Gatewood Historic District

Did You Know?

by Charles Cheatham

Reprinted from the September/October Gatewood Newsletter 2003

Last month I described the formation of the University Addition, which was laid out in 1902 and included approximately the eastern half of the present-day Gatewood Neighborhood, as well as all of Mesta Park.

The grounds of the Epworth University (a predecessor to OCU) were carved out of the center of the University Addition, and extended for four blocks east and west and four blocks north and south, between Classen Boulevard and McKinley Avenue, and from N.W. 17th to N.W. 21st Street.

It is hard to imagine today, but the older, still-existing wood-frame houses on the south side of 17th Street, and also on the north side of 21st Street, between Classen and McKinley, were originally built to enjoy the vast and scenic open space that was immediately across the street—the Epworth University campus.

Similarly, on the west side of McKinley, between 17th and 21st Streets, the very early houses were not built facing the numbered streets, but rather faced east, across McKinley, toward the park-like university grounds.

A few years later, after the university went bankrupt, the university grounds were auctioned off to developers who platted it as the University Place and Nichols University Place additions, with lots sold beginning about 1920 for development of residences.

You can see a difference in the properties built on the east side of McKinley, between 17th and 21st, which appeared later and had a different architectural style than the west side. The properties on the east side of McKinley mostly faced the numbered streets, because they “filled in” the former university grounds and there were no longer a view.

McKinley was important as a north-south street. It was about the only north-south street between Classen and Pennsylvania that continued in a straight line both south of 16th Street (past Linwood to 5th) and (later) north of 23rd Street (past 39th Street). It had a lot of early activity and provided good access—which might be a very odd way to imagine the street today, after so many major changes in traffic patterns.

Even between 16th and 17th, and between 21st and 23rd (north and south of the west edge of the university grounds), a number of homes were built facing McKinley (rather than the numbered streets). This was a response to demand and contrary to original design, because the platted lots in the blocks on the west of McKinley were laid out for the homes to face the east-west streets.

On 21st Street, especially between Classen Boulevard and Douglas Avenue, there is a noticeable difference between the size and architecture of the mostly smaller structures on the north side, built to face the campus, and the newer, two-story houses built on the south side after the university was dissolved. On streets south of 21st, between Classen and Ellison, restrictive covenants required that the structure be built of brick and have a certain minimum cost. Houses on the south side of 21st Street itself, between Classen and Douglas, were required to be just as large, but were allowed to be wood-frame, because the houses already existing on the north side of 21st were wood-frame.

On 17th Street, the contrast between buildings at the boundary of the former university grounds is even more obvious. The south side of the street, between Classen and McKinley, were made up entirely of wood-frame residences. The north side of the street, developed later, is made up of three blocks of two-story brick four-plexes, plus the massive Classen High School.

There were several smaller buildings on the original Epworth University campus (built between 1903 and 1911); but the main classroom building was the only one of major size and expensive construction. It is located between present-day Douglas and Brauer Avenues, sitting where N.W. 18th Street would be, if it ran through. When the university failed and its properties were sold, the Methodist Church of Oklahoma took over the classroom building and converted it to a church (the present-day Epworth Methodist Church) by adding a sanctuary on the building’s east side. The entire building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the eastern boundary of the original Epworth University campus was the U.S. Weather Station building, located on the southwest corner of N.W. 19th and Classen Boulevard. This solid brick building, constructed in 1904, had a commanding presence on a hilltop on the west side of Classen. At the edge of the city, this structure originally was surrounded by nothing except the park-like university grounds.

This building had weather offices on the first floor, a full basement for storage, and living quarters for the weatherman’s family on the second floor. It was a round-the-clock, live-in job, like a lighthouse keeper.

The weatherman determined wind speed and direction, air pressure, temperature, amount of precipitation, etc., by consulting his instruments on the building’s roof. With a system of flags out front, the weatherman indicated his daily forecast for passers-by. This system was used before radio even existed. Later, the weatherman would broadcast live from the building on WKY radio.

The weather bureau remained there until Will Rogers Airport was built. The building on Classen became a business college, and later an insurance agency, until finally it was beautifully restored as what it is now the Berry & VanMeter law office.