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Introduction. As said in
The Reinhart Legacy – Part 1, this series of articles focuses generally on the Reinhart Family's contributions to Oklahoma City, but, most particularly, upon Martin John Reinhart and the more subtle contributions of his sister, Theresa, revealed through her teenage eyes when growing up in Oklahoma City during the 1910s. This article is about Martin, her older brother. He is the "Quiet Builder" identified in the above April 20, 1949,
Daily Oklahoman article.
The article says,
A short 67-year old man stepped up to receive a life membership in the state section of the American Society of Engineers Tuesday night. The little man, a former professor at Iowa State college [Iowa State University, today] came to the dinner only after receiving a promise he would not be asked to speak.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the ceremony. Life memberships are awarded to engineers who have been a member of the society for 35 years. His years of service were lauded in the usual complimentary phrases. There was nothing unusual about the affair – except the man. He is Oklahoma City's least publicized multi-millionaire.
His name is M.J. Reinhart. You probably don't know him. But you have seen his mark.
Many Oklahoma City fathers' and mothers' names are almost household names to Oklahoma Citians who have a care for history, and some who don't. Those people have things "named" after them – Henry Overholser the Overholser Mansion and his son and former mayor, Edward, for Lake Overholser; "Couch Drive" for our 1st mayor; the Colcord Hotel for Charles Colcord; Perle Mesta for Mesta Park; and, yes, even the Flaming Lips for the "Flaming Lips Alley" in Bricktown. Such a list could go on and on.
What was said in the 1949 article remains true – you probably don't know him. As the "Quiet Builder," you'll find no monuments, lakes, streets, or anything else in the public eye which will identify his name. I didn't know him, either, until Norman Thompson arranged for me to shake his hand and have a look back through his history.
And, what a fine, proud, history it is for him, and for all of us today. Many of you already know about Court Plaza, or the Biltmore Hotel, or the Medical Arts Building (100 Park Avenue), or City Center (Tradesmen's Bank), or Little Flower and Our Lady's Catholic Churches. But, you
may not know that Martin Reinhart built them all and many others. Read on, if you want to know more about this "Quiet Builder" whose company was one of the early-day building blocks that helped form the Oklahoma City that we know today.
The Beginnings. Martin and his wife, Josephine, and Josephine's brother, Daniel Edward (who apparently went by "D.E.") Donovan, were the 1st of the Reineharts to move to Oklahoma City, in 1907 or 1908 (Norman reports the date as 1908; D.E.'s October 8, 1944, obituary says that he moved here in 1907). Martin and Daniel formed a company, Reinhart & Donovan, and it advertised the
Daily Oklahoman as early as 1909, as shown by combined snippets of
Daily Okahoman ads as follows . . . larger image not available ...
Martin's father, John, moved to Oklahoma City with his wife, Amelia, together with Martin's sibling in 1910. Norman Thompson reports that Martin's father, John, funded the contracting and civil engineering company, but whether that was so when Martin moved to Oklahoma City a couple of years earlier, I don't know. In any event, Martin's sisters, Agnes, Mary, Margarete, and Theresa, owned an interest in the company. Norman reports that eventually Martin bought Mr. Donovan's interest but when that happened is not clear – if the
Oklahoman's obituary is correct, he was still involved with the company in 1931-1932 when the Biltmore Hotel was constructed, but that may not be so. Martin appears to have been the "face" of the company – his name appears in several
Oklahoman articles but D.E.'s does not. Norman says that D.E. is not considered within the Reinhart extended family as having had that much to do with the company.
The 1st
Daily Oklahoman item which noticed a contract award to Reinhart & Donovan was on August 29, 1911, buried in a longer article . . .
Larger image not available
They were probably glad to have the $611.96, not such a small sum almost 100 years ago!
A couple of months later in 1911, company ads were a bit bolder . . .
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Reinhart & Donovan officed at the Insurance Building for a time
From Vanished Splendor (I) by Jim Edwards & Hal Ottaway
The Insurance Building, built around 1910 south of the Skirvin,
is roughly Chase Bank's location today
The company's earliest Oklahoma City building of note appears to be the 1914 Security National Bank at 109 N. Broadway between 1st Street (Park Avenue) and Main:
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From Vanished Splendor II by Hal Ottaway & Jim Edwards
Security National's location is better shown in an image of the Tradesmens National Bank shown a few buildings below.
