Four-corner Signal Light Arrives

AUGUST 17, 2008 - Love them or hate them, this week in history marks the arrival of something new to Oklahoma City -- the four-corner traffic light. In August 1928, the first four-corner signal system was installed by the Acme Traffic Signal Co. of Los Angeles at NW 4 and Broadway -- what probably was one of the busiest intersections of the day. Harry Spaw, a traffic consultant with the Los Angeles firm, said the lighting system would bring proper routing and timing to traffic control. That's something that had been lacking there, said The Oklahoman, which intoned that motorists and pedestrians alike had been used to holding their breath as automobiles made their way by "gryating through, around and all about that street intersection." This new system, Shaw said, would be state of the art, with a light on each corner that motorists could see "by looking to their immediate front and right." It would replace "mushroom" stop signs and traffic control signals that had been placed in the center of intersections. It's timing also would be adjusted, running certain ways on Tuesdays through Fridays, and then differently on Saturdays when traffic was light before switching back to another time setting for the Sunday movie crowds. On Mondays, it would be different yet again to accomodate what Spaw called "maniac traffic day" -- the first day of the work week and the day when women typically came down to shop after seeing weekend advertisements in their local papers. Spaw estimated the new signal systems would give Oklahoma City the ability to control traffic for up to 750,000 automobiles, eventually. (1) After testing the new system for a year, Oklahoma City's City Council agreed to go with that type of signal across the city, and also to use pole-mounted, corner stop signs at intersections that didn't warrant the use of the lights. (2) But before long, motorists were complaining about the new lights. At four lane intersections, it was difficult for motorists in an inside lane to see the lights if a truck was in the outside lane and blocking their view, they noted. (3) And traffic problems continued -- the intersection of NW 4 and Walker was called the city's worst as far as safety in 1934 by federal officials who had been hired by Oklahoma City to evaluate its traffic system. (4) In 1937, complaints about the lights were backed by Oklahoma City's chief of police, who said a better system would place the lights on the far side of the intersection the motorist would be traveling through. That way, they could see the lights, even in heavy traffic conditions, Chief Joe Watt said. (5) Eventually, that change was made. By 1941, a big concern was that there simply wasn't enough traffic lights. Jack Hale, the city's traffic engineer at the time, said the city only had 40-percent as many lights as other cities of comparable size. City Traffic Commission members agreed. "We are no longer a hick village," said Charles W. Daley, a member of that group. "We need traffic lights." (6) By the end of World War II, Oklahoma City was on the case. Traffic Commission members recommended putting them in at 19 new locations -- many in downtown Oklahoma City. (7) Lights went in, but the city discovered the newer models didn't work well with older ones. That led to traffic jams and delays all up and down Broadway, and for calls to get all the signals up-to-date. (8) Over the decades, of course, Oklahoma City residents have routinely approved bond issues to widen and improve streets and to replace or add additional traffic signals. Many of those lights are requested of the same Traffic Commission as the one from long ago by people who live in outlying neighborhoods and find it difficult to make it in and out of their neighborhoods without dodging the same kind of traffic that was a problem in downtown Oklahoma City almost 90 years ago. As lights have been retired, they've been donated to smaller communities, such as traffic controllers that went to Blackwell in 1986. Others have been auctioned off to the highest bidder, like ones that had been replaced in the late 1980s and were auctioned off by the city in 1996. (9) 1) Four-Corner Traffic Light Will Be Tried, The Oklahoman, Aug. 21, 1928 2) City Moves to Use Standard Straffic Signs, The Oklahoman, Sep. 04, 1929 3) Letters from The People, The Oklahoman, Feb. 14, 1930 4)Fourth and Walker Called City's Worst, The Oklahoman, Jan. 07, 1934 5) Our Lights Are Wrong Too, It Seems, The Oklahoman, Feb. 05, 1937 6) City Lacks Lights to Control Its Traffic, Engineer Declares, The Oklahoman, Apr. 06, 1941 7) Traffic Body Votes 19 New Signal Lights, The Oklahoman, May 18, 1946 8) New Stop, Go Signs Mostly Stop First Day, The Oklahoman, Oct. 11, 1947 9) Traffic Equipment Auction Set Today, The Oklahoman, Dec. 13, 1996

