bricktown30s
Aerial view of the southeast part of downtown Oklahoma City. Today’s Bricktown area is in center/right center of photo.
Photo has date of 5/10/1937 on back, though photo was probably taken earlier than May of 1937.
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I should have added … it’s great seeing an aerial of the once busy railroad tracks through the warehouse district. Dean Schirf will love this photo!
what a photo…..shows downtown OKC when it was ever bit the equal of downtown Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Wichita and Kansas City…..note the construction of Skirvin Tower Hotel and Walnut Street Bridge has direct connection with Main Street…..also shown is warehouse district (now Bricktown) showing fine detail of the rail lines of Rock Island, Santa Fe, Frisco and the Kath Railroads…..just absolutely great stuff……thanks for sharing.
Dean, did you notice the KATY passenger terminal and to the right/east the other KATY facility, which I assume is the KATY freight facility. I was amazed to see how long it was.
i enjoyed all those things, especially how totally developed the harrison/walnut residential area is, extending down to the tracks. have you noticed that if you follow a line extending west from broadway, and south from the civic center, how incredibly dense the central business district was? sure, there were magnificent skyscrapers jutting up in other areas, but this central core had a density of multi-story buildings that are now new and far between. what a town!
What an excellent photo, Steve, and thanks to you and the Oklahoman for sharing. As best as I recall, that is the only photo of Riverside Park (east of Douglass School) that I’ve ever seen. On quick inspection, I don’t see any of the “Civic Center” projects in the picture … most notably the Oklahoma County Courthouse (opened 4/1937) doesn’t seem to be constructed or underway (at least, no that I can see) but the east/west Rock Island tracks do appear to have been cleared, judging by the area in the mid-to-upper left edge of the photo. The Santa Fe elevation has been done and I think I can make out the new Santa Fe Station which opened in 1934. The Biltmore is done (1932). It looks like the Skirvin Tower’s later construction which began in 1935 is underway and has topped out in skeletal form … I think that was finished in 1938. My guess is that this photo was taken in late-1935 to mid-1936.
It’s a fun picture to try and figure out … an even higher resolution scan might show more detail (but I’m not complaining).
Again, thanks for sharing!