fabricated stone, and the hotel heir was saddened to see it destroyed. The older of the Skirvin hotel pair started life as Oklahoma's show place in an opulent era spawned by new oil wealth. It settled into a matronly dignity after the Great Depression, enjoyed a decade or so of tasteful luxury following World War II, but fell on hard times in the 1960s. It was declared bankrupt in federal court in 1971, but after long litigation and change of ownership, was renovated in an $8 million overhaul during 1974–1975. Its name was changed to Skirvin Plaza.

Two Layton and Forsyth buildings strikingly similar in appearance are the Midcontinent Life Insurance Company at Northwest 13th and Classen Drive and the Oklahoma Historical Society at Northeast 20th and Lincoln. The 1941 Record Book identified Midcontinent as the Insurance Building. An architect's rendering hangs in the company president's office, fifty-two years after the handsome building was finished. Groundbreaking was May 12, 1926, and it was completed exactly a year later. The historical building opened in 1930. George Forsyth is identified as its designer in Layton's necrology, written for The Chronicles of Oklahoma by former Governor Robert L. Williams. Williams wrote that long before his death, Layton persuaded the Oklahoma Historical Society board of directors to let Forsyth design the building without pay. “This suggestion was undoubtedly made for the purpose of improving the building wherever it could be done within the limits of its available finances. Mr. Layton was truly a useful citizen,” the former governor concluded in the obituary. The capitol was and is the major government building in Oklahoma City, but Layton and Forsyth also designed the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City. A Public Works Administration project, the building was finished in 1936. Except for minor remodeling of judicial chambers on several floors in the 1960s and for rebuilding of the jail on the upper floors, the building has needed only minor revisions since.

Mid-Continent Life Insurance Building in Oklahoma City (Courtesy of the Oklahoma Publishing Company).

Layton's granddaughter Annabelle Cones has started a personal search for the other fifteen or sixteen (references vary) courthouses her forebear designed. His name is on the cornerstones of Grady County in Chickasha, Washita County in Cordell, Beckham County in Sayre, and Greer County in Mangum. The Cordell courthouse has features somewhat like the capitol with a central rotunda, columns and capitals. A county clerk there remembers when an elevator was installed in the domed building some years ago, it was a major job to tear through the wall. Layton, Smith, and Hawk are identified on the 1910 cornerstone. The trio of architects is listed also on the Sayre courthouse cornerstone, set on April 10, 1911. S. A. Layton is identified as sole architect for the Mangum courthouse, a 1906 project. The Grady County building is a Layton-Forsyth-Hicks design, dated 1934. The granddaughters remember that its frontispiece was sculpted by the same stonecutter who shaped frontispieces for the Oklahoma County project.

Among state-owned buildings crediting Layton and partners on their cornerstones are five original ones at Central State hospital, Norman, and other early structures at correctional institutions and hospitals over the state. A 32nd degree Mason, Layton designed Shrine Auditorium for the Masonic order. Later a newspaper office, as Shrine Auditorium it had a lavishly styled interior with chapels and meeting rooms. Blind pianist Alec Templeton, performing there in 1947, described the auditorium as acoustically perfect. A past potentate for India Temple Shrine said the building was sold in 1950 because Shriners no longer could bear the financial burden of paying off its cost and maintaining the hall. Although most of his work was large buildings, Layton designed at least six substantial houses. Some are the C. B. Ames home in Oklahoma City's Heritage Hills, the Governor's mansion near the capitol, an El Reno Victorian residence, and the house he built for himself at 600 Northeast 13th. Alice Runkle explained her grandfather chose the site at the 13th and Lincoln intersection to overlook the wide boulevard and his capitol. The Layton house also fell to urban renewal. It was torn down for expansion of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Presbyterian Hospital is located at the site today. The late George H. Shirk, writing in 1976, called Layton central Oklahoma's foremost architect, whose “fertile genius…had done much to add beauty to the capital city as it appeared immediately following statehood.” The list of Layton work appears endless. “I don't know how they accomplished so much,” 80-year-old Gaylord Noftsger, AIA, reflected.

“We were always busy. We worked long hours, Saturdays and Sundays, even one Christmas Eve. At one time, we had at least 25 to 30 draftsmen,” Mrs. Lenna Pugh, Layton's secretary, recalled. She considered Layton's charity almost legendary. After his death, Mrs. Pugh disclosed many benevolences, including a permanent account he had at the leading Oklahoma City shoe store to buy foot wear for poor children. Mrs. Runkle can remember a steady stream of young people who sought and received educational help from Layton. “He was just the most magnificent person I was ever connected with in any way. He was so far ahead of his time,” Mrs. Pugh declared.

“Whether it was a courthouse or school or an office building he was planning, Mr. Layton always went to look at the best one he could find,” she said. Once, Layton found a building he liked immensely, “but he said there were no shadows on it,” Mrs. Pugh remembers. “He said the perfect building is one which at some time of the day has shadows across it.” Layton cast a long shadow across Oklahoma.

BRUCE GOFF'S RIVERSIDE MUSIC STUDIO

By Bill E. Peavler, AIA

In 1927, the profession of architecture for Bruce Goff, at that time a young man of twenty-three, was pretty well determined as a life-time pursuit. He had apprenticed as a boy of twelve to the Oklahoma architectural firm of Rush, Endicott & Rush of Tulsa, and had worked there after school, on weekends and vacations. By this time he had accumulated eleven years experience in an architect's office and had designed the Boston Avenue Methodist-Episcopal Church South in Tulsa.

During a recent visit with Goff, he related several experiences that centered around his work on projects of those early years. His Riverside Music Studio on Riverside Drive in Tulsa was a source of a part of his recollection and should be of interest to the architectural historian. The last time he had seen the building a large sign proclaiming “The Drunkard” dominated the front facade and he had the feeling the place was in bad shape, at least considering the way it was and the way it appeared then. He commented that sometimes buildings suffer more from people than they do from weather and time.

Reaching for a recent publication of his works, we looked at photos and drawings of the plan of the music studio while he traced with his finger the various portions of the building and its functions. He commented that, “The woman who had me do this was named Patti Adams Shriner. She was a music teacher and had several music teachers working for her. Six or so, I think, to start with. She wanted to have an apartment there that she could live in, in addition to a small servants space. One of the problems was that she wanted a grand piano, located in her living room, to be wheeled onto the stage where there was also another, that way they could have two-piano work going on at certain times.”

“The pool,” he continued, “was located at Riverside Drive and had a fountain which was designed by a good friend, Alfonso Iannelli. It has been stripped, but at one time it had a chrome pipe coming up out of the sculpture with water trickling down over the various shapes into the pool. As you entered the building, from either side, you came up to a landing and went into the recital hall. The doors and windows opened out because in those days we didn't worry about air conditioning, cross ventilation was sufficient then. Practice rooms were small, two up and two below on each side, which made kind of a balcony into the foyer.”