Elevating the tracks

March was a happy time in downtown Oklahoma City in 1932. Old wooden shacks, called watchmen’s shanties, were being loaded up on rail cars and hauled away (1) while the Santa Fe Railway tested out its new elevated lines between NW 6 and Chickasaw Avenue, south of Reno Avenue.(2) The lines were raised onto a viaduct of sorts so that automobile traffic flowing east and west across the tracks would no longer have to wait on trains. Instead, they could drive underneath. The viaduct crosses Sheridan Avenue downtown.     Now, make no mistake — getting the work done was no small chore. Civic leaders started calling for making the change some two decades earlier. (3) A majority of business owners indicated they would oppose the change at one point about 10 years into the debate. (4) In 1925, the railroad started the first phase of the project by building a new double-tracked bridge across the Canadian River, elevating it six feet higher than the river’s banks. (5) Art deco influences decorate the station today.   City voters were asked to chip in for part of the cost by Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission  —  a request made because of the city’s demands for wide-enough underpasses to allow four lanes of traffic for significant streets. At last, in 1932, the railroad began using part of the elevated tracks. Along the way, the city extracted a promise from the railroad to build a new station — something the railroad nearly decided against doing until the city threatened to withhold its $350,000 share of the $4.5 million track elevation job.(6) In 1934, though, the new station did open. It closed in 1979 when rail passenger service ended in Oklahoma City. But eventually, it was bought and remodeled by Jim Brewer, a Bricktown promoter and property owner. Brewer reopened the station in 1999 after it had closed in 1979, and it continues to be used today by Amtrak passengers who ride the Heartland Flyer between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. The south end of the station, once a cargo depot, is being remodeled into retail spaces today. 1. Elevation Marks Passing of Rail Watchmen, The Oklahoman, March 12, 1933. 2. Santa Fe Elevated Tracks Ready Soon, The Oklahoman, Feb. 20, 1933. 3. Railroad Asked to Raise Tracks, The Oklahoman, Dec. 12, 1911. 4. Industries May Fight Rail Plan, The Oklahoman, Nov. 12, 1920. 5. Track Raising Begins in City, The Oklahoman, Dec. 3, 1925. 6. City to Insist on New Depot for Santa Fe, The Oklahoman, March 23, 1933.

Last Gasp for the old Passenger Trains   MARCH 9, 2008 - This week, 40 years ago, the age of passenger rail service was on the verge of meeting its final demise.   Five passenger trains were still in service – the Kansas Cityan, which came through Oklahoma City at 12:55 a.m. daily en route to Fort Worth and Dallas, the Chicagoan, which passed through the capital daily at 3:25 a.m. on the way to Chicago, the Santa Fe Texas Chief, traveling back and forth between Kansas and Texas, and the Kansas City Southern train, which traveled through eastern Oklahoma via Sallisaw.   The Rock Island’s last passenger train passed through the city on November 20, 1967. The Frisco’s last passenger train made its last run through Oklahoma City that same year. But when a proposal came forward 40 years ago to discontinue Santa Fe’s Chicagoan, the Interstate Commerce Commission encountered howls of protest. But despite such concerns, the route cancellations would follow until most of the country’s passenger rail system was taken over by Amtrak.   At their peak during World War II, an estimated 70 trains a day passed through Oklahoma, with 50 going through Oklahoma City.   But when passenger rail was taken over by Amtrak in 1971, service was down to just the Texas Chief – which itself would be discontinued in 1979. Part of that old route would be restored 20 years later as the Heartland Flyer, which runs daily from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth.   Train Whistle Ever More Lonely, March 10, 1968, Joseph J. Mays Punctual Amtrak Welcomed by City, Mike Burger, May 2, 1971

