OKC Pics and stuff.. (Norman, Duncan: hotels, travel, work)

[happytown]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

Great OkC pictures Happytown! We don't get to see enough of these. Like Peggy, I'll be busy for awhile.. Thanks

Hopefully one of these days I will actually take some of my own pics...Hope you can enjoy some unusual history of OKC. Trolleys from 1900-post WW2 and the major destruction of many historic buildings like the Biltmore in Dtown is info people have never heard about.

[peggydavis]

I'm so ancient I was there when they took down the Biltmore. I got a few bricks. That Urban Renewal was a plan that did not work. Today, we have much better ideas! Good thing they didn't get to Bricktown with their explosives!

[happytown]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

I'm so ancient I was there when they took down the Biltmore. I got a few bricks. That Urban Renewal was a plan that did not work. Today, we have much better ideas! Good thing they didn't get to Bricktown with their explosives!

I also actually saw the Biltmore go down with my GGrandmother...but I was pretty young. They say that is one of the largest buildings to be taken down intentionally. People were crying over it. A lot of great architecture bit the dust in the 70s.

Shame on OKC.

[cindycat]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

I'm so ancient I was there when they took down the Biltmore. I got a few bricks. That Urban Renewal was a plan that did not work. Today, we have much better ideas! Good thing they didn't get to Bricktown with their explosives!

Hmmm. I guess that makes me ancient, too. We watched the Biltmore fall one week before we left to visit friends stationed in Germany and Italy. The Biltmore story was in "Stars and Stripes" while we were over there. We were struck by the contrast - knocking the Biltmore down because it was so old (45-ish) and out-of-date, while Europeans still used buildings that had survived for centuries.

[happytown]

Biltmore hotel wasnt extremely old in 1977...But today a 33 story hotel built in 1932 is a jem in Oklahoma. What a mess up. Just the image of a structure this size being blown up makes me want to cringe. OKC would pay millions to take that one back.

Biltmore Hotel

[peggydavis]

Cindycat, were you in the crowd that rushed the building after it fell. That was wild! People were crazy to get bricks, doors, etc.

I don't know how they ever came up with that idea. I worked in an office downtown at Main and Hudson. It was a perfectly good building but we had to move and they took it down. The lot stayed empty for years. I hope we are wiser now.

[happytown]

Peggy here are images of some of the most beautiful buildings in OKC that were destroyed because of the 70s.
Baum Building
Oklahoma City Libraries
Bristol Hotel
Patterson Building
Oklahoma County Courthouse
Wells Roberts Hotel
Overholser Opera House / Orpheum Theatre
Bass & Harbour / Insurance Building
Goodholm Building

There are like 10 more...makes me sick.

[peggydavis]

I was looking around for some info on that period, but didn't find much. We did get the Myriad Botanical Gardens designed by I M Pei out of the deal. Other than that, it was a disaster.

[flintysooner]

Try to get a copy of OKC Second Time Around: A Renaissance Story by Steve Lackmeyer and Jack Money. You can get it at Full Circle Bookstore in 50 Penn Place which is worth going to in its own right.

It is locally published by Full Circle Press so it is not always available. But it is a great visual and written history of urban renewal in OKC. The authors are to be commended for this work in my opinion.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by happytown

Biltmore hotel wasnt extremely old in 1977...But today a 33 story hotel built in 1932 is a jem in Oklahoma. What a mess up. Just the image of a structure this size being blown up makes me want to cringe. OKC would pay millions to take that one back.

Biltmore Hotel

Goodness, what a loss. Why did they see fit to tear down such a beautiful building? And you're right, I bet they would give anything to get that back. What was up with people in the 70s? It's as if they wanted to tear apart history.. A pity.