Skywatch Friday – The New Gilcrease Museum and the Old Gilcrease Mansion

Tulsa has a great western themed museum, The Gilcrease Museum, which has a great collection of art and documents collected by oilman Thomas Gilcrease. He found out that oil prices can go down, just like they go up and he ended up selling his collection to the City of Tulsa back in the 1950’s. The city acted quickly and the museum was established on the grounds of Gilcrease’s estate.

The original museum was cobbled together over time with a collection of additions but it became unwieldy to manage and reportedly the lack of good climate control endangered the collection. So the citizens of Tulsa passed another bond issue and got a lot of private money as well. The original museum was closed in 2021 and knocked down (after the art was moved off site of course.) The new museum was started and the exterior is almost finished so one recent Sunday afternoon I packed up my camera and drone headed off to see what I could see. The new building is very modern and beautiful and overlooks the Osage Hills to the west.

And you have a good view of downtown Tulsa to the southeast. The museum sits up on a hill. I remember looking at it through binoculars from office downtown.

Also on the property is Gilcrease’s old mansion. I think it is empty now. Reportedly ghosts inhabit it and the formal garden. There is Thomas Gilcrease and seven Native American children who lived in the house as orphans. It all sounds very ghostly to me. I’ve been there a number of times and looked through the windows and taken lots of photos and I’ve not seen any manifestations. But hey you never know.

The house is pretty cool with a big porch wrapped around three sides. It doesn’t quite seem big enough to be a mansion. I love the green tile roof. You know that it produces quite a clatter during our Oklahoma hailstorms.

I’d sure like to check out the inside though. It looks like some sort of sunroom upstairs here.

Here is a view of the museum. You can see it is very close to the house.

Some autumn color on the northwest side of the house. I love the covered driveway. I don’t think there is a garage.

The Thomas Gilcrease House in Tulsa

The roof sprawls. I guestimate a cost of one gazillion dollars to replace it.

The new museum is due to open in 2026. They have to complete the interior then they have to install the art. I’ll be leaning on the door when they open it.

Check out the museum web site. They have 28,000 works of art in their digital museum which you can visit for free!!

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

16 thoughts on “Skywatch Friday – The New Gilcrease Museum and the Old Gilcrease Mansion”

  1. Carol

    I’m so glad the City owns it. I love when old estates are taken care of and shared with future residents. Add the first museum and now a new museum and Tulsa has an amazing art collection and museum.

  9. Alana

    I’m sorry that I never visited the Gilcrease museum when I lived just over the border in Arkansas, but my interest were a bit different back then in the 1980s I would certainly love to see it now plus the mansion if I ever get out there again I am going to visit the virtual site when I have some time. My time is pretty limited right now. .

  13. Joyful

    I love free museums or those that at least have a free day during the week because I think it’s so important for as many people as possible to learn from museum exhibits. The new museum is beautiful and sits on a fantastic location with a fabulous view. Enjoy it!

  14. E. Thai

    The new museum looks a tad like The Getty Museum in L.A., which is a free museum by the way. Hope this new one will be free as well, like it’s digital one. The mansion is interesting and beautiful.
    Have a great weekend!

Comments are closed.