Last Show at the Criterion FEBRUARY 2, 2008: “Ghetto Freaks” is not likely to show up on any listing of great, good or even “okay” movies. But thanks to reviews at www.amazon.com, we have the following synopsis: Filmed in glamorous early 1970s Cleveland, Ohio, the movie is about a stoner-freak named Sonny who observes a wealthy mother trying to rescue her daughter from the corrupting hippie environment. Acting quickly, Sonny slips the girl the address of his nearby House of Hippies (I'm not making this up) and, moments later, she's taking her first LSD trip and participating in an orgy. Sonny then shows her the joys of panhandling and the thrill of proesting in the park before drug dealers "remind everyone that reality really sucks...."   So why in the world is OKC History interested in “Ghetto Freaks”? It was the last movie to play at downtown Oklahoma City’s grandest movie palace – the Criterion Theater.   Opened on April 16, 1921, the theater was hailed as a symphony in brick and stone, a showplace of the southwest. Built by Joe Cooper for $700,000, the theater opened with 1,900 seats, a built-in organ, $25,000 worth of art glass panels, crystal chandelier, walls of velvet, deep cushioned seats, French doors and tea room.   The first movie shown was “Love Flower” by the legendary D.W. Griffith. In 1928 the theater switched from motion pictures to legitimate stage productions. Back then, a movie patron could pay 35 cents for a seat on the main floor or 25 cents for the balcony at a matinee. The price for evening shows was 50 cents for the main floor, 25 cents for the balcony.    Live performances over the years included shows by Amos and Andy, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. In 1932, “The Big Broadcast” opened its first screening at the theater, drawing the likes of Bing Crosby, Kate Smith and Calloway. Spotlights lit up the entrance that night as women in evening gowns and men in formal attire stepped out of huge cars to attend. In 1939 Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney took the spotlight at the Criterion to attend opening of “Oklahoma,” a film depicting early oil days of state.   The end of World War II would mark the beginning of the end for the Criterion. By the mid-1950s downtown was losing its luster. The Criterion and other downtown theaters faced stiff competition from modern new suburban cinemas. The theater was given a $90,000 facelift. At the same time, in 1954 the theater became the first to break with the old Jim Crow laws and admit black patrons.   The theater closed in 1963 and reopened in 1967 as the city’s only burlesque house. The theater closed again in 1967. Once again, the theater was refurbished and reopened by owners Farris Shanbour and Charles Shadid.   At the end of May, 1972, the theater was sold to the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority. It was 25 years ago this month that a small crowd gathered on a rainy day to say goodbye to what is widely considered to be the most significant building torn down during the city’s urban renewal era.   1. “Old Showplace Falls,” by Janeice Zeaman, February 2, 1973, The Oklahoman 2. Movie listings, May 28, 1972, The Oklahoman

Northpark Mall Against The Odds     OCTOBER, 2007: Northpark Mall shouldn’t exist. Spanning just 200,000 square feet, it’s tiny compared to nearby Quail Springs and Penn Square malls. It has no major anchors. It never really did. And when the local economy went into a virtual depression during the 1980s oil bust, owners shut off half the shopping center all together.   But after all the odds were stacked against Northpark Mall, it not only survives but thrives today. Thirty years ago this week, developer Tom Morris Sr. announced plans for a $3 million expansion that would add 11 tenants, including Street's. The shopping center was a mix of new and old at the time, with the corner of May and NW 122 anchored by a gas station, and a Safetway grocery store at the north end.   The Safeway wouldn't last too much longer - a newer grocery was built across the street, allowing for the old grocery to be converted into more mall space. In its heyday, Northpark Mall was home to the Gas Light Dinner Theater, and the Northpark 4 Cinema drew hundreds when it debuted "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." One of the first ATMs in Oklahoma City debuted next to the theater, and fake money was issued as a promotional gimmick to get visitors accustomed to the idea of automated banking.   Northpark never found an anchor bigger than Street's, and when the chain shut down, that space went empty for what seemed like an eternity. But today the mall, still owned by the Morris family, remains a popular destination for shoppers looking for upscale and boutique stores, or simply a good meal or cheap film at the revamped Northpark 8.

