Mayfair Shopping Center

[Bill Robertson]

^

Where was OTASCO located in that SE section?

I'm trying to picture it.

The very southernmost store. They were the ell of the building. The auto service doors were the closest thing to May.

[Roger S]

But seeing the building where Otasco was gone is painful. My dad and I spent a LOT of time there. He bought everything for what we could do to the cars there and took them there for the things he didn't want to tackle. My first Daisy bb rifle came from there. My first .22 rifle came from there. I'm sure most everything in mom's kitchen came from there. I could probably go on for a long page. May SE Mayfair rest in peace.

When I was a kid it wasn't officially Christmas season until the Otasco Elf commercial played and I had marked everything in the Otasco catalog I wanted but wasn't going to get.

[Bill Robertson]

When I was a kid it wasn't officially Christmas season until the Otasco Elf commercial played and I had marked everything in the Otasco catalog I wanted but wasn't going to get.

OKG yes!!!!! But that's part of my precious memories.

Dad was a simple printing pressman and mom didn't work outside the house until I was in first grade and she went to school to be a nurse. Yet somehow pretty much anything I really wanted I got. When I was maybe 8 I woke up Christmas morning to a Honda 50 for me and a Yamaha 125 for dad so we could ride together. I have no idea how they pulled it off. Kinda off the Otasco vibe but still connected for me as things we had then reminds me of everything from that time.

[barrettd]

I loved walking up to Otasco when I was a kid. Also, the cafe at Langsam Drug, we would go get ice cream. Puddin' Lane, Big Daddy Rats, etc.

Weird seeing that section completely leveled, and seeing the apartments behind from May for the first time.

[Urbanized]

R.I.P. OTASCO. Even though I grew up as a kid in Wichita, we had them there too. And since my parents were both from the OKC metro they loved the place; especially Dad (also R.I.P.). Got my first bike there as a kid, Even got to ride there myself to get my bicycle inspected and licensed each year (a thing in Wichita when I was a kid). Also always got to go with Dad to shop for things like camping products and such. Great memories there.

[barrettd]

I didn't get a bike there, got mine at Wheeler Dealer.

[Pete]

I know it's weird but I'm incredibly sentimental...

I walk through Mayfair a few times a week, and when I saw the demo equipment show up for the SE section, I stood there for a minute, put my hand on the old building, and bid it goodbye.

Tons of people used to shop there over the decades, and lots of memories were made. I felt I needed to say goodbye for all of them.


Always makes me a bit sad to see a part of the past bulldozed. It erases important connections between people and a community.

And even though I did not grow up in a small town, every time I go through one I feel the collective pain of the universal loss of almost every old main street and for the communities in general. I can't imagine how sad it must be for those who loved towns in much more vibrant times.

[Pete]

The comments about OTASCO made me realize that this old basement space must have been under the car service bays:

[barrettd]

Hey, Pete, I think you're correct. If you check out Mayfair Heights home page, you can see the bays facing May at the south end, beyond the beautiful sign.

https://www.mayfairheights.com/our-history-1

[Martin]

just making sure that i have my bearings straight... were those bays (and the basement) in the same spot where khazana used to be?

[Bill Robertson]

The bays were where the green wood is in this pic.
I'm not sure where Khazana was.

[Pete]

^

That area was directly over the small basement.

[Roger S]

R.I.P. OTASCO. Even though I grew up as a kid in Wichita, we had them there too.

Not quite RIP.... I don't know the story behind it but there is still an Otasco in Marlow.

Born in Hutchinson and spent most of my childhood in Buhler.... Whenever we hauled hogs to Wichita dad would stop and he would get Guy's pork rinds and I would get Guy's cheese puffs and we never told mom we were spending the money on something that could have been spent better elsewhere...... Don't forget the Guy's!

[barrettd]

Whatever happened to this sign? I haven't searched back in the thread, maybe it's already been mentioned.

[Bill Robertson]

^

That area was directly over the small basement.

Then it had to be for under car access. I wonder how they covered it over after Otasco left. I'm assuming everything since then wanted a single level floor.

[Pete]

[gjl]

Was there a Kip's Big Boy restaurant in the Mayfair shopping center in the 60s? I seem to remember one being in the 50th and May area perhaps on the west side? We would eat there and I remember getting a little comic book to take home. I'm thinking there was a bank too. Maybe Mayfair Bank? I'm thinking I had my first bank savings account there in the 60s as a kid.

[Pete]

Was there a Kip's Big Boy restaurant in the Mayfair shopping center in the 60s? I seem to remember one being in the 50th and May area perhaps on the west side? We would eat there and I remember getting a little comic book to take home. I'm thinking there was a bank too. Maybe Mayfair Bank? I'm thinking I had my first bank savings account there in the 60s as a kid.

Kip's was farther south, at 3217 N. May.

Here is a related ugly slice of Oklahoma's past... I came across a classified ad for jobs at that location in 1960 and it specified ages 18-35 and WHITE in capital letters.

[mugofbeer]

Was there a Kip's Big Boy restaurant in the Mayfair shopping center in the 60s? I seem to remember one being in the 50th and May area perhaps on the west side? We would eat there and I remember getting a little comic book to take home. I'm thinking there was a bank too. Maybe Mayfair Bank? I'm thinking I had my first bank savings account there in the 60s as a kid.

Union Bank was in Mayfair Village Shopping Center.

[gjl]

Union Bank was in Mayfair Village Shopping Center.

Was it called something else before Union Bank? I'm talking like mid to late 60s. I seem to remember the drive thrus facing 50th.

[Pete]

The southwest section (first photo) now has really cool up-lighting embedded in the sidewalk. I believe they have the capability to shift colors. Inside, Summer Moon, the barber and tailor spaces are all moving fast.

The second photo is the demolished area just north of Michael's.

[Bill Robertson]

Was it called something else before Union Bank? I'm talking like mid to late 60s. I seem to remember the drive thrus facing 50th.

I'm sure it was something bank before it was Union Bank. But I don't remember what.

[Pete]

Combining info from a 1969 aerial and a Polk's Criss Cross Directory from the same year, these were the tenants at Mayfair:

[Bullbear]

That SW section looks so good!. Excited for Summer Moon to get open. I am anxious to see who they get in the end unit with the patio. will be a nice spot for a bite to eat.

[Dob Hooligan]

Combining info from a 1969 aerial and a Polk's Criss Cross Directory from the same year, these were the tenants at Mayfair:

Looks to me that May Avenue Bank is in the same building as InterBank is now. I "think" I remember that May Avenue Bank & Trust used a MBT logo (capital M on the left and small b and t stacked on the right) which changed to UBT after the name was changed in the early 1970s?