Bruce Goff in his Tyler, Texas office (Author's personal collection).

The Music Studio provides a great deal of contrast upon its sloping site of green or brown, depending on the season, with its white boxy walls that are perforated with dark, rectangular openings and dominated by the large, round window with sand blasted patterns facing the Arkansas River a short distance away. It would seem that the design for this building was playfully created in that the facades are punctuated by black glass inserts connecting windows that abstractly remind one of notes on the sheets of music while the graphic scale for the floor plan is a take-off on the musical scale. The building is constructed of structural clay tile units with a stucco coating. When the black metal casement windows are opened up to catch some of the ever present Oklahoma breeze, their shadows provide an interesting ever-changing counter-point on the white stucco. Roof surfaces are practically flat and hide behind short parapet walls that are pierced at collector heads which remove rain water and take it to the ground level through dark colored down spouts. The living, dining and kitchen facilities were so arranged to serve for receptions held in relation to concerts and recitals. Some of the original touches in the apartment that are no longer around were aluminum ceilings, walls papered with light green Japanese wood veneer and fireplaces of green marble and black glass.

Panels in the Riverside Music Studio painted by Olinka Hrdy (Courtesy of Bruce Goff).

Piano was the only instrument that was taught at Riverside, but of the Arts one other was represented in the form of stylized murals relating to music. Producing another publication, “The Western Architect,” dated 1929, Goff shared the article he had written on the Music Studio which displayed several delightful photographs of the murals. Pointing out the various themes upon which the murals were based he related that,

Olinka Hrdy, the young woman who painted the murals, was an Indian and Czech mixture…quite a combination, and her Indian part showed…was from Prague, Oklahoma. She would just kind of grunt sometimes and not say much of anything, and at other times she was just…uberflaven…that was the Czech part coming out, but I got her to do the murals for the Studio. I knew that Mrs. Shriner would be a person that you would have to get an agreement signed with, so I told Olinka that she would need to make up a color drawing of just what she wanted to do in each of those panels and then we would get Mrs. Shriner to OK them. That way she would be protecting herself and Mrs. Shriner could not say, “I didn't know it was going to be like that.” Or something. So after Mrs. Shriner did OK the designs and Olinka was about half way through, Mrs. Shriner came up to see me and she was just furious. She was wearing a blue dress…just about as blue as you can get…a fluorescent blue, if you can imagine something like that…covering a chubby figure topped out with kind of a pink, peroxide blonde hair-do. On this blue dress were three bright red cherries pinned to her hip and they fairly vibrated against that blue. She said, “Mr. Goff, you've just got to get that girl off my walls…she's ruining my walls and I'm not going to have my walls ruined.” I asked her what was the matter and she said, “Haven't you been down there?” I told her that I had seen Olinka painting the murals just like the agreement called for and she said, “She is not. She is ruining my walls!” I asked her what was wrong and her reply was, “Oh, that blue that she's got down there…it's just awful…it just makes me feel blue.” I kiddingly asked her if she was sure it wasn't her dress. She didn't expect any kidding and she didn't respond to it in any way. She said, “If you don't tell her to get off there then I will ‘cause I'm not going to have her ruining my walls.” Well, I reminded her that she'd OK'd those panels which were going on just as she had agreed and that she'd still have to pay if Olinka was taken off the job, that they were half finished and that nobody could come and complete them, and besides that what she was suggesting just wasn't cricket. I reminded her that when other colors were added they would all modify each other and a color that looks bright by itself doesn't look that bright when there is another color with it…which is true, of course. She said, “Well, I'm not gonna’ have it.” So she went down there and Olinka told me the best part of the story later. When Mrs. Shriner came to Olinka she said, “You get down off that scaffold right now. I'm not gonna’ have you touch another paint brush to those walls.” And Olinka said, “What's wrong?” The reply was, “Why those colors are horrible…I just can't take ‘em.” Olinka asked, “What's wrong with these colors?” Mrs. Shriner said, “Why that violet there…thats the color of the flowers on my mothers grave. I can't have that in here.” Red was the color of passion…and blue made her feel blue…and green was the color of envy and jealousy…and black was the color of death…and yellow was the color of sickness…and she had some God-awful meaning for every color in the book. Everyone. So Olinka asked, “Are you through now?” She was getting more Indian every minute and Mrs. Shriner said, “Well, I think you've gotten the idea. Now you just get down from there. I'm not gonna’ have you on these walls.” Olinka replied, “You know, Mrs. Shriner, all the time you were telling me what those colors meant to you I realized there is only one color you should have around you wherever you are.” Mrs. Shriner asked, “What's that, dear?” Olinka said, “White.” And Mrs. Shriner asked again, “Why white?” And Olinka, who had her pallette in her hand, said, “‘Cause white's the color of insanity!” And she threw her pallette down on the floor and stomped out, and I had to get those two females together again to get the job finished.

Goff stated that that took a lot of working. He had to get the job completed and he knew if he could just get Mrs. Shriner to see the murals finished that she would like them, so he went to Olinka, who had her eyes on another job that Goff had coming up, agreed that she should be teed-off at Mrs. Shriner but suggested they use a little child psychology in this instance. He told her, “Here we've got a child on our hands, even though she's a middle-aged woman, and we've got to get this job done. You owe it to me to get it done.” Goff said, “Olinka told me, ‘I'm not going to modify my colors any.’ I assured her I wasn't asking her to. All you have to do is,

Just go ahead and put them on as you had planned to. Don't modify them. I'll tell her that I've asked you to modify your colors so every time she comes around just complain, “Oh, if only I could use stronger colors like I wanted to.” Well, Mrs. Shriner had cooled off a little by then and she said, “Oh well, of course, if she would modify them (that word “modify” does wonders)…that's another story, but I'm not going to have her ruin my walls with those awful colors she's putting on there.” So I said for her to just hold her horses, that we'll get her to put them on more to your liking. When you see it all done, then if you want to get all upset about it, OK, but first let's get it finished. Mrs. Shriner said, “If you can get her to do that, well alright, but I don't think she will…she's just crazy.” I told her Olinka wasn't crazy, she was just an artist and wants to do the best she can for you. I got them “modified” that much themselves and we did go ahead and do the thing.