Parking a Story About Parking SEPTEMBER, 2007: During the last week of September in 1929, Oklahoma Cityans who worked downtown or otherwise needed to go there had something new to deal with.   City fathers decided they were through with forcing motorists to weave their way through downtown arteries clogged with parkers during morning and afternoon rush hours, so they banned parking along the streets during those times of day.   News reports of the day celebrated the change.   "Pedestrians, having their day at last, and giggling about it, may swagger down the sidewalks with an air of maddening superiority. The Robinson avenue canyon, pride of the Chamber of Commerce, will be stranglely wide and inviting as the parking ban goes into effect. So, too, will the previously congested sections in Hudson and Harvey avenues.   "Business is expected to be the best ever at automobile hotels and storage garages. Street railway magpies are ready to burst with municipal pride, their civic patriotism reaching heights simply never dreamed of before. Even the oldest residents may see shops and stores they've never seen before, as they roll through the streets minus the customary lines of parked automobiles," crooned The Oklahoman about the change. (1)   But a short five years later, city fathers still were observing congestion problems. Oklahoma City's traffic commission recommended the city try using something new called "meter parking" along some of its downtown streets. (2)   In May, 1935, Oklahoma City Council members approved installing 200 meters downtown. It would cost a nickel to park for 15 minutes. Traffic officials estimated the meters and fines for over-parked vehicles would raise about $75,000 annually.   The switch angered some city residents. Carl C. Magee, head of a Chamber of Commerce committee that studied downtown parking problems and who later founded the Dual Parking Meter Company, explained on the pages of The Oklahoman why he made his recommendation.   Magee said he started the study purely from the standpoint of the interests of downtown retail merchants and their customers. What he found is that downtown workers were parking in 80 percent of the available street parking where they worked, leaving customers scant few places to park.   "People who work downtown all day should find some other means of transportation back and forth from home, or should put their cars out of the way in parking lots," Magee wrote. "They put a burden upon their own means of earning a livelihood by shutting their own customers out of the business area." (3)   Within months, the case went to court. Ultimately, judges ruled that while it might be a right to drive on the city's steets, parking was a privilege that could be granted and regulated by the city. Once that issue was resolved, more meters started going in, and time limits were upped to as long as an hour in some locations.   Of course, someone had to regulate their use, and that job fell to police. During the years, the process has changed. Today, the city uses "parking enforcement technicians" who patrol downtown streets in small, golf cart-like vehicles where they check parked cars for over parking and expired tags. They cannot arrest offenders, but they can call for officers if someone gets unruly. It's been known to happen.   In 1999, city leaders did something unprecedented -- they changed meters located near City Hall to give them two hour time limits. The request was made by former Councilman Jack Cornett, who said one-hour limits did not give residents attending meetings at City Hall enough time to take care of their business. (4)   In 2005 -- 70 years after the initial unveiling of the parking meter -- they introduced a new version of the equipment into downtown. These new meters took not only coins, but also credit cards.   "It's going to be fun to try something that I think is going to be leading edge," said Dave Lopez, president of Downtown OKC Inc. "It's a trial to see how efficient this can be and to see how quickly people are able to adapt to it." (5)   You can find those computerized meters downtown today. But they likely are disliked as much as their predecessors, we're betting.   1) "Be Sure You're Right, Then Park and Walk," The Oklahoman, Sep. 23, 1929 2) "Board Favors Traffic Meter," The Oklahoman, Oct. 26, 1934 3) "A Personal Message from Carl C. Magee," The Oklahoman, May 13, 1935 4) "City Hall Parking Meter Time Limit Up to 2 Hours," The Oklahoman, April 12, 1999 5) City to begin testing high-tech parking meters," The Oklahoman, Aug. 17, 2005