Next would come the 1916 Liberty Theater located in the 100 block on N. Robinson just north of the Colcord and approximately where the Internal Revenue Service building is today. In later years, the Liberty would become the Harber, and, last, the Cooper Cinerama where I first saw Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece,
2001: A Space Odyssey. The building was a 1975 victim of Urban Renewal.
The Grand Opening on March 12, 1916
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The Liberty in 1926
The Liberty in 1937 (left from the State)
In 1920, the company built the Mideke Supply Company building at 100 E. Main in the warehouse district, Bricktown today, and the building still stands.
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In 1921, the company built one of its most impressive and enduring buildings to date, the Tradesmens National Bank at the northwest corner of Main and Broadway. That building later became City National Bank and is the City Center Building today. Once built, Reinhart & Donovan moved its offices there. In the company's July 17, 1921,
Oklahoman ad associated with the grand opening of that building, Reinhart & Donovan proudly showed other buildings it had built as of that date, not all in Oklahoma City:
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Originally Tradesmens National, it is the City Center today
In this Vanished Spendor II vintage postcard,
notice Security National Bank's location, north of Tradesmens
Notice in the above postcard, too, the white building at the end of the same block – that is the Medical Arts Building built by Reinhart & Donovan – I'll get to that building shortly.
The 1921 ad showed pictures of three buildings elsewhere, the First Christian Church in Ft. Worth and a pair of buildings at the A & M College, Stillwater: the Science Building and the Armory Gymnasium Building.
The 1914 First Christian Church in Ft. Worth is still going strong and was listed in the National Register of Historic Sites in 1983. It is seen in a contemporary photo below from
that church's website:
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Postcard views of the OSU buildings identifed in the ad are shown below (larger images not available):
Reinhart & Donovan was clearly on a roll. Here's a cool ad from the September 23, 1923,
Daily Oklahoman (larger image not available):
By 1925, Reinhart & Donovan could rightly claim construction of almost the entire west side of Broadway between 1st Street (Park Avenue) and Main when it constructed the Medical Arts Building, today called 100 Park Avenue. It didn't build the Egbert Hotel (the 5 story red brick building shown in the
Vanished Splendor II Tradesmens National Bank postcard, above) but the company did own an interest in Bishop's Restaurant located in its first floor. The company's ad associated with this building's April 26, 1925, opening is shown below (larger image not available):
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During Construction -- The Egbert Hotel,
home of Bishop's Restaurant, is at the left
When Completed
Courtesy Buddy Johnson, Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System
Here's the same building today, 100 Park Avenue Building
Having done the Medical Arts Building in 1925, Reinhart & Donovan proceeded to build the city's first "Auto Hotel" next to it in 1927. Here are the splashy two-page ads in the February 13, 1927,
Daily Oklahoman ...
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1957 Photo from 1st National Archives
after completion of its first east-side expansion
The building gave way to 1st National's second east-side expansion in 1972. For a time, Reinhart & Donovan's offices were located in the top floor of the two-story part on the building's west side.
The company did smaller jobs, too. Here's an August 3, 1927,
Oklahoman ad showing the Brousseau & Stapp Sinclair/Firestone auto service station constructed on the southeast corner of NW 5th & Hudson in 1927 and a photo showing the same property today ... a larger image is unfortunately not available so that you can better see this vintage photo ... OG&E is being constructed in the right background:
Here's another on July 30, 1927 ... larger image available
Here's the same building in a photo taken in 2007
But the most enduring 1927 accomplishment was Reinhart & Donovan's construction of Oklahoma City's 1st residential shopping center, the Plaza Court at Walker & N.W. 10th. The grand opening ad was announced in this splashy November 20, 1927,
Oklahoman ad ...
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Plaza Court Today
The fabulous Crescent Market was among Plaza Court's initial tenants. Of course, this building has been revitalized today by Greg Banta and his
Banta Companies as part of their sweeping Midtown redevelopment program which is on-going on as we speak.
More to come ...
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