One Last Look at the Martinque Hotel
Credit Doug Loudenback for finding this great postcard of a century-old downtown building taken for granted and overlooked until it was gutted by fire earlier this year. Now we know the building at NW 7 and Broadway, owned by Nick Preftakes, is set to be torn down.
The following video by Will Hider takes a close look at the building, and includes a great photo of the Martinque in its heyday at the end of this clip:
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Comments
I am curious as to how this demolition permit was issued without going through the urban design committee – unless it was approved at staff level, something we saw with buildings removed along NW 10 by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.
With all due respect to anyone who is involved or interested, I think that we (at least, I) have learned from the SandRidge campus/demolition matter that formal, written, city-ordained ordinances and processes which relate to demolition don’t really matter all that much (perhaps and unless the demolition request is presented by a relatively small-fry in the city’s corporate or important person pecking order) and that we’re all just kidding ourselves if we suppose/think that the ordinances/procedures really do matter when a demolition request is presented by an very important person or corporation in the city.
Reality Check: It’s time to move on and face the fact that Okc’s important people/corporate preferences rule the roost. Probably, they always have and my earlier naivete prevented me having my eyes wide open as the SandRidge proposal was considered. Don Quixotes may yet live in Oklahoma City, and they did during the SandRidge drama, but that’s not a path for the feint of heart, I promise you.
That’s the cynic/jaded part of me speaking … it is presently in higher ascendance than is my hopeful/optimistic side when it comes to downtown preservation issues.
As it is and at present, I am unable to think of a single instance in which important people/corporate interests failed to prevail when faced with opposition from preservationists or others who simply wanted the city to follow its own ordinances. I am unable to think of a single existing downtown historic structure that could foreseeably be not at risk, with the possible exception of the First National Center and I’m not completely certain about that should a very important city player would pop up and propose to build, say and as an example, a new convention center hotel on the premises. Perhaps there are other buildings on the “safe list” but I’ve pretty much stopped thinking about it, since I don’t perceive that thinking about the topic really matters.
I’m lying, hopeful/optimistic side says to my jaded/pessimistic side. Woe is me … which side is correct?
I would be more than delighted for my hopeful/optimistic side to prevail should my jaded eyes not see as well as they might without the jade. Do any of you have some jade-remover salve, i.e. facts, that I could use to fix and refurbish my eyes?
Evidently this place is crawling with Don Quixotes. They’re
popping up everywhere. Anyway, in your next to the last paragraph where you start off by saying you’re lying, I didn’t really understand that part. Is your hopeful/optimistic side lying to your jaded/pessistic side?
And if so, why?
Those with the financial werewhithal rule the roost. Always has been that way and probably always will. Anybody with 2 or more living brains cells knows that simple political fact.
Those with the money make and break the rules. That is the way it has been and probably always will be. Political facts of life. I do not like it but I have seen it enough to know not to get upset or bent out of shape over it.
uh, i think he means he realizes he’s only kidding himself when he says he’s stopped thinking about it…? and i would further guess that he does that so it doesn’t make him feel bad.
is this being asked by your sensitive/ empathetic duck, or by your snarky/ edgy duck? or should i simply have ducked the issue and fed you quackers?
I just asked a question! It sounds like you’re making fun of my duck. Are you? No remark about my saying pessistic
instead of pessimistic? It sounds like he feels bad already
but I didn’t know why one side was lying to another side.
Maybe one side should just go on vacation or something.
Now, now, Mr. Duck. You and I both know you’ve picked a very colorful online name, but I don’t see anyone making fun of your duck. No one is going to mess with a duck named Genghis (in all sincerity, you’ve been a nice addition to the discussion board here)
GenghisKDuck (cool name, by the way), you said, “Evidently this place is crawling with Don Quixotes. They’re
popping up everywhere. Anyway, in your next to the last paragraph where you start off by saying you’re lying, I didn’t really understand that part. Is your hopeful/optimistic side lying to your jaded/pessistic side?
And if so, why?”
Answer: Schizophrenia. Who can say which side is lying and which will win out.
I forgot. You wondered, Mr. Genghis, “It sounds like he feels bad already but I didn’t know why one side was lying to another side. Maybe one side should just go on vacation or something.”
Answer: Aptly put. I don’t know either. Unfortunately, when I go on vacation both sides are my constant and inseparable companions. I’m doomed.
For some reason I feel like I’m witnessing a discussion on preservation and urban design moderated by Dr. Seuss. Not saying that’s a bad thing. Just unexpected.
Looking at the City of OKC website, you’ll see the demolition permit was issued the same day it was requested, 9/23/11.
Does anyone know if the demolition has taken place? Often, it happens the same day of issuance.
Maybe moderated by PD Eastman.
Dog. Big dog. Little dog.
Hello. Hello. Do you like my hat? No I do not like it. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Two big dogs going up. A little dog going down.
The dogs are all going around, around, and around. Go around again!
Hello again. And now do you like my hat? I do! What a hat! I like it. I like that party hat.
Goodbye. Goodbye.
Well this attention was embarrassing. But thanks for the
Dr. Seuss & the funny things.
Loved the video, the sounds in the background,the birds, the sign
“15 min Loading and Unloading Only.” You could almost hear
an ocean and see Ernest Hemingway walking by one way and
a vespa with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck going the other.
I wonder what the origin of the name was? The Hotel Martinique sounds very French. Not very Oklahoma. It would
be a good name for a story, something like “The Last Dance at the Hotel Martinique.”
—–In the corner, securely planted behind a frond, a woman reads
Wide Sargasso Sea. She would have been reading Jane Eyre,
but erred and left it at home. The celebrities, eating and dancing, included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Groucho Marx, Bugs Bunny and a penguin named Playboy, The Beach Boys, Pierce Brosnan, Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, and pirates. Lots of pirates. Lots. The lights dim as Penelope takes the stage to sing her rendition of “The Last Time You Left Me We Were on Martinique,” Groucho & penguin waltz by, Groucho explaining to the penguin just EXACTLY what a viaduct is.—–
Penguins are known for being VERY sentimental and they
embarrass VERY easily.
Sometimes they wander off and you don’t hear from them for a while. And Sometimes they miss people terribly.
They’re just like that. They’re weird.
But. They like listening to people talk about viaducts,
bridges, street lights and lampposts. Bridges. Beau. Jeff. Lloyd. And Concrete. And things they don’t really understand. And signs. They’re VERY big on signs.
Signing off,
GenghisKDuck
BTW, a demolition permit doesn’t necessarily mean they plan to scrape the entire structure.
It could be they plan to just pull down the parts of the building that can’t be saved.
That’s probably just hopeful thinking but it is a possibility.
I’ll share my comments I posted at OKCTalk -
“Maybe passing this around will change people’s minds. Perhaps even Preftakes himself. I’m all for demolishing everything, just keep the facade. That is what is still intact anyway. Fire has already done the job for them.
The main thing for historical-minded folks and preservationists is the idea that you keep something that has roots in the past. Being able to look at an old photo and then go to the place today and it’s still there, but modernized.”