Mid-Continent's Changing Fortunes AUGUST, 2007: The news in August 1925 related to getting a new home built for the Mid-Continent Insurance company was not good, but its leaders were nothing if not perseverant. They wanted to do something unusual for the time – build a multiple story, commercial office building at NW 13 and Shartel Avenue in an area zoned for homes. The issue was as hot as the summer sun. City officials turned down building permit requests for the $250,000 project numerous times. (1) Even Mrs. Anton Classen, the wife of a prominent developer within Oklahoma City, protested the plans in a hearing before members of Oklahoma City’s council after it had been heard and denied by the city’s board of adjustment and conditionally approved by the city’s planning commission. (2)     This project, however, could not be stopped. The building, designed by Solomon Andrew Layton, would look like a palatial residence, include extensive landscaping and include private garages for employees and visitors to reduce on-street parking problems. Layton used Indiana limestone for the building’s exterior. Getting the rock to the building site later proved to be a problem when the building’s contractor hired a rail company to haul the material to the site using a streetcar line. (3)   Company leaders had hoped to open the building January 1, 1927. The date had to be pushed back to May. But financially, the firm was doing well. Advertisements of the day boasted that Mid-Continent was the oldest and largest firm in the Sooner State. It also financed the development of numerous commercial properties, including the Oklahoma club and Oklahoma City University. In 1934, Mid-Continent worked with Oklahoma City to establish a neighborhood playground for surrounding homes. Company President R.T. Stuart, nicknamed “Genial Bob,” (4) put forward a plan for a fenced-in area at NW 15 and Classen Boulevard where a fulltime nurse would supervise children. (5)   The same year, the company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The company continued to operate for more than another 60 years, eventually becoming aquired by Florida Progress Corp. But in 1997, Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner declared the firm insolvent and took it over. Its future became a political football in the late 1990s, as courts were asked to decide the firm’s future. (6)   The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, quietly sat empty as arguments about the company’s future raged. Eventually, it looked as if the building might disappear – yet another casualty of changing fortunes impacting Oklahoma’s people and its businesses. But then in 2001, its fortunes changed again. Edward L. Gaylord, editor and publisher of The Oklahoman, bought the building. Another $3 million donation made by oilman Boone Pickens got the ball rolling on a $15 million renovation of the building to provide a new home for the Oklahoma Heritage Association. (7)   In 2005, the association unveiled plans to turn the building into an interactive museum using cutting-edge technology to tell the state’s story. Rand Elliott, of Elliott + Associates, was selected to design the renovation. Elliott told reporters that many of the building’s original features would remain. They would be augmented with holographic displays to replicate famous Oklahomans as they told their stories. (8)   Five technology-driven, interactive exhibits focusing on optimism, generosity, perseverance, individualism, and pioneer spirit were planned to make the facility a living museum, a reinvention of what a museum experience is. Boston-based Northern Light Productions came in to help make the vision a reality. Today, after opening earlier this year, the museum is getting rave reviews. And the Mid-Continent Life building continues to occupy a unique place with Oklahoma City of both today and yesteryear.   Read more from Doug Loudenback at http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/08/from-mid-continent-to-oklahoma.html   1.) “Mid-Continent Plea To Be Heard Aug. 25,” The Oklahoman, Aug. 18, 1925 2.) “Mid-Continent Building Plans To Get Answer,” The Oklahoman, Oct. 25, 1925 3.) “Mid-Continent In New Battle,” The Oklahoman, July 02, 1926 4.) Advertisement, The Oklahoman, April 23, 1939 5.) “Offer Taken of Play Area,” The Oklahoman, May 4, 1934 6.) “Acquisition bid for insurer due reconsideration,” The Oklahoman, Nov. 24, 1999 7.) “Heritage center gets $3 million donation,” The Oklahoman, April 1, 2005 8.) “Historic building to house museum,” The Oklahoman, Sept. 16, 2005

Braniff Building   JULY 27, 2007: Excavators were busy this week in 1922, digging into the red soil at the southeast corner of NW 3 and Robinson Avenue to start the foundation for a ten-story, modern office building known as the Braniff Building. (1) Major tenants for the building were Leonard & Braniff, real estate lenders, and the T.E. Braniff Company, an insurance provider and investment firm. (2) The job’s contractor was the Dunning Construction Company, which already had built the Colcord, Magnolia, Kress and Smith Baking Company buildings, a hospital and the Oklahoma Golf and Country Club. (3)   Less than fifteen months later, in November 1923, T.E. Braniff was ready to show off his firm’s new home, with special entertainment planned for guests coming to Oklahoma City from as far away as New York, Hartford, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois. A local dry goods company planned a style show in the building’s second floor, while another building tenant planned to have Chinese playing Mah-Jongg during the celebration. At the