Are the murals still in existence? Goff is not aware of them if they are. They were painted on canvas so they could have been removed, rolled up, and stored in somebody's attic. He knew that Holland Hall School had bought the building when Mrs. Shriner went broke. She could not get along with her teachers and eventually there was no one left to teach except herself, all the other teachers left and opened their own studios or worked for someone. It seems she was also jealous of the building because so many people stopped to see it…of course, they were not taking piano lessons and it grated to have curiosity seekers on the premises. Goff had told her one time when she was complaining, “Well, you've got to expect that. You build a building that's different at all and they want to see it, but that doesn't mean that the building is your enemy…it's your friend. It's attracting people towards it, and who knows, maybe some of them will tell somebody that's got a child that wants to study piano that that's the place to go. It isn't going to hurt you. Maybe it will help you.” But, she had this jealousy of the building in addition to not being able to get along with her teachers that worked for her. So she lost the place and the bank took it back.

Plan for the Riverside Music Studio (Courtesy of Bruce Goff).

It is believed that the murals disappeared after Holland Hall School took over the buildings. At this time there has been no indication that the murals still are in existence. Perhaps someday, someone will find several rolls of unusual paintings that are long and narrow, covered with the dust of the years that has gathered in, who knows, what attic or what warehouse. If they do exist, someone has a prize, or surprise.

Following the Music Studio project Goff was associated with several jobs which came into the office. One he recalls was the remodeling of the Tulsa Convention Hall in which thirty days was allowed to prepare the design and complete all the construction. The existing wood floor, which had the features of remaining flat or being elevated, had to be removed along with all the old seats. A production of Carmen by the Met was scheduled for performances at the end of the thirty days. Goff developed sketches at the project site for the remodeling, which went well despite a fire resulting from welders’ sparks from a skylight above the drafting surface. Only a rough two square feet of sketch was saved, but it was enough to lay-out anew the patterns that had been designed for the ceiling. A concrete slab floor to receive the new seats was installed along with all the new light fixtures, carpet, and fabrics. The asbestos curtain, which was painted by Olinka Hrdy, may still be hanging in the stage area. Remarkably, the work was completed with two days to spare which gave the cleaning people the time they needed to clean the place and get ready for Carmen.

About this same time, Goff was working with Mrs. Robert Fox MacArthur, a tall woman about 6’ 2" who wore tailored dresses of the 1900 period with high stave collars and lace, and this was 1928. Her hats were wide with flowers and things that hung on the edges. She was president of the YWCA during this time and was having Goff design a recital hall on the fourth floor where a good many partitions had been removed. The stage was worked out in a kind of shell with steps that went directly into the audience, so there were no front foot lights. Lighting was from two piers that broke the steps and could be directed on the front. The plaster was in curved shapes that was backed up with metal lath with footlights in the floor in the rear which threw light up on the shell. Mrs. MacArthur approved the design and work was commenced. It seemed that during that time all of the plastering work was done by workmen of Italian descent, at least in the Tulsa area, and they would sling “mud” and clown around while they were applying the plaster. One day Mrs. MacArthur called Goff and asked if he would accompany her to the job site, which he agreed to do since he was there most every day anyway. Of course the workmen had never seen her and did not know who she was or what she had to do with the project and they were all singing and working away when she entered the room. They saw her weaving her way through the scaffolding to the center of the stage and she was such a striking figure that their eyes just popped and their mouths hung open and they looked at Goff like, “Well, where did you find that?” They shut up a little bit as they were wondering what she was going to do and as she reached the center of the stage she stopped and clapped her hands three times. “Gentlemen, may I have your attention?” she said as they looked in disbelief,

South face of the Riverside Music Studio (Courtesy of Bruce Goff).

Mr. Goff, our architect, has assured me you are doing a good job and I can see you are. But doing a good job isn't quite enough. In the old days when craftsmen were really craftsmen, they not only did a good job but they entered into the spirit of the thing. Now that's what you gentlemen must do. Mr. Goff says you're following the plans and I'm glad you are because they're beautiful plans, but it isn't enough to follow the plans, you must feel the plans, you must feel the rhythm in this thing. There's a sweep that comes out at you like this….

At this point she made a broad sweeping motion with her arms and hands. “…and it comes up this like a big shell and it has this kind of swing, you see.” More motion. The workmen were spell-bound, just bowled over, and while they were recovering she clapped her hands three times and said, “Gentlemen, resume your work.” Goff said it was quiet as a church and he knew if they hung around no telling what would happen, so he suggested they leave by saying, “I think you got the message across so we'd better go now.” We went out in the hall and as the door closed we heard, “Haww, Haww, Haww.”

Window treatment in the Riverside Music Studio (Courtesy of Bruce Goff).

They just broke up and I know she heard it because I sure did. She just kind of tossed her head, walked very stiffly and didn't say a word as we went down. Goff confessed he surely hated to go back to the site the next day because he knew he was going to get it, and he did too. He said, “I went in there and one of them said, ‘Hey, where's your girl friend?’ and I told him she didn't come along. One of the workmen said, “Hey Goff, how's this for rhythm?” and he took several exaggerated swings at a nail. “Is this the way you do it?” Another said “How's this for swing?” and he threw some mud on the mesh and took some grandiose passes at the plaster. They could care less about how the craftsmen did it in the middle ages, but they were having a grand time and even though it was embarrassing to me I had to laugh along.

During this time Goff designed the Merchants Exhibit Building in Tulsa, which occupied the space beneath the bleachers of the grandstand at the fairgrounds. The Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company building design was approved by the home office in Pennsylvania; they liked it, but because its picture would be included among the other offices around the country on the front of the calendar, the design was changed to one less extreme.

Barry Byrne, a good friend of Goff, was the architect for Christ the King Catholic Church in Tulsa. When Byrne and Bishop Kelly agreed to disagree on certain unfinished items of the new church, Byrne recommended that Goff be hired to complete the work remaining. Goff's designs for the Bishop were well received and later led to a commission to design a new Cathedral in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, a week after the Bishop's approval of sketches, he was dead and the project failed. The Depression, too, was not kind to the architectural profession and several projects of Goff's fell by the wayside during this traumatic period. From that time to the present, Goff's career in architecture has continued to expand and his work is as varied and individual in his concepts as the many faceted and fascinating objects with which he surrounds himself. His humor, as related in the vignettes concerning Mrs. Shriner, Olinka Hrdy, and Mrs. MacArthur, seems always ready to surface.

Even while the architectural practitioners in Oklahoma were concerning themselves with Beaux Arts Classicism, Neo-Classicism, Sullivanesque, and Prairie trends, very little interest was shown in the Art Deco and International Styles judging by existing buildings of that period. David Gilson De Long, in his published dissertation on The Architecture of Bruce Goff, states “It is difficult to offer any single precedent for this design (Robinson Studio)…Art Deco in feeling, its direction is followed intermittently during the ensuing decade in a recital hall project, a parking garage project, the Riverside studio, the Medical Arts building in Ponca City and a jail project.”

