Skip to main content

Ranch Style Razed

Earlier this week I got a depressing call from a friend who was watching a bulldozer mow down the Ranch Acres Medical Building. For many years this ranch-style building has been a fixture on the corner of 31st & Harvard in Tulsa.

I knew the building had been empty for a while. But outwardly it appeared to be in solid shape, despite the beautiful brick being molested with paint several years ago. Today the two-story structure is laid bare and it appears it was inwardly pretty solid also. Watching all that nice hardware head to the landfill just makes my heart sink.

Most of the original retail and commercial structures at this intersection were built alongside the residential development of Ranch Acres neighborhood. Principally bounded by 31st and 41st Strreets between Harvard and Delaware, this well-preserved area was built during a time when commercial and residential buildings shared a look and feel. The corner store looked like your house. They matched.

Courtesy Beryl Ford Collectio
At one time nearly the entire intersection of 31st & Harvard was a showcase for crab orchard sandstone and cedar shake shingles. All of these buildings were designed in a similar style and scale to the homes in the nearby Ranch Acres development. An earlier medical center just across the street was mowed down to make way for a Walgreens. The building being torn down today looks like an overgrown ranch house transplanted from the neighborhood. Soon the Ranch Acres Shopping Center will be the only commercial survivor of the original development.

Initially developed in the early Fifties as an upscale residential area, Ranch Acres is one of the best preserved examples of post-war suburbia in Oklahoma. The low and sprawling ranch-style homes occupy large lots- as the name implies, about an acre. But this well kept neighborhood, its central location and the large parcels of land were slowly becoming a liability.

By the Eighties developers were razing a home to plant 3 in its place- or one hideous monstrosity that was completely out of proportion. New residents were attracted by the neighborhood's charm, then proceeded to do everything they could to destroy it. This ever increasing threat of teardowns continued throughout the Nineties, then area residents acted. Eventually Ranch Acres was listed on The National Register of Historic Places as a historic neighborhood in 2007, hopefully stemming the onslaught of McMansions.

But sadly, the commercial components of this historic Tulsa area have not fared so well.

Learn More

Comments

tomintulsa said…
I was sad to see this beautiful building destroyed especially with the prospect of another Jack-In-The-Box or McDonald's setting up shop on that corner. To Walgreen's defense, they tried to use the existing structure but it was not adequate. At least we can still drive through the neighborhood and only see a few blights.

The Recent Past

The Bruce Goff House in Vinita

We were recently surprised to learn about a Goff-designed home just an hour away from Tulsa in Vinita, Oklahoma. Vinita is probably best known to OK Mod readers as the home of the Glass House on I-44, also known as (shudder) the World's Largest Largest McDonalds . Anywho, turned out the Goff house was on the market, and the owner was more than happy to let us have a look around. We took a short drive up the turnpike one Sunday afternoon to meet the realtor, snap some pictures, ask some questions and enjoy another one of Bruce Goff's unique creations. The home is known as the Adams House and was built in 1961. The 3,700 square foot home is arranged in a circular floor plan with a large sunken "conversation pit" at the center. Rising up from this pit is a large metal fireplace, its chimney surrounded by skylights, which dominates the entire house. Rooms surround the perimeter with folding accordion doors acting as walls. To maintain some semblance of privacy an inner

The World Museum

The widening of I-44 through Tulsa will soon claim another mid-century building (see Modern Homes Make Way for I-44 ). This unusual landmark near Peoria, once known as the World Museum, is being emptied in preparation for demolition. The concrete complex was built in 1963 by the Osborn Ministries as a museum and "Interstate Temple." Self-proclaimed minister, T. L. Osborn, and his wife, Daisy, traveled the world as Christian missionaries and collected art and artifacts on their journeys. The unusual La Concha-esque building housed their partial collection and distracted motorists touring along the new Skelly Bypass (aka I-44). The exterior of the building is adorned with maps of the world's continents. In its heyday there was a good deal more- a giant outline of Jesus was on one wall. The inscription below it, "REX," provided one of my earliest Latin lessons when I asked Dad why that building had my name on it. There was also a large globe that once stood out fr

Oklahoma State Capitol Bank

On the Trail of Julius Shulman: Stop 2 "This is a bank," the sign outside the futuristic building read. According to legend a prankster added a strategic question mark and echoed the sentiment of many passers-by: "This is a bank?" That was back in 1964 when it opened. Today the Arvest on Lincoln Boulevard looks a bit less Jetsonian, mostly due to replacement of structural glass below the "saucers," but it's still an unusual bank. Designed by Robert Roloff of the architectural firm Bailey, Bozalis, Dickinson & Roloff, the State Capitol Bank caused quite a stir in Oklahoma City when it opened. Heck, it's still pretty shocking today! Originally the flying saucers appeared to hover above the building (as seen in this vintage postcard). All the glass that made that effect possible also made heating and cooling an expensive proposition. Security concerns also mandated replacement of those windows with solid materials and small square portholes