time, the Braniff Building was cutting edge, with an “acoustically perfect” ceiling on the building’s main floor, a basement-level conference room, dining room and kitchen for employees. (4)   The building also included a fireproof coal storage area in its basement – a necessity for a building using the black mineral to heat its offices and corridors during Oklahoma’s chilly winters. Lucky thing. Less than a year after the building opened in September 1924, coal caught fire within its storage area. Ironically, the U.S. Post Office and Federal Building on the opposite corner of the intersection had a fire in its basement fireproof coal storage area at the same time. Fire officials pegged the cause of both fires as spontaneous combustion, and W.G. Johnston, Oklahoma City’s postmaster, speculated coal in his building had been delivered damp, thereby causing the blaze. The fires were extinguished by flooding the storage areas with water. Neither building was damaged. (5)   Braniff’s companies only occupied about two stories of the building, initially. Other building tenants included W.R. & W.E. Ramsey, who later would go on to build their own office tower. But T.E. Braniff’s company by no means was stagnant. In January 1928, he announced the creation of the Prudential Fire Insurance Company, and relied upon some of the city’s biggest names to serve as company officers and directors, including Ed Overholser, G.A. Nichols, W.R. Ramsey, Frank Buttram, and S.A. (Solomon) Layton. The company announced a capital stock of $500,000 and a surplus of the same amount. Braniff served as the firm’s president. Overholser, a vice president, told members of the Oklahoma Club the goal of the firm was to build a financial center in Oklahoma City so that money from policyholders would stay in Oklahoma instead of going east. (6)   Later that same year, T.E. Braniff and his brother, Paul Braniff, started a daily, round-trip airline service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City using a Stinson plane the Paul Braniff flew. Initially, T.E. Braniff and five other partners had bought the plane to use as a corporate aircraft. But too many of them needed the plane at the same time, so T.E. Braniff bought the partners out and formed the Braniff Airways with his brother. Before long, the airline had affiliated with Universal Airlines. While corporate offices stayed in Oklahoma City, though, the airline’s operational center moved away from the Capitol to Tulsa in 1929 after support for a needed bond issue to improve Oklahoma City’s airport failed to materialize. (7)   Later, the airline moved its operational and maintenance headquarters to Dallas, Texas. By 1938, the airline boasted a fleet of a dozen Lockheed Electra and Douglas DC-2 planes, forty-four pilots and a staff of 270 other persons. The airline flew a daily schedule on routes stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. (8) The airline continued to grow. In 1951, T.E. Braniff was honored with a luncheon celebrating his fiftieth year of being in Oklahoma’s insurance industry. Then, Braniff expressed a concern about the country’s future. “The country is not nearly so strong today as in the days of the Cherokee Strip,” he told his audience at the time. (9) In 1953, T.E. Braniff died in a plane crash, and about a year later, his widow, Mrs. Bess Thurman Braniff, was dead, too. Executors of her estate reported to the court that it valued $561,410, including the ten-story office tower. (10) But while the man who built the building was gone, it remained, eventually becoming part of a campus covering an entire downtown block owned by Kerr-McGee. (11)   By then, the building was air-conditioned, and ready to be used by the super company as it set about its plans to building a new office tower to dominate downtown’s skyline. After that, the Braniff Building fell into a slumber, with little evidence the building continued to be owned, save for security cameras pointing east down Dean A. McGee Avenue and south down Robinson Avenue. But it was not through making headlines yet. In 2005, Kerr-McGee announced plans that the Braniff Building and two other historic downtown buildings owned by the firm would be renovated into high-end condos. A partnership between Kerr McGee and other downtown housing players including Bert Belanger, Pat Garrett and architect Anthony McDermid would do the work. Of the three buildings, the partnership seemed most excited about the Braniff because of its storied past. (12)   The plans destructed, however, when Anadarko Petroleum bought Kerr-McGee and took possession of the Braniff Building and the others planned for condominiums. Today, SandRidge Energy owns the Braniff Building, and sources tell us condominiums still could be in its future.   References: 1.) “Work Is Under Way On Braniff Building,” The Oklahoman, July 27, 1922 2.) Full-page advertisement, The Oklahoman, July 1, 1923 3.) Advertisement, The Oklahoman, September 24, 1922 4.) “Braniff Plans For Dedication Are Perfected,” The Oklahoman, October 23, 1923 5.) “Coal Piles In Two Builings Take Fire,” The Oklahoman, September 09, 1924 6.) “Braniff Heads New Company In Insurance,” The Oklahoman, January 20, 1928 7.) “Braniff Airline Office Will Be Moved to Tulsa,” The Oklahoman, September 24, 1929 8.) “10,000 Miles Flown Daily, 300 At First,” The Oklahoman, June 20, 1938 9.) “Initiative Gone, Says Braniff,” The Oklahoman, February 21, 1951 10.) “Mrs. Braniff’s Estate Figured,” The Oklahoman, November 02, 1954 11.) “Big Building Deal Closed By City Firm,” The Oklahoman, May 02, 1967 12.) “Company drilling for success …” The Oklahoman, November 10,2005