PEOPLE AND PLACES IN THE HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN OKLAHOMA

By Kathryn McKnight

The Greeks and Romans had never bothered about the future but had tried to establish their paradise right here upon the earth.

Then came the other extreme of the Middle Ages when man built himself a paradise beyond the highest clouds and turned this world into a vale of tears for high and low.

The Renaissance was not a political or a religious movement. It was a state of mind. In the Renaissance men no longer concentrated all of their thought and their efforts upon the blessed existence that awaited them in Heaven. They tried to establish their paradise upon this planet, and truth to tell, they succeeded in a remarkable degree.

Hendrik Van Loon

Oklahoma is a relatively young state, having been settled more than a hundred years after the founding of our nation. The state was fortunate in having individuals who, early in its history, took an interest in the environment and worked toward creating verdant settings within urban areas. Much of the beauty they created continues to influence and enrich our lives today.

The garden at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa is one of the most photographed scenes in the state. It had its inception in the late 1920s when Waite Phillips engaged S. Herbert Hare to work with Edward Delk in developing a twenty-three acre estate on the outskirts of Tulsa. Classical Italian Renaissance was the style chosen, in accordance with Mr. Phillips’ wishes. Architecture reflecting the timeless respectability of the classical past was appealing to the prosperous industrialist of early twentieth century America. Its use of simple geometric shapes created a sense of order, clarity, and graceful solidarity, while the harmonious and stable massing of space was very impressive.

The ideals of the Renaissance architects were based on the revival of antiquity; namely, the theories of mathematical proportion expounded by a Roman architect named Vitruvius in the first century B.C. It revered the Classical Orders: the round arch, the circle, and the square. It combined these orders to achieve its ideals of harmony, balance, and satisfying proportion. All dimensions related to the human scale, as man was the measure of all things. The balance, symmetry, and sweeping dramatic vistas experienced at Philbrook all are overt expressions of the Renaissance characteristics.

Plan for Villa Philbrook in Tulsa (Author's personal collection).

Plan for Villa Lante in Italy (Author's personal collection).

The formal garden at Philbrook begins at the east terrace and steps down to the “Temple of Love.” This little structure is fashioned after Donato Bramante's Tempietto of St. Pietro in Mantoria. The diagonal walk and ramp treatment, together with the rill, was more or less patterned after the sloping ramp at the Villa Lante, which is located at the small village of Bagnaia, about two miles from Viterbo, some fifty miles north of Rome. Hare had visited the villa some years before his work at Philbrook was begun, and was impressed with several aspects of its design. “While it is not as large as others, it is one of the finer examples of garden development of the Renaissance, and has been unusually well-preserved because it is in private ownership,” Hare stated.

One of the favorite scenes at Philbrook is the delightful reflections one sees in the pond located at the base of the formal garden. This was an effect planned by Hare:

In collaborating with Edward Delk, the architect, I related it axially to the little knoll on which The Temple of Love has been built. By means of a profile along the axis, I was able to locate the main pool in such a location that the angle of reflection from either the house or the Temple gave a full image of the other object.

As in Renaissance Italy, the building was placed at the top of a hill so that the observer experiences a sweeping vista created by the placement of the various elements in the garden. The design of the garden is such that as one approaches the building along the axis, he experiences a series of gardens separately, but when he arrives at the villa and looks back along the vista, these separate gardens become fused into a harmonious pattern.

The juxtaposition of the formal gardens of Philbrook and the natural, wooded area is also a characteristic which reflects the sixteenth century Italian Renaissance Garden. A ravine, complete with waterfall (when it rains), runs along the rear of the garden through the wooded area. Cool rock grottos, grassy knolls, heavily wooded areas, and broad grassy expanses originally intended for playfields are interspersed with stone benches and steps.

The Philbrook estate, once declared by Will Rogers to be one of the two outstanding homes in the southwest, was given to the citizens of Tulsa to be used as an art and Indian shrine in 1938. Further studies were made by Hare and Hare for parking requirements and for development along the lines of a botanic garden, but the latter has never been pursued. Due to the care given by the museum staff, the gardens at Philbrook are preserved, in most respects, the way they were laid out in 1928.

Another Italian Renaissance-style project was begun shortly after Philbrook was completed. The Tulsa Rose Garden was originally part of a thirty-seven acre tract of land acquired by the city in 1909 for a park. The wooded area to the north had become a picturesque rock garden, containing groves of oak trees, winding drives, flowing streams, and varieties of plant material along its slopes.

With the lovely Woodward Park on one side and one of Tulsa's most beautiful homes on the other (now the Tulsa Garden Center), the ugly gully between them was an eyesore to the city. In October, 1933, C. Burton Fox was called in to design a rose garden for this area.

Fox had come to Tulsa in the early 1920s after graduating with a Master of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California. After working with William and Harvey Nursery in Tulsa for a few years, he opened his own firm, Tulsa Landscape and Nursery Company. His firm's first job was the layout of the 2,225 acre Mohawk Park. He said Tulsa was not esthetically developed when he came here. “People did not know what good design was, so much of my job was in educating the public.”

At the insistence of the late N. G. Henthorne, then president of the City Park Board and the editor of the Tulsa World, and Will O. Doolittle, Parks Superintendent, Fox designed a formal Italian Renaissance garden for the three-block tract. Because of the size of the area and the opportunities presented there, Fox, with Doolittle's approval, decided it should be more than just a rose garden, it should assume more the aspect of a botanical garden.

To fit the steep slope, the garden was designed as a series of six terraces, each a complete garden within its own boundaries, though only a unit of the whole. Plantings were placed on either side of the walks to create vistas; pools and fountains were to occupy a prominent place in the center of each terrace, and scattered turf beds were to accentuate the colorful flower beds.

As this project involved much hand labor, it was chosen as a Federal Works Project. It was to cost the then huge sum of $750,000, primarily because all work was to be done manually or with horse teams to provide more employment for the jobless. But the money ran out and many of the features of the design were left uncompleted. Each of the five pools was to have a large fountain, statues were to be placed in several areas, a pergola was planned for the east side of the garden, and a monument and flag pole were designed for the first terrace along Peoria Avenue.

Since its inception, the garden has been the recipient of many awards and honors. In 1937, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine presented the Tulsa Garden Club a bronze plaque now placed on the first terrace. The club was cited for its accomplishments in “civic improvement and in recognition of vision, industry and civic pride.” Great Gardens of America, a recently published book on the most beautiful formal gardens in America featured the Tulsa Rose Garden. Each year thousands of visitors delight in the display of over 10,000 rose plants of 250 varieties. C. Burton Fox was responsible for many other landscapes connected with Oklahoma before his move to Springfield, Illinois in the early 1950s; the Tom Berry Estate in Stillwater, the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, Philbrook (he worked with S. Herbert Hare in the initial design phases), and the Memorial Cemeteries in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

E. W. Marland, renowned oilman, philanthropist, and former governor of Oklahoma, was vitally interested in creating beauty in his surroundings. His interests ranged from developing his own expansive estate to creating the “Garden” in his city. Due to his efforts, Ponca City was one of the earliest cities in Oklahoma to engage a consultant in city planning.

