The Latest Addition to Retro Metro OKC
H.L. Green Store, 224 W Main, the Kenyon Morgan Collection at www.retrometrookc.org
Somehow, some way, I make time for a bit of community service in all I do. My main contribution is through Retro Metro OKC, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to making the city’s history more accessible and enjoyable to everybody. We do this through monthly get-togethers with fun speakers (on Monday we featured the legendary Count Gregore at our annual holiday party) and through the scanning and display of private held collections of photos and documents.
The latest collection – Kodachrome color photos taken of downtown by architect Kenyon Morgan in the mid-1979s – are among the most stunning I’ve seen to date. If you’re interested in the history of downtown’s Urban Renewal era and the Pei Plan that destroyed many of these buildings, be sure to visit www.impeiokc.com – a project coordinated last year by Retro Metro OKC, the Oklahoma Historical Society, the City of Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society.
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Comments
Not sure about trading Devon since it replaced a parking lot (that admittedly replaced existing buildings)…now if we are talking SandRidge and the India Temple, I am right there with you. It’s not like that location was the only availble lot in all of OKC or Downtown.
Beautiful, yet depressing pictures. Just think of all the housing possibilities in those old buildings…
That makes me sick. Oklahoma City was truly urban and would have been something very remarkable if it all wasn’t lost due to our wonderful Urban Renewal organization. Even today, they still don’t get it.
Oklahoma City will never get this type of density and vibrancy back.
I would trade Devon tower to have just a handful of these back.