Winged lions revisited
The winged lions that were originally destined for the state Capitol have been sitting right up the street from The Oklahomanbuilding all these years. Their location is in front of Cunningham Interiors at 2701 W Britton Road.
I want to thank the readers who called and e-mailed to let me know where the lions were and to tell me their memories of the lions. I especially want to thank Sheldon Tarver and Lyle Cunningham of Cunningham Interiors for their calls. They both gave me additional information that led to me finding the following:
A story from The Oklahoman, Sept 24, 1968, that did not come up in my original search, answers the question of when the lions were moved and tells of the fuss that followed.
“After sitting docilely on the corner of NW14 and Classen Dr. for over 50 years, two lions decided Monday it was high time to kick up their heels and cause a little confusion.
The seven foot, 2,500 pound marble mammoths, which had twice been promised to the Oklahoma City Zoo, were recently sold to Cunningham Interiors, 2640 NW Britton Rd. by M. S. Kaufman, of 823 NW 47, who owns the property on which the lions stood.
The hassle began when movers hired by the company carted the statues off Monday morning only minutes before the zoo movers arrived on the scene.
“The statues belong to the zoo,” Mrs. Martha J. Sturm, zoo official, said. “We’ve been delayed in picking them up, but we definitely want them to place at the zoo’s entrance.”
“I offered the lions to the zoo about 10 years ago,” Kaufman said. “They never came and picked them up. I got an opportunity to sell them, so I did.”
Meanwhile, about five years ago, zoo officials were again offered the lions by another man, L. A. Wilcox, 1848 Dorchester Dr., who said he was their rightful owner.
Mrs. Sturm said zoo officials had accepted Wilcox’s offer and had planned since that time to have them removed to the zoo as soon as they could decide on an appropriate spot for them.
“The drawings were submitted and plans drawn up the first of the year,” Mrs. Sturm said. “Mr. Wilcox has worked with us and was eager for the zoo to have them.”
“We contacted the moving people and they were to pick the statues up Monday morning,” she said. “When we arrived the lions were gone.”
Wilcox said that about 5 years ago, his son, Burr Wilcox, who owned a wrecking company, was contracted by Kaufman to demolish the buildings that occupied the property.
“When a man accepts such a job,” Wilcox explained, “the buildings he tears down automatically belong to him.”
He said his son asked Kaufman if he might salvage the two statues and donate them to a worthy cause, and Kaufman agreed.
However, shortly before the job was finished, Burr Wilcox died. His father then decided that the lions should be donated to the zoo as a memorial to his son.”
With two estates involved and the zoo claiming ownership, the last story I was able to find was from the next day and said, “attorneys for three individuals and the zoo met but were unable to work out an agreement.”
Since Cunningham Interiors had purchased, paid for and moved the lions, the assumption is that legally they were his, and so they have been for the last 42 years.
I drove past last week, and the lions looked well cared for and quite content.
Visit my blog at http://blog.newsok.com/archivist/ and view more photographs of the lions.
Mary Phillips
(Photographs taken by Steve Maupin of The Oklahoman)
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Comments
Dear Mrs. Kaufman,
Thank you for your response to the Lions Revisited. I, too, thought it was a strange coincidence of timing when it came to moving the lions.
My original blog about the lions ran Feb 18, 2010. I’ve copied it and it follows:
“Lions on the roof; and formerly in the yard”
Take a good look at the state Capitol building and on each of the eight corners of the roof, you will find a winged lion.
A photograph in The Oklahoman, Jan 29, 1928, tells the story of two lions that were not destined for the Capitol roof but instead found their way to the front yard of a house in the Harndale addition of Oklahoma City.
“They stand in the front yard of the oldest house in the addition, a small Spanish type home once occupied by an official of the State Capitol Building company.”
“Early in 1917, the capitol was nearing completion. About that time an anti-British movement got afoot … Objection to the lions was voiced on the grounds that they savored of King George V or perhaps Richard the Lion Hearted. Consequently two of the brutes were spared a domeless home.”
From a June 18, 1962, story we get a slightly different story of how the lions arrived in Harndale.
In 1914, when architects Solomon Layton and his partner S. Wemyes Smith were drawing up designs for the Capitol, Smith came up with the idea of having British lions perched on the Capitol.
They were made of concrete, and when they arrived, two were flawed.
Here, the story becomes a mystery as the two lions were placed at Classen Drive near NW 14. There, they guarded the Harndale neighborhood for more than 40 years.
The Harndale addition was developed by early day attorney and developer William Fremont Harn. It was Harn who donated the land where the Capitol now stands, and possibly he was given or sold the lions in appreciation of his donation.
Regardless of how they arrived, in 1962 the Harndale lions were offered for sale by the executor of the estate for “$2000 and the equipment to carry off the one-ton statues.”
I searched The Oklahoman’s archives, but have yet to find who purchased the lions and where they are now.
If anyone knows, e-mail me at mphillips@opubco.com or give me call me at (405) 475-3695.
I received several e-mails and telephone calls telling me stories about the lions and where they were now located.
I saw a drawing of what the zoo had intended for the lions and I have to admit, I think they’ve received better care with Mr. Cunningham and Cunningham Interiors than they might have with the zoo.
Thanks again,
Mary Phillips
Dear Mary, I am the daughter-in-law of Max Kaufman’s. If you would like any additional information on the lions, I can put you in touch with Max’s son. I was told that Max called the zoo and offered it the lions. 10 years passed and he never heard from the zoo. He then sold the lions to Mr. Cunningham. The day Mr. Cunningham came to pick them up was the same day the zoo decided – after 10 years – to come get them. What a strange coincidence!
Oh, and why do you say they lions were destined for the states Capitol? I didn’t see anything about the Capitol being involved in the rest of your blog post? Just curious.