Jacob L. Crane, engineer and consultant, presented his plan to the city in 1927, citing Governor Marland for the many features of unique interest and beauty he had given Ponca City. Of these, he noted, “the lovely garden along East Grand Avenue, the public golf course, the tremendous estate northeast of the city, the Pioneer Woman Monument, and the handsome vista developed looking eastward from Grand Avenue.” He thought Marland had had a great impact on the city and in reserving land for the city high school and city park, as well as other sites for future public use.

Aerial view of the Tulsa Rose Garden (Author's personal collection).

Henry Hatashita was brought from Japan to oversee the planting of the greatest variety of trees and shrubs to be found in Oklahoma. Rare and exotic species still grace Ponca City streets, yards, and parks. There are Japanese varnish trees, golden dogwood, lilac trees, golden-rain trees, ginkgos, aspen, linden, black cherry, Douglas fir, white pine, spruce of many kinds, cypress, junipers of several types, magnolias in profusion, and many others. Hatashita's green thumb is now a legend in Ponca City. He was educated in this country, but never became a citizen. He was deported during World War II.

Marland's 2,500 acre estate, the “palace on the prairie,” was fashioned after Davanzati Palace in Florence, Italy. Nearly $2,500,000 were spent on the estate between the years 1925–1928. A swimming pool, three lakes, a game refuge, stables, gatehouses, a lodge, a garage, an art gallery, studios, an administration building, a nine-hole golf course, polo grounds, and kennels were included in the estate. Sloping down from the mansion's front door for nearly a mile were the floral garden and botanical park. The grounds were patterned after famous Hampton Court in England and the Palace of Versailles in France.

Japanese gardeners were also brought to Oklahoma in the early 1900s by Mrs. J. Garfield Buell, who created a lavish Japanese garden in Muskogee. Statues, lanterns, and plants were imported directly from Japan. Bridges over gracefully flowing ponds combined with the stylized plant life to produce a uniquely oriental environment. A book called Country Life in America, published in 1926, lists but one estate in the entire southwest, Mrs. Buell's “Homestead.”

Several superior golf courses in the state were designed by an Oklahoman who achieved international fame. Percy Maxwell, independently wealthy since birth, decided to retire from banking at the age of forty to devote himself to his long-time hobby, golf course architecture. When he was twenty-six, he had designed his first golf course, Dornick Hills in Ardmore. After his retirement, he was immediately engaged to design other courses including Hillcrest in Bartlesville and Nichols Hills and Twin Hills in Oklahoma City.

Maxwell had studied the best Scottish golf courses assiduously, and, by the mid-1930s, had arrived at a basic philosophy of golf course architecture: The land was the all-important thing and should be changed as little as possible in building golf holes on it. That way, the integrity of the land was kept intact and the golf course had character.

In 1935, he applied this philosophy to his work at Southern Hills, using but a single tractor along with mules and drag pans. The natural terrain was closely followed, with a minimum of dirt being moved. He had completed a superior golf course in just fifteen months with a surprisingly small budget of $113,000. Of this amount, a little less than half had been spent on drainage and irrigation systems. Maxwell had called in a specialist from Chicago, Illinois, who drilled seven wells, created a huge storage lake, put in miles of drainage pipes, installed an intricate sprinkling system, and all in all did such a superlative job that the club's watering system can today, with the addition of a second storage lake, produce 3,300 gallons of water.

Another pioneer in the field was W. E. Rey, who came to Oklahoma City in the Run of ‘89. Being too young at the time to hold property, he began working for a nursery, and, in 1907, became the owner. Rey and Son's Nursery had a great influence on the landscape work that was done in the Oklahoma City area earlier in this century. Landscape designers were hired by the nursery who would periodically travel to Enid and put an advertisement in the paper letting people know they were available. After receiving an invitation, they would visit the client's property, prepare plans, and ship the necessary plants to him by rail.

Rey's son-in-law, landscape architect N. D. Woods, completed many large projects in Oklahoma City. The first big landscape development in the city, Nichols Hills, was designed and planted by Mr. Woods, as well as the Frank Buttram Estate in 1932. Waterfalls, formal and informal gardens, and paths through wooded areas were included in the plans for the latter. Many large trees were imported for the estate, including a blue spruce which took up an entire freight car.

In the 1950s, Joseph Lambert, Jr. from Lambert Landscape Company of Dallas began doing much of the landscape design work for the larger residences in Tulsa and Ardmore. Lambert had taken an early apprenticeship in the family nursery business in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the age of fifteen, he enrolled in Columbia University, without parental blessing, and worked his way through the first year. Not being content with college, he traveled abroad, observing works of art, especially gardens in England, Italy, France, and elsewhere on the continent. After a broadening period of travel, he returned to work at the family nursery in Shreveport.

Later, Joe Lambert and his brother, Henry, opened a branch office in Dallas. They gained immediate recognition with their mass plantings of azaleas. In Tulsa, Joe Lambert became known for his “tailored style.” He would take out all the overgrown plants that were hiding a house, replace them with small shrubs not more than ten inches in height, and then accent the design with a few trees. His reputation for flamboyance and extravagance was legend, as he would select only the finest of the nursery stock and reject any plants he considered questionable, despite the cost.

In describing the landscapes that distinguished his work, Mr. Lambert said, “Doorways are emphasized by materials that do not easily become overgrown and at the same time need little care; hedges and other plant forms or combinations of plants emphasize long, flowing, spacious, horizontal lines and take up as little of the yard as possible. We try to keep our plants in an area not less than six inches from the house or walk and seldom more than three and a half feet from it.”

Regarding his philosophy toward the efforts to introduce new varieties of plants to an area, he said,

Man is continuously striving for the better things of life, and in his own home he is entitled to those plants that will give him pleasure and make his a more enjoyable life. I believe all homes would be much more relaxing to the family and occasional visitors, if such pleasantries of color were made more common, and I doubt if anyone can even guess how much difference such influences make in the lives of children.

Plans for the northern approach to the State Capitol in Oklahoma City (Author's personal collection).

The State Capitol Building of Oklahoma is included for two reasons. Being constantly in the public eye, many citizens wonder how our symbol of government came to be surrounded by barren ground and profusions of asphalt parking lots. And despite a rather disheartening past in the area of landscape development, there is hope that the look of the capitol grounds will be changing in the near future.

