Category Archives: My World

My World – Boston Avenue Methodist Church – Tulsa

In a city full of Art Deco treasures the Boston Avenue Methodist Church, downtown at 13th and Boston, may be the crown jewel.
It was completed in 1929 just in time for the stock market crash. The church was almost foreclosed on and converted to a movie theater but was saved when a group of businessmen chartered a flight to Kansas City and convinced the mortgage owner not to proceed with the foreclosure.

The two architects were Bruce Goff and Adah Robinson. The building features a 225 foot tall tower containing church offices, bells, and a prayer room. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

As nice and innovative as the exterior of the building is, the interior is stunning. The stained glass especially is spectacular. The church offers tours of the building at the conclusion of the 11 AM Service on Sundays.

One thing I love about Art Deco is the detailing. Below is a detail of the south face of the building showing three Methodist circuit riders on horseback.

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My World – Frisco 4500

I was chasing a geocache with a couple of friends just north of downtown Tulsa when we stumbled upon this old steam locomotive sitting unattended in the middle of nowhere. Talk about serendipity! What a find.

A little research showed that it is the Frisco 4500 being restored by the Townwest Sertoma Club. The locomotive was built in 1942 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It worked first pulling Passenger Trains and then Freight until 1950.

In 1954 it was put on display at Tulsa Mohawk Park and stayed there until 2000. Since then it has been undergoing a slow restoration. Hopefully, it will be moved to another park for public viewing again.

Read all the details on the Sertoma Club Website.

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Union Depot – That’s My World Tuesday

Tulsa Union Depot, another Tulsa Art Deco building, was completed in 1931 and served as Tulsa’s rail passenger terminal until 1967. It sat empty and deteriorating for years until it was converted to office space in the 1980’s. Last year another marked the completion of another conversion. It is now the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

The building has a lot of detailing. Below is my favorite. I couldn’t figure out what it was for a long time and then I realized that it was a winged wheel on a railroad. The design is repeated all around the building.

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My World Tuesday #2

I decided to feature another art deco building in Tulsa. Below is the Oklahoma Natural Gas Building constructed in 1928. It was the first art deco building in downtown Tulsa and led to many others. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and you can read all the details here.

The building is still used as office space and is very nice specially the former lobby on the first floor. The layout is that the elevators are at the opposite end of what is viewed here. From the elevator lobby there is a center corridor all they way to the end. So all the offices have nice windows and great views.

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My World Tuesday #1

My World is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Among other things, Tulsa is known as an Art Deco mecca. There are many different Art Deco buildings in Tulsa and one that I like very much is the Tulsa Fire Alarm building, built in 1934. You can find all the details here in an article by the Tulsa Preservation Commission.

The building features a double headed dragon design over the front door. I tried to show it in the second photograph.


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