The Tulsa Club Building was built in the 1920’s by the Tulsa Club and the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber occupied the lower floors and the Club occupied the upper floors.
The building is in a city known for Art Deco and the building fits in well with Art Deco buildings but it is not Art Deco. It was designed by Bruce Goff and the building is known as a “Modern” Design. Mr. Goff was known for basically doing his own thing with buildings.
Undated photograph*, presumably from the 1920’s or 30’s. Any car folks out there who can date the cars parked? What interests me about this photograph is that the distinctive black tile work now on the building was not present in the earlier photograph. It’s a mystery to me. Its not just the tiles, there appears to be a narrow addition or facade to the entire front of the building.
Above is a closeup of the tiles, below is a detail. I have studied them and I confess I think the design is totally abstract.
The new facade detracts from the clean lines of the original building, but maybe contributed to a more modern look. I could find no information at all about the addition.
In its heyday the club was a place for the elite to meet and party.*
Unfortunately, the building is not well preserved. The Tulsa Club folded in the early 1990’s. The building was gutted for its fixtures and then sold to somebody in California, who apparently didn’t do anything with it, including pay the annual assessments. The interior was badly damaged by vandals and squatters. The City is trying to foreclose and the owner is trying sell the building according to this article. The MODERNtulsa blog has a post with recent photographs of the interior. The photographs are hard to look at.
The future of this building concerns me.
For other views of the world we live in check out That’s My World.
*The black and white photographs are courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.
It is sad to see what is happening to many older buildings these days. Interesting to see the differences in this building over the years. Great shots, interesting post!
Very interesting post. Have a great week.
It is such a shame when old buildings which still have so much use are let go or torn down to make way for bigger and shinier buildings. I watched the movie MILK last night and as usual it was the extras that were fascinating. In this case it was the filming of the movie in the actual location in all the old buildings which made this movie special. Nice post, thanks for sharing.
Smiles
The building doesn’t seem to have changed much – although the background has, of course, with lots of new buildings.
Interesting observation.
Seems like *we* have to make everything new. It’s such a shame that there isn’t more interest in saving old/historical buildings. In some ways, I guess, it’s easier to knock down the old and build new. It takes some foresight and imagination to bring an old building into today’s world. I enjoyed the pictures and the history. The tiles are something else.
İt’s very nice to visit your Den, Yogi. I enjoyed it
Nice building, sad about its demise.
Yogi: Very neat then and now look. What a neat set of old cars at the building.
After I read your post, I went back and could see the boarded up windows in the first photo. Wouldn’t some kind of Historical Society try to preserve it? Of course, I’m sure money is an issue.
What a neat place. Too bad it has been trashed–thanks to the neglect of the owner. Such a bummmer. I see that go on around here with greedy, tight-fisted landlords who strangle the life out of architectural history.
Too bad the old building is in such a sad state. That’s not good for the downtown district. Hope someone with money buys it and fixes it up.
like the tiles and facade a lot.