With George E. Kessler being commissioned by the Legislature to lay out the original capitol grounds, it seemed at the time that the landscape development would be accomplished with expert guidance. Mr. Kessler envisioned the main approach from the south, but planned that no matter how one approached the building, vistas would gradually draw the eye to the capital and then as gradually carry it by.

Parts of his plan became reality: Lincoln Boulevard was arranged in a “V” pattern, giving a stately approach from the south; sidewalks were paved and steps were built onto the building; rolling carpets of bermuda grass were laid; a sunken garden was excavated; and lines of trees were planted. But Kessler's plan also called for the clearing of a four-block area north of the capitol, with there being the semblance of a garden the whole length of the northern boundary. The Legislature approved the plan, gave the commission in charge of the grounds authority to condemn the four-block area and convert it into a garden, but the appropriation would not permit consummation of the plan.

By 1926, very little had been added to the grounds, other than “filling stations, garages, soda pop ‘saloons,’ sandwich halls, and palaces dedicated to the art of applying cold patches to punctured tubes at fifty cents per application” to the north of the capitol. One Oklahoma City reporter was quite upset about the capitol's environment, arguing that the $3,500,000 Oklahoma had spent thus far on its State Capital was going to waste unless they were willing to improve its surroundings. Despite his complaints, nothing was changed until Governor E. W. Marland took office.

Marland, being an advocate of environmental development, brought in many gardeners and planted varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers around the capitol and the governor's mansion. It was during his term of office also that the first oil well was drilled on the capitol grounds. When he encountered opposition to the oil wells, Marland argued that they would generate enough revenue to replace the state tax. Though that promise was never realized, the oil wells have brought in more than $8,000,000 to the state.

More plantings were made during J. Howard Edmondson's tenure as governor, but very little else was accomplished until David Hall commissioned a study of the capitol grounds in 1973. Some of the recommendations from that study were that: (1) Parking structures be built to accommodate the thousands of cars generated by state business; (2) an amphitheater, small lagoon, and plaza be constructed north of the capitol building in the semicircle formed by the four state buildings; (3) a lagoon be installed on the median just south of the capitol where the asphalt parking lot now stands; (4) oil well equipment be recessed into the ground to aid in their screening; and (5) future expansion be handled in regard to the site as a whole. Some of the parking features proposed in the study have already been implemented, and construction was to have begun on the lagoon south of the Capitol in September, 1978. If the interest in improving the grounds continues and construction progresses, the State Capital of Oklahoma may, in the future, be surrounded by an environment suitable to its stature.

Many of the advances and many of the problems we have encountered in our modern, technological society have stemmed from our approach to the natural world. Before our culture was introduced into the new world, it was believed that hills, trees, lakes, rocks, and other objects of nature had guardian spirits. Before an Indian dug clay from the earth, he would promise the resident spirit that the precious soil would be used to create something beautiful. The Indian belief was that man was in harmony with nature, that his function was to enjoy and protect that with which he had been blessed.

When the white man came, he saw his role in a different light. Rather than being the caretaker of the earth, his interpretation of man's relationship with nature was to be its master—to “tame” the wilderness. With that as his goal, acres of woodland were cleared, thousands of buffalo were decimated, and the new world became “civilized.”

This approach was the basis for much of the tremendous technological and scientific achievements which characterize our society; the problems came when we reached the point where we were able to move tons of earth and pave acres of land when it suited our purpose. We began to create sterile cities of asphalt and concrete in the name of progress. We were abandoning “The Garden to find, not the Shangri-La of great architecture and planning, but anarchy, squalor, confusion, blight, and slum.”

We began to forget that all human beings have a need to experience, feel a part of, dependent upon, and responsible for nature. Man's environment has a very real effect on human behavior, and with little opportunity to experience nature in an urban setting, does man begin to not only forget his tenuous relationship with nature, but also his relationship with other humans? Oklahoma has been fortunate in that a great deal of foresight and planning has gone into the development of many of the cities. There have been efforts made throughout the history of our state to mix progress with reason and technology with nature.

Plans for the southern approach to the State Capitol in Oklahoma City (Author's personal collection).

Cities in Oklahoma are coming alive with outdoor spaces such as the Main Mall in Tulsa and Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City. We are realizing more than ever the important role the beauty of flowers, the majesty of trees, and wonder of rushing waters plays in our lives. Once again, man is reappropriating his sense of relationship to the natural world we all need.

SUGGESTED READINGS

By Howard L. Meredith

PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA

The Harlan Site, Ck-6, Prehistoric Mound Center in Cherokee County, Eastern Oklahoma. Robert E. Bell. Oklahoma Anthropological Society, Memoir No. 2, 1972.

Spiro Studies Volume I, Description of the Mound Group. James A. Brown. The University of Oklahoma Research Institute, 1966.

The Habiúkut of Eastern Oklahoma, Parris Mound, Part 1, Phase 1. Guy R. Muto. Oklahoma Historical Society, Series in Anthropology, Number 3, 1978.

The Plantation Site (Mi-63), An Early Caddoan Settlement in Eastern Oklahoma. James Briscoe. Oklahoma Highway Archaeological Survey Papers in Highway Archaeology, Number 3, 1977.

A Suggested Developmental Sequence for House Forms in the Caddoan Area. Edwin N. Wilmsen. Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society, Vol. 30, pp. 35–49, 1959.

Prehistoric House Patterns of Oklahoma. Benny J. Wallace. Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society, Vol. X, pp. 27–68, 1962.

Caddoan Settlement Patterns in the Arkansas River Drainage. James A. Brown, Robert E. Bell, Don G. Wycoff. Academic Press, Inc., 1978.

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN STRUCTURES IN OKLAHOMA

Native Villages and Village Sites East of the Mississippi. David I. Bushnell, Jr. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 69, 1919.

Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi. David I. Bushnell, Jr. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 77, 1922.

Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians. George Catlin. Dover Publications, Inc., 2 Vols., 1973.

Indians of North America. Harold E. Driver. University of Chicago Press, 1963.

Indians of the Plains. Robert Lowie. Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1963.

Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines. Henry L. Morgan. University of Chicago Press, 1965.

THE SODDY

The Sod House Frontier, 1854–1890. Everett Dick. Appleton-Century Co., 1937.

Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries. A. M. Gibson. Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1965.

Sod Walls. Roger L. Welsch. Purcells, Inc., 1968.

RECOLLECTION OF OKLAHOMA TERRITORIAL VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

“Oklahoma City: Growth and Reconstruction, 1889–1939,” Howard L. Meredith and George H. Shirk. The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LV, No. 3 (Fall, 1977), pp. 293–308.

Born Grown: An Oklahoma City History. Roy P. Stewart. Fidelity National Bank Association, 1974.

