Great 1930s photo

[Doug Loudenback]

Steve has a great 1930s downtown aerial photo in his Okc Central blog. It's a must-see.

[Pete]

Very cool!

Looks like the Skirvin Tower was under construction.

[Larry OKC]

Thanks for posting Doug...

Pete: Am I missing something...it looks like the Skirvin's 3 towers are complete in that pic (or are you talking about another part of it)?
From Wiki:

First opened in 1911, the Skirvin Hotel contained 224 rooms in a ten-story two-winged tower. A third 12-story wing was added in 1925, and then in 1929–30 all three wings were leveled off to 14 floors with a total of 525 rooms.[3]

[Jim Kyle]

They're referring to the Skirvin Tower, a separate building directly across Broadway from the Skirvin itself...

[Larry OKC]

gotchya...thanks!

[Pete]

The thing that always amazes me about these old photos of downtown is the huge amount of small buildings.

It was densely packed but the large majority of structures had very narrow street frontage; where the Myriad now sits was probably comprised of about 50 different properties.

I believe this huge jumble of separate ownerships had a lot to do with the perceived need for urban renewal to come in and wipe out entire blocks. A lot of those buildings were warehouses and in very rough shape come the 50's and 60's and there was no easy way to improve the area as a whole without removing entire swaths.

Of course, we went completely the other direction, consolidating superblocks all over downtown. From one extreme to another.

[SOONER8693]

Is there snow on top of everything, buildings, ground, streets, in this pic?

[Larry OKC]

Is there snow on top of everything, buildings, ground, streets, in this pic?

I can see how you might think so, but I think Doug & Pete are right, it is just the nature of B&W photography. If you take a look at the trees, they seem to be absent any "snow" (and appear to still have their leaves)...but OKC weather can certainly be a bit unexpected

[Doug Loudenback]

Now that you mention it, it does look that way, doesn't it. It would help to see an original photo but even that would not necessarily be determinative. So much with photography, particularly black & white, has to do with contrast, brightness, etc.

[Pete]

I don't think that's snow... Just the exposure of the photo.

[Doug Loudenback]

There are so many things that are cool about this picture. Not wanting to step on Steve's toes/turf, I've not uploaded this photo to my photobucket pages and parceled it into quadrants or other slices as I'm prone to do (even though I've done so on my home computer) ... yet. I left these comments in Steve's blog, including one by Dean:

1. As best as I recall, that is the only photo of Riverside Park (east of Douglass School) that I’ve ever seen. On quick inspection, I don’t see any of the “Civic Center” projects in the picture … most notably the Oklahoma County Courthouse (opened 4/1937) doesn’t seem to be constructed or underway (at least, not that I can see) but the east/west Rock Island tracks do appear to have been cleared, judging by the area in the mid-to-upper left edge of the photo. The Santa Fe elevation has been done and I think I can make out the new Santa Fe Station which opened in 1934. The Biltmore is done (1932). It looks like the Skirvin Tower’s later construction which began in 1935 is underway and has topped out in skeletal form … I think that was finished in 1938. My guess is that this photo was taken in late-1935 to mid-1936.
2. I should have added … it’s great seeing an aerial of the once busy railroad tracks through the warehouse district. Dean Schirf will love this photo!
3. [Dean's reply] what a photo…..shows downtown OKC when it was ever bit the equal of downtown Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Wichita and Kansas City…..note the construction of Skirvin Tower Hotel and Walnut Street Bridge has direct connection with Main Street…..also shown is warehouse district (now Bricktown) showing fine detail of the rail lines of Rock Island, Santa Fe, Frisco and the Katy Railroads…..just absolutely great stuff……thanks for sharing.
4. Dean, did you notice the KATY passenger terminal and to the right/east the other KATY facility, which I assume is the KATY freight facility. I was amazed to see how long it was.

It's also fun trying to figure out the identity of some of the buildings shown in the photo. Some are easy but some aren't.

Here's the link to the somewhat high-resolution image (2428 x 1678 px) shown at Steve's blog: http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/fi...icktown30s.jpg

[tzshaner]

Here is a photo i found on one of the other threads, though I can't remember which one. It is almost the same perspective and probably taken a little bit later in time. It is a bit clearer though.

[Jim Kyle]

Dean, did you notice the KATY passenger terminal and to the right/east the other KATY facility, which I assume is the KATY freight facility. I was amazed to see how long it was.

I'm not Dean, but your assumption is correct. At least part of it was still there in 1985 and housed Cardinal Paper Company, a wholesaler of paper products with which I did a (very) little business during the year that Kyle Enterprises, Inc. owned and operated Kernal Korn's Popcorn Factory (far out of downtown, at Wilshire and Classen).

[KayneMo]

That is a great photo! Downtown looked so dense!

[lt14life]

Great Photo's !!

[Questor]

That photo kind of makes me sad. It looks so... cosmopolitan. We have lost a lot of great buildings.

The only thing to do now is start building the downtown that we have always wanted....

[cinders8709]

I agree!! Seems like there was a time when okc couldn't wait to tear down every building downtown.....so sad

[bchris02]

Agreed. Imagine OKC today had their never been a Pei Plan. Here we are 50 years later and this city is really still playing catch up because of what was lost. I can't believe anybody thought that was a good idea.

[UnFrSaKn]

Just now noticed this thread. I posted the one of Bricktown above. Got lots more.




Before


After

[grantgeneral78]

Great pictures.

[MonkeesFan]

Very nice pictures!

[UnFrSaKn]

A Tale of Two Cities. Circa 1964 - YouTube

[CitySlickR]

Great thread and Doug Loudenbach you have a lot of passion on your site. Makes me sad to see all those classic downtown theaters gone. What a jewel any of them would have been today. I remember going to a few of them in the early sixties. Cannot remember which ones but I do remember I was in awe at the size of the ones I attended. Being from a small town which had only one small but very well attended theater the treat of going to a large theater in downtown Oklahoma City was a event. We shopped all day downtown OKC. Sometimes ventured up Classen to Herman's Sea Food. Back downtown and hit the cluster of pawn shops for a bit then off to a evening at the movies. Those were really the days.