Another Blog Post for Jane Jenkins
W.B. Skirvin - I promise the right actor could have some fun playing this early day developer, oil wildcatter, and all-out rascal.
The following comes from a column I wrote in 2007:
Oklahoma City and Tulsa leaders might want to look to Main Street Oklahoma for inspiration on how to attract people downtown without spending millions of dollars.
After all, small towns often have no choice but to compensate with imagination and hard work when money is scarce.
Take Okmulgee, a town of 13,000 and one of the first members of the state’s Main Street program.
The city has come a long way since it started redeveloping its Main Street.
Back in 1986, the downtown area struggled with less than 40 percent occupancy in the street level storefronts, and many of the buildings were falling apart.
Today Okmulgee officials boast occupancy in that same space is at 85 percent.
How do they pull it off?
They’re bringing people back downtown with events like the “Ghosts of Okmulgee,” which allows visitors to tour several historic properties where local actors in period costumes share tales of the city’s old west heydays.
The tours coincide with town’s annual Great West Chili Cook-Off.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, maybe Oklahoma City could look at a similar approach employing its vast, talented theatrical community.
Imagine visiting the Skirvin Hilton and listening to old man W.B. Skirvin spin tales of oil wildcatting, drunken evenings with famed architect Solomon Layton and nights when state leaders clashed in his lobby.
Maybe daughter Perle Mesta could be at his side, sharing her own tales as the “hostess with the mostest.”
1890 Photo: Pictured above is Oklahoma City's first police force. C.F. Colcord is seated and the others, left to right, are: Bud Reynolds, William R. McGill, John Hubatka, A.J. Day. Oklahoma City's first police force poses for the camera. Charles F. Colcord, seated, was the first provisional police chief in the brand new city. He would later become the first sheriff of Oklahoma County, then in 1893 a U.S. deputy marshal stationed in Perry. He would return to Oklahoma City at the turn of the century with $7,000, investing in land and eventually becoming a wealthy developer. Also pictured, from left, are Bud Reynolds, William R. McGill, John Hubatka and A.J. Day. Hubatka became police chief in the 1920s.
A hop over to the Colcord Hotel could feature a visit with earlyday developer Charles Colcord — imagine the tales he could tell!
I have no doubt Oklahoma City has talented folks in community theater able to pull off these great roles. And if folks are willing to pay for such fun in Okmulgee, couldn’t a similar arrangement be reached in Oklahoma City, as well? Or maybe the big cities could take their cue from Sulphur, which last year hosted “Movies on the Plaza” every Saturday night. The movies kept locals in town and sparked interest in a downtown farmers’ market and school pep rallies.
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