OKLAHOMA TERRITORIAL BUILDING STONE

Preliminary Report of the Mineral Resources of Oklahoma. Charles N. Gould, L. L. Hutchinson, and Gaylord Nelson. Oklahoma Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 1, November, 1908.

“Oklahoma's Future Building Material,” Charles N. Gould. Sturm's Oklahoma Magazine, Vol. VI, No. 1, 1908, pp. 39–43.

Geography of Oklahoma. Charles N. Gould. Bunn Brothers, 1909.

Geography of Oklahoma. John W. Morris, Editor. Vol. VI in The Oklahoma Series. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1977.

JOSEPH FOUCART, TERRITORIAL ARCHITECT

Architecture in Oklahoma: Landmark and Vernacular. Arn Henderson, Frank Parman, and Dortha Henderson. Point Riders Press, 1978.

Guthrie: A Plan for Historic Preservation. Arn Henderson and Deborah M. Rosenthal. School of Architecture, University of Oklahoma, 1978.

SOLOMON LAYTON: ARCHITECT

Teepees to Towers: The Story of Building the Sooner State. Walter Nashert. Privately Published, 1968.

The Architecture of Solomon Layton. Mary Jo Nelson. Southwest Prologue Series, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1978.

BRUCE GOFF'S RIVERSIDE MUSIC STUDIO

The Architecturè of Bruce Goff. Jeffrey Cook. Harper and Row, Publishers, 1978.

The Architecturè of Bruce Goff, Buildings and Projects, 1916–1974. David Gilson De Long. Garland Publishing, Inc., 1977. 2 Vols.

Bruce Goff, Architect. Takenobu Mohri. Kenchiku Planning Center Co., Ltd., 1970.

“Architectural Digest Profiles 16: Bruce Goff,” John Sergeant and Stephen Mooring, Eds. Architectural Digest Magazine, XLVIII, No. 10 (1978), pp. 1–96.

Architecture by Bruce Goff. Portfolio published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Yellstone Art Center, Billings, Montana, May 5-June 11, 1978.

PEOPLE AND PLACES IN THE HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN OKLAHOMA

“Capitol Grounds.” Harlow's Weekly. Vol. XVII (December 17, 1919), pp. 102–105.

Tulsa. Angie Debo. University of Oklahoma Press, 1943.

Capitol Grounds Study. HTB, Inc. and Robert Thomas and Associates. Capitol Improvement Authority, 1974.

The History of the Marland Mansion. Marland Mansion Museum, 1977.

Philbrook Art Center. Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, 1944.

“Tulsa Rose Garden Widely Acclaimed.” Tulsa Tribune (June 9, 1965), Sec. B, p. 4.

