Tracking the urban sprawl over the years....

[Joe Kimball]

I've read some very interesting posts some time back about how Grand Avenue was once the beltline around the entire city, that NW 50th was analogous to, say, NW 150th today, and other information relating to the gradual sprawl of this city.

Is there a resource somewhere that tracks this sprawl over the decades? I would be tempted to answer my question and say "No, there isn't", as it would seem to me that this information exists already (albeit in fragmented form). I suppose a more useful question might be "Are there any resources showing old maps over the years and old photographs, such as Lake Hefner over the years, photographs depicting the old outskirts of town, very old aerial photographs, and the like?

I suppose I'd better pay the price by taking some of my own photographs of the outskirts as they exist now.

[mmonroe]

I'm working on a pre-core2shore photo shoot of the area south of the crosstown for historical purposes at the recent. About 65% done. Taken 3 weeks now.

[windowphobe]

Doug Loudenback has reproduced lots of old maps, and he'll do it again at the drop of a hat.

The Grand loop was never fully completed, but that was its intention: to circle the city.

[jbrown84]

Interestingly, there were also 4 large parks in the 4 quadrants, each attached to Grand Ave. Will Rogers, Lincoln, Trosper, and I'm not sure what the SW one was.

[OKCDrummer77]

Interestingly, there were also 4 large parks in the 4 quadrants, each attached to Grand Ave. Will Rogers, Lincoln, Trosper, and I'm not sure what the SW one was.

Woodson Park maybe? Grand Blvd runs right through it near SW 29th & May.

[metro]

Doug Loudenback has reproduced lots of old maps, and he'll do it again at the drop of a hat.

The Grand loop was never fully completed, but that was its intention: to circle the city.

Doug is a good resource, however I wouldn't sign him up to do it at the drop of a hat. He's currently finishing up a book, thus the reason he probably hasn't posted near as much lately.

I encourage the above poster to visit the downtown library (where Doug get's most of his info). They have tons of old archived photos, articles, etc. as well you can also access the Oklahoman's archives free of charge at the library. Bob Blackburn at the Oklahoma History Museum is also an excellent source (probably the best Oklahoma history buff in Oklahoma).

[FritterGirl]

Woodson Park maybe? Grand Blvd runs right through it near SW 29th & May.

Yes. Woodson.

[Joe Kimball]

I've managed to find a couple of things at the Library Of Congress website (very old maps from 1894 and 1905, I think), as well as many photographs of a "May Avenue Camp". I'll dig there more later tonight (it's too beautiful outside to do this now).

I was hoping that this might be online somewhere, but a trip to the downtown library may well be in order! Perhaps some street name history (per my other thread) could be found here, as well.