Capitol Hill Definition

[metro]

I've always wondered why is it called Capitol Hill, when the Capitol Complex is several miles north.

[SOUTHSIDE GIRL]

The Grill on 25th Street, had a copy of the old Capitol Hill map posted on a board. It you get a chance you might go in and see it the new owners sitll have it up. The Beacon should also have something

[USG '60]

Back in the 50s those of us who went to Grant considered ourselves Capitol Hillians. We were kind of the NEW Capitol Hill High School. Back then we would have defined the lines to have included Hillcrest (so I-240 to the south) and west to Partland. The river on the north and Shiellds on the east. We were proud to be part of Capitol Hill and even though we were ordinarially enemies, when on the northside we were friends.

[Doug Loudenback]

I've always wondered why is it called Capitol Hill, when the Capitol Complex is several miles north.

The new city ambitiously thought that the area had a chance to become the home of the State Capitol.

[Martin]

kinda busy now so i don't have time to fully explain and lay out all my evidence...

but i made this map trying to figure out the boundaries of the town incorporated as 'capitol hill'... not so much the region that identifies itself as such today. the map is an excerpt from a 1909 okc map pulled from the ohs archives.

the orange area indicates the 160 acre area that comprises 'capitol hill addition' and the blue area indicates what i hypothesize the boundaries of what was incorporated as 'capitol hill' in 1904. current street names in parentheses. questions/comments appreciated! -M

[Doug Loudenback]

Great! I couldn't find this file there, good work!

[papaOU]

Back in the 50s those of us who went to Grant considered ourselves Capitol Hillians. We were kind of the NEW Capitol Hill High School. Back then we would have defined the lines to have included Hillcrest (so I-240 to the south) and west to Partland. The river on the north and Shiellds on the east. We were proud to be part of Capitol Hill and even though we were ordinarially enemies, when on the northside we were friends.

I agree. I still feel that way. I think now it is more a southside issue. Unfortunately, we may be the last of our breed. Most younger people and kids don't care about our areas tradition and have very little sense of belonging.

[papaOU]

Great job with map.

[papaOU]

I was looking at some Osborne Maps and the spelling was Capital Hill. Anyone else run into that?

[Martin]

yep... i think it's a common misspelling. -M

[SoonerGirl26]

Hey mmm...thanks for the map! Interesting to see all the former names of the streets. I guess they were changed when Capitol Hill was annexed back into OKCY to comform with their street names (?????). I also didn't realize that "Capitol Hill" went so far east...always thought Shields was the east boundary. Very interesting....thanks!!!

~~~

[Doug Loudenback]

Hey mmm...thanks for the map! Interesting to see all the former names of the streets. I guess they were changed when Capitol Hill was annexed back into OKCY to comform with their street names (?????). I also didn't realize that "Capitol Hill" went so far east...always thought Shields was the east boundary. Very interesting....thanks!!!

~~~

Hang on ... East Capitol Hill was a platted area in the county, don't know if it was originally part of Okc or not, but it wasn't part of Capitol Hill, the city, I'm almost positive.

[Martin]

interesting... but platted areas don't exist one-for-one with town limits, right?

the southwest area of what i have designated as 'east capitol hill' is what the map calls 'schilling addition'... i found some articles in the oklahoman discussing this area as 'capitol hill' and using the term 'east capitol hill' as a subset. there was another article that discussed car service going into capitol hill (you can see it on this map) via 'ohio' street which is modern day central... the article writer seemed to be under the impression that this was part of capitol hill. that doesn't make it accurate but that's what gave me the impression.

as for the portion north and east of that... i'm not totally certain. some of the articles i later found regarding those additions refer to them as being in 'okc' instead of using the 'capitol hill' descriptor.

-M

[Doug Loudenback]

interesting... but platted areas don't exist one-for-one with town limits, right?
-M

Good question, I don't know. I remember seeing lots of stuff about East Capitol Hill when I was researching Capitol Hill (proper) through around 1911, but I didn't look at many of them. One of the Capitol Hillers in this thread seemed to be wary of including area east of Shields as part of the "popular" definition, at least, so I didn't pay a lot of attention. I'll go back right now and have another look.

[Doug Loudenback]

OK, following up. A quick look through the Oklahoman's archives shows that "East Capitol Hill" must have been a common but not legal description ... the area that I was speaking of as "East Capitol Hill" was, as you said, M, technically "Schilling's Addition," which was an addition to Oklahoma City. However, since the East Capitol Hill term was general, it may well be that other additions north and/or south of Schilling's Addition may have come under the term's umbrella.

The article which shows the Oklahoma City part is an item in the 4/3/1902 Oklahoman:



Several other articles from 1902 to 1910 (where I quit looking) use the general phrase "East Capitol Hill" but it always seems to come back to Schilling's Addition to Oklahoma City.

If Plat maps exist on-line, I'm not aware. Do you know, M (or anyone else)?

Perusing the County Assessor's records for "Schillings Addition" (it doesn't contain the apostrophe there) indicate that the area was bounded something like SE 23 on the north, SE 29th on the south, whatever the 1st east street was on the west (Santa Fe?) and as far east as Stiles on the east. I'll keep looking.

BTW, do you have a link to that map you located, M? I'd like to have a 1st hand look at it.

[Martin]

schilling's addition is 22nd on the north, 29th on the south, santa fe on the west and byers on the east.

here's a link to the map i used

-M

[Doug Loudenback]

Link didn't work.

[Martin]

drat... i guess the links expire.

go to the ohs online catalogs. search for "oklahoma city map suburbs" with "match all words" selected. the map should be the only search result returned. if that doesn't work, i'll just copy it up to my webserver.

-M

[Doug Loudenback]

mmm mmm good. Thanks!

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks to the good lead of mmm, I've located some other neat city maps at the OHS website. One, almost certainly a 1911 map which is described in this new thread, shows the Capitol Hill & surrounding area as being the following:

[Martin]

this is a cool map, too... main reason i chose to use the 1909 map as a base was that it had the "old" street names in capitol hill... this map has more of the contemporary names. -M

[Prunepicker]

I have never heard that Packingtown was a part of Capitol Hill.

You're right. Packing Town was Packing Town. Capitol Hill was Capitol Hill.

[Prunepicker]

But, if you're still holding a grudge since and after 1911 on behalf of your
ancestors, well ...

The annexation was only the start. Capitol Hill through the years has been
Okc'c redheaded stepchild. I think even the Grant and S.E. readers would
agree.

As far as I'm concerned, and I just found this thread, Capitol Hill was a place
to go to movies and John A. Brown. I guess that makes the boundaries on
Commerce between Walker and Hudson. Other than that, Capitol didn't
exist anywhere else.

The movies were the Yale, Knob Hill and the Redskin.

[Prunepicker]

Isn't the area just south of Capitol Hill/29th actually known as Hillcrest? I
don't think it is part of Capitol Hill.

I never thought Hillcrest went that far north. We lived south of 59th and
that area was called Hillcrest.

You may be right. I don't know.

[Prunepicker]

I snagged this from the Beacon.

Is the Beacon still published? Wow. I remember seeing it but it never
crossed my mind that it was that old.

Live and learn, sometimes.