INDEX

Compiled by Howard L. Meredith

—A—

Abeline Granite Company, 63

Air plane (aeroplane) bungalow, 51, photo, 58

Ames, C. B., 104

Apache, 3, 19, thatch housing, 28, 33

Apache Granite Company, 63

Apache State Bank Building, 61

Apollot Hall (Oklahoma City), 51

Arapaho, 4, 19, 33

Arkansas River, 3, 15, 20, 32, 59, 64, 106

Armstrong, J. C., 64

—B—

Baker, John, 66

Bartram, William, 25

Baum Building (Oklahoma City), 95

Beal, Mattie, Mansion (Lawton) photo, 60

Bizzell Library, University of Oklahoma (Norman), photo 59, 93

Board and Batt Construction, 45, drawing, 46, 47

Bonfils Building (Guthrie) photo, 53

Boston Avenue Methodist Church, 105, photo, 53

Bramante, Donato, 117

Braniff, Thomas E., 97

Brick Construction, 4, 47, 80, 95

Buell, Mrs. J. Garfield, 121

Bumberry, Annie, 22

Bureau of Indian Affairs, 34

Buttram, Frank, 122

Byrne, Barry, 114

—C—

Caddo, 3, dwellings, 20

Canadian River, 49–50

Capitol Building (Oklahoma City), 89–90, plans for grounds, 123, 124, 125–126

Carnegie Library (Guthrie) photo, 54

Catlin, George, 25

Cherokee, 4, 19, 21, house styles, 21, 32, 56

Cherokee Female Seminary (Tahlequah), photo, 56

Cheyenne, 4, 19, 20, 29, 31, 33

Chickasaw 4, 19, winter house, 21, 32

Chickasaw Rock Academy (Wapanucka), 71

Chilocco School, 67

Choctaw, 4, 19, 26, 31, 32

Christ the King Church (Tulsa), 114

Clap board Construction, 47, drawing, 48

Cobble stone, 57

Colcord Building (Oklahoma City), 46, photo, 58, 95

Colcord, Charles A., 58

Columbia University, 122

Comanche, 4, 19, tipi, 28, 33

Cones, Annabelle Escoe, 93

Conn, Jack, 95

Coodey, William Shorey, 32

Crane, Jacob L., 119

Creek (Muscogee), 4, 19, 25, towns, 26, 32

Cross Timbers, 30

Cunningham, Gene, 92

—D—

Daily Oklahoman, 46, 92, 98, 99

Dawes Act of 1887, 33

Davanzati Palace, 120

DeFord Building (Guthrie), 76–77, photo, 75

Delaware, 19

Delk, Edward, 115, 117

DeLong, David Gilson, 114

DeSteigner Building (Guthrie), 77

Dodge, Henry, 25

Doolittle, Will O., 119

Dornick Hills (Ardmore), 121

Dugout, 35

—E—

Easement, 59

Edmondson, J. Howard, 124

Edwards, R. J., 45

—F—

Feagin, Jesse C., 66

Fireplace Construction, 42

Flooring, 40

Forsyth, John, 91, 94, 102

Fort Sill Reservation, 67

Foucart, Joseph, 52, 71–85

Fox, 4, 19, 23, 31

Fox, C. Burton, 117–118

Fullerton Dam, 60

Fullerton, J. W., 60

—G—

Goff, Bruce, 53, 56, 105–114

Gould, Charles, 70

Gabbro, 63

Grand Avenue Hotel (Oklahoma City), 45

Granite, 57, 61, 63

Greer, Frank, 80

Grey Brothers Building (Guthrie), 77

Grey, George, 77

Grey, William, 77

Guthrie City Hall (Guthrie), 80

Gaylord, E. K., 98

—H—

Habiúkut, 3, 6–18

Hale, J. B., 69

Hall, David, 125

Hampton Court, 121

Hare, S. Herbert, 117, 119, 144

Harlan Site, 13, 14

Harlow's Weekly, 89

Haskell, Charles N., 99

Hatashita, Henry, 120

Hawk, James W., 89

Henderson, Arn, 5

Henthorne, N. G., 119

Heilman, P. J., 81, House, 83, 84

Hicks, Jewell, 92

Hillcrest Golf Course (Bartlesville), 121

Holland Hall School, 109

Hrdy, Olinka, 107–109, 111

Huckins Hotel (Oklahoma City), 98

Hudgins, Ed, 93

—I—

Iannelli, Alfonso, 105

Ingram, Earl, 57, Ranch House photo, 57

Iowa, 4, 19, 31

—J—

Jolly Balance, 65

—K—

Kansa, 19, dwellings, 25, 28

Kaw, 4

Kerr-McGee Center (Oklahoma City), 97

Kessler, George E., 124

Kettell, W. H., 63

Kickapoo, 4, 19, 31, 34

Kiowa, 4, 19, 31, 33

—L—

Lambert, Joseph, Jr., 122

Lambert Landscape Company of Dallas, 122

Lambertson, J. W., 70

La Salle, Rene-Robert, 23

Layton, Solomon Andrew, 59, 87–104

Leavenworth, Henry, 25

Lee's Creek Ceremonial Center, 14–15, illustration, 7

Lillie, F. B., 54

Limestone, 61, 64–66, photo, 69, 90, 98

Log construction, 4, 31, 48

—M—

McCulley, Marshall, 44

McKinley Park (Oklahoma City), 47

Main Mall (Tulsa), 126

Marland, E. W., 119, 124

Maxwell, Percy, 121

Medical Arts Building (Ponca City), 114

Merchants Exhibit Building (Tulsa), 114

Mesta, Perle, 99–101

Meyer, Paul B., 90

Miami, 4, 19

Mid-Continent Life Insurance Building (Oklahoma City), 102, photo, 103

Missouri, 4, 19

Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Station (Oklahoma City), 65

Modoc, 4

Mohawk, 19

Mohawk Park (Tulsa), 118

Mount Arrie Granite Company, 63

Mt. Scott, 63

Myriad Gardens (Oklahoma City), 126

—N—

Nashert, Walter, 87, 92

National Register of Historic Places, 90

Native American Church, 34

Newkirk City Hall, 66

Nez Percè, 4, 20

Nichols Hills, 122

Noftsger, Gaylord, 104

Northeastern Oklahoma State University, 56

Nuttall, Thomas, 24

—O—

Oklahoma City Historical Preservation Commission, 95

Oklahoma City Times, 97

Oklahoma City University, 93

Oklahoma Granite Company, 63

Oklahoma Historical Society, 44, 59, 95, 102

Oklahoma Publishing Company Building, 98

Oklahoma State University, 68

Old Central at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) photo, 54

Old North Tower at Central State University (Edmond), 61

Osage, 3, 19, 24, 32

Ottawa, 19, 32

Otoe, 19, 28

Overholser, Ed, 45

Overholser, Henry, 45

Overholser Opera House (Oklahoma City), 45, 46

—P—

Pacola Mining Company, 16

Palmer, E. S., 69

Parker, Quanah, 32

Parman, Frank, 5

Parris Mound, 3, 14, 15

Pawnee, 3, 19, 20, 28, 29, Earth Lodge, 30

Payne, David L., 91

Peoria, 19

Perry, Samuel, 23

Philbrook Arts Center (Tulsa), 115, grounds plan, 116, 117, 119

Phillips, Waite, 115

Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, 119

Pike, Zebulon, 24

Pioneer Woman Monument (Ponca City), 120

Ponca, 4, 19, 28

Porphyry, 63–64

Potawatomie, 4, 19, dwellings, 23

Potawatomie County Historical Society, 67

Public Works Administration, 102

Pugh, Lenna, 104

—Q—

Quapaw, 3, 19, villages, 23

—R—

Red Mountain Granite Company, 63

Red River, 3, 13, 20

Rey and Son's Nursery, 121

Rey, W. E., 121

Richardson, H. H., 75

Riverside Music Studio (Tulsa), 105–114, photos, 56, 112, 113

Riverview Historic District (Tulsa), 59

Robinson, Adah, 53

Rogan, Eli, 50

Rogers, Will, 118

Ruggles Granite, 63

Runkle, Alice Escoe, 88, 104

—S—

Sac, 4, 19, 23, 31

Sandstone, 50, 51, 61, 67–70, 76

Santa Fe Station (Oklahoma City), 65

Santa Fe Station (Shawnee), 67

Schoolcraft, Henry, 24

Seay, Abraham J., 60, Mansion (Kingfisher) photo, 60

Seminole, 4, 26, 32

Seneca, 4, 19, 22, 30, long house illustration, 30

Sequoyah Cabin (Sallisaw), 32

Shawnee, 3, 19, 23

Shirk, George H., 95, 104

Shrine Auditorium (Oklahoma City), 104

Shriner, Patti Adams, 105–108

Skirvin Hotel (Oklahoma City), 99–101, photo, 100

Skirvin, William B., 99

Smith, S. Wemyss, 89

Sod Construction, 4, 35–44

Sorey, Tom, Sr., 95

Southern Hills (Tulsa), 121

Southwestern Bell Telephone Building (Oklahoma City) photo, 94

Southwestern University, 88

Spiro Ceremonial Center, 3, 11, 12–13, 16–17, 18

Sprague, W. B., 63

State Capital Publishing Company Building (Guthrie), 80, photo, 79

—T—

Thoburn, Joseph B., 87

Thorpe House (Yale), 34

Tipi, 27–28

Tonkawa, 4

Trinity Episcopal Church (Guthrie), 86

Tulsa Garden Club, 119

Tulsa Landscape and Nursery Company, 118

Tulsa Rose Garden, 119

Tulsa World, 119

Twin Hills (Oklahoma City), 121

—U—

Ute, 4

—V—

Victor Building (Guthrie), 79–80, photo, 82

Viollet-le-Duc, Eugene, 73

Vitruviuo, 114

—W—

Waco, 20

Wells, William, 94–95

Wheeler Park (Oklahoma City), 50

Wichita, 3, 20, 33

Wichita Mountains, 63–64

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, 57

Williams Center (Tulsa) photo, 55

Williams, Joe, 5

Williams, Robert L., 88, 90, 102

Woods, N. D., 122

Works Progress Administration, 16

Wright, Muriel H., 87

Wyandot, 4, 19, 32

—Y—

Yamasaki, Minoru, 55

Yuchi, 4, 19

The text of Of the Earth: Oklahoma Architectural History has been set on the Linotype in eleven-point Granjon. One point of line spacing has been added for increased legibility. The text and illustrations have been printed by offset on paper which has an intended effective life of at least three hundred years. Composed and printed at the University of Oklahoma Printing Services, Norman, Oklahoma 73019.

“This e-book has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.”

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