Demise of Firehouse No. 9 JULY, 2007: Firehouse No. 9, built in 1901, was the city's second and finest, but that wasn't enough to spare it from the onslaught of Urban Renewal. This week in 1967, Oklahoma City officials announced the fire station at 25 S Broadway would be among hundreds of structures to make way for the city of the future. Much of legendary fire chief George Robert McAlpine's 45 career at OCFD was woven in with the station, according to news accounts.   "It will be a sad thing," He said. "But you can't stand in the way of progress." McAlpine was employed by a hauling firm in 1913 and driving one of the first motorized trucks locally when he first flirted with a career in the fire department. As he was driving his truck, he came upon a shiny red Franklin automobile owned by the fire chief. It was stranded, with a broken drive shaft. McAlpine, telling the story years later, said he towed the car to No. 9 station, repaired it, and was immediately offered a job as fireman, driving the city's first motorized fire truck. Back then, the station had a glass dome on the roof.   "A watchman would stand up there, looking all over the city through that dome to see if there were any fires," McAlpine said. In 1940, McAlpine was chief - and it was then he ordered a complete remodeling of the station. McAlpine retired in 1959, and his name now graces the old fire station training grounds that are now part of the downtown Arts Quarter and home to the annual Festival of the Arts.

Delivering The Goods On Oklahoma City’s Original Post Office     JULY, 2007: Federal authorities announced this month in 1930 (July 13, the Sunday starting the month’s third week) they were revising expansion plans for the United States Post Office and Courthouse in Oklahoma City at 215 NW 3, or Dean A. McGee Avenue, as it is known today. (1) The building, built in 1912, quickly had become too small for a growing community that had not yet fully felt the effect of the Great Depression. James A. Wetmore, supervising architect for the $1,100,000 job, announced planners had added another story to the planned tower portion of the building, making it nine stories tall. Wetmore said the additional floor, added to the tower’s top, would be used for courtrooms while lower floors would be redesigned to provide federal workers with additional office space. Postal officials would be moved temporarily so that they could continue to sort and deliver mail to the growing community, said W.G. Johnston, Oklahoma City’s postmaster.   Johnston later would brag that the latest expansion project’s size was equaled only by construction of the original building two decades earlier. (2) Workers finished erecting steel for the tower, which was given an Art Deco design, in August 1931, and workers completed expanding the building – marking the end of its second expansion – in 1932. (3)   James Knox Taylor, supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury Department, designed the initial building in the Beaux Arts Classic style and it was built in 1912. The government doubled its size in 1919 with its first expansion. The original building is three stories tall and faced with limestone. Notable components of the façade include pediments, arched openings and shallow balconies. Red tiles cover the original building’s roof.   The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. And well it should be: It was the scene of the 1933 trials of Machine Gun Kelly and his wife Kathryn, both of whom were sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping Oklahoma Cityan Charles F. Urschel, one of the state’s wealthiest men at the time. (4) Kelly’s trial was the first in the nation to allow sound and picture equipment in a federal courtroom. In 1949, the court heard McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. A decision in the case desegregated graduate schools in Oklahoma. (5)   In the late 1990s, George Hozendorf, a special administrator for the federal government’s General Services Administration, worked out of the United States Post Office and Federal Building on the effort to replace the Murrah Federal Building, destroyed in 1995 by a bomb. Today, the building continues to function as a federal court and as an office building for federal employees – the Post Office moved out in 1966 – and provides a classic backdrop for downtown Oklahoma City activities.   1) Height Added to Post Office, The Oklahoman, July 13, 1930 2) Postal Bids Due Tuesday, The Oklahoman, December 22, 1930 3) www.gsa.gov 4) www.fbi.gov 5) www.gsa.gov