Owen Park and The Oldest House in Tulsa
Introduction
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Created in 1920, Owen Park is Tulsa's first public park. It is 24 acres in size and features a rustic stone bridge, a monument to Native Americans, the Tulsa Children's Museum Discovery Lab, and Tulsa's oldest house, which was built in the 1880s. The surrounding neighborhood features early 20th-century middle-class residential architecture. The emergence of the city's middle class was the direct result of Tulsa's rise as an important center of oil production. The park is named after Chauncey A. Owen (1847-1930), who was one of Tulsa's prominent citizens, earning his wealth in ranching and farming. Owen owned lots of land including what is now the park. He decided to sell it to the city in 1909 since there was little public interest in the land. As a result, the park was created a year later. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
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Backstory and Context
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One of the other interesting sites in the park is the aforementioned Native American monument, which was erected in 1935. Just a few hundred feet to the east of the monument was the boundary of territory belonging to the Osage Indians. In June 1825, the Osage and the U.S. government signed a treaty allowing Cherokee and Creek tribes to settle here. The monument commemorates this event.
Sources
Kellv L. Molloy & Susan A. Kline. "Owen Park Historic District." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. September 9, 1999. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fdf751ba-a142-410a-b421-8ccdd9edc14e.
"The Oldest House in Tulsa, 1885." Historic Tulsa. June 26, 2009. http://historictulsa.blogspot.com/2009/06/oldest-house-in-tulsa-1885.html.
"Tulsa's Oldest House." Tulsa Architectural History. December 8, 2008. http://tulsaarchitecture.blogspot.com/2008/12/tulsaa-oldest-house.html.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons