Look around at all the great buildings, past and present

Bill is so right about the Skirvin. We have lost many of our architectural treasures, and it’s been a delightful positive for Oklahoma City to hang on to the Skirvin.

 Unfortunately the Criterion Theater was one of our lost buildings. I remember going to see Gone with the Wind there. We had fancy programs and it was a grand old theater.  And of course the sad demise of the Biltmore Hotel. My husband and I went downtown to witness the demolition.

 We have buildings built by  Bruce Goff, but it also includes the tragic loss of Shin’en Kan.  But the good news, we’ve hung on to some wonderful architectural structures; like the Price Tower in Bartlesville, which sat dormant for years, the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa and the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City.

And we’re lucky to have books that have preserved our architectural heritage.

Prairie Skyscraper: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower

Goff on Goff

 Historic Photos of Oklahoma City 

Tulsa Art Deco

Bob L. Blackburn, The Physical Legacy: Buildings of Oklahoma County, 1889 to 1931 (N.p.: Southwestern Heritage Press, 1980).

Available at your local libraries and book stores are many other delightful books showing the varied and wonderful architecture of our state. See if you can’t spot some awesome landmarks you would hate to see disappear in your own hometown.

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