I NEED TICKETS!

Yep. That's me, basketball in one hand and the other grasping my "I Need Tickets" home-made sign as I dazzlingly fly through the Ford Center air making yet another of my many incredible and unbelievable and even amazing slam dunks! That's the way I pictured it, anyway, when planning to attend my 12 noon THURSDAY, September 11, appointment to go down to the Ford Center to pick out my pair of Thunder Season Tickets!

UPDATED, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 @ 11:30 A.M. I am very pleased to report that ...

... thanks to the generosity of BeeCool aka Ken Crossman at OKCNBAfans.com who allowed me to be his guest this morning at his 9:30 appointment and get my two tickets on his account! Hoo Ahh! Not only that, the tickets were exactly where I wanted them to be in the 1st place -- $30 balcony seats in Section 311.

It wasn't terribly crowded this morning and they have opened up some Club Level tickets that weren't earlier available. There are still a few good seats in the lower level, and good tickets (e.g., more balcony tickets) in the upper level.

Unless traffic changes during the day, I would not expect that all seats will be sold today, maybe not even tomorrow. We should have a better feel for that by the end of the day.

The original alarmist comments made by me and by others, e.g., Mike Baldwin, in the original text (which resumes after the final updated comments concerning the Thunder's inaugural season ticket sales) should be read in the context of this updated post!

UPDATED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 @ 9:30 P.M. From the Thunder website this evening comes this updated season ticket sales report:

Last Chance For Thunder Season Tickets
PR STAFF September 11, 2008

The Oklahoma City Thunder is very close to selling out of season tickets for its 2008-09 season, but there is a very limited number of tickets left. The team encourages fans with Friday appointments to not pass up the final opportunity to become a Thunder season ticket member.

"We are down to a precious few remaining seats, just under 1000 of them," said team spokesman Dan Mahoney. Mahoney said the only season tickets remaining are $10 upper level seats but he encouraged fans to buy them. "We will be open and encourage fans to keep their Friday appointments. By purchasing them you become a Thunder Season Ticket member and enjoy the benefits that brings, including securing your opportunity for future upgrades. You won't have to be put on a waiting list. You can be in the Ford Center enjoying 42 nights of exciting Thunder Basketball starting with our preseason game on October 14."

In four days of its seat selection process, the Thunder has sold about 12,000 season tickets.

UPDATED FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 @ 9:00 P.M. All 13,000 full season tickets are now sold. See Mike Baldwin's 9/12/2008 Oklahoman article. Including the 2,000 corporate ticket sales which occurred before Monday past, 15,000 tickets for the season have now been sold and a waiting list now exists for those who could not make appointments scheduled after today. Baldwin reports that only Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Boston are in a similar situation.The remaining 4,000 or so seats are reserved for mini packages, group sales, individual tickets, visiting team needs, the media and the league.

The original post, Tuesday, when I had no tickets, continues ...

Problem is, it is now, on Tuesday morning, almost certainly evident that Thursday Noon will be much too late to get any! Bummer! That even though I feverishly and immediately (as immediately as I could get the on-line ticket preference thing to work) posted my preferences when the automated e-mails were sent out, that fact didn't count. There is no "early bird" getting the "worm," on this occasion. And, in such a movie, I'm sure that Doug Dawgz in a cast of thousands!

As has been widely reported at the Oklahoman, News9.com, KOCO-TV, and everywhere else in Oklahoma City, the 1st day's sale of full season tickets dwindled the season ticket pool to somewhere only around 6,500 - 7,000 left to sell, and at the rate they sold on Day 1, those could easily be gone at the close of business today. See this article from this morning's paper, for example:

Thunder tickets are such a hot item, season-ticket sales might be capped Wednesday night or sometime Thursday.

Late-in-the-week appointments will be canceled. Those fans will be placed on a waiting list and most likely have an opportunity to purchase eight-game mini packages.

"Late-in-the-week" -- ha --how about like this evening (Tuesday) or mid-morning tomorrow (Wednesday)?

Mike Balwin's blog at newsok.com pulled no punches:

Select-a-seat started Monday at the Ford Center. When the day ended there were only 7,000 season tickets left after 6,300 were sold on Monday. If you have a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday select-a-seat appointment forget it.

So, the way it's looking, I'll be doing a game-by-game kind of thing this year ... which is what I did during the 2 years the Hornets were in town. The "personal" upside, if you can call it that, is that I wound up going to every game I wanted to, and that was a bunch, I promise you.

To be sure, there is an "upside" for Oklahoma City in this. Keep in mind that the Ford Center's NBA capacity is right around 19,200. As Baldwin's blog added,

Team officials won’t say how many "full" season tickets they could sell, but it appears 20,000-plus would be a safe bet. And that's probably conservative. The Thunder will sell around 13,000 season tickets in less than three days before the team caps season ticket sales. That doesn't include 2,500-plus season tickets for corporate sponsors. If the team didn't hold back 4,000 tickets for group sales, individual games or mini packages you can rest assured those would be gone by the weekend.

Did you notice the price for "Nicholson seats" was $105,000 ... per season ticket. Let that price tag sink in for a minute. For a cool $1 million you could purchase nine "Hollywood seats" this season. And they’re all gone.

To provide a little context, the 3,500 upper deck $10 seats will produce $1.5 million the entire season. That's what make this such an interesting story. Tickets are quickly being gobbled up in all price ranges. Hundreds of $6,300 season tickets in the six most expensive sections – $25,000 for four season tickets – sold quickly.

Can Oklahoma City support a pro franchise? The answer Monday was ABSOLUTELY.

So, take it from me, Doug Dawg:

1. Just because you are ape-shit crazy over getting an NBA team doesn't help one iota when it comes to getting season tickets.


2. You'll still get to go to a bunch of Thunder games ... or, at least, so I'm hoping!


3. Oklahoma City IS a Major League City. I'll take some comfort in that fact, while I go without my season tickets this year.

Congrats to those of you who got or will get yours today, though. I'm not jealous ... I'm not jealous ... I'm not jealous ... I may just hate you, a little, that's all!

(Just kidding, I think)

On Edit, Wednesday morning: Now that I've got my tickets, all traces of hate (! just kidding !) are fully purged from my system!



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Core To Shore: The I-40 Pedestrian Bridge

Article updated September 9, 2008. This article will be further expanded and modified as updated information occurs.

Pedestrian Bridge Proposal at Harvey & Relocated I-40

INTRODUCTION. To be embarrassingly honest, Doug Dawg hasn't really paid much more than passing attention to our city leaders' ideas for what to do with downtown after the I-40 Crosstown Relocation is completed perhaps in the zone of 2012-2014, if I understand it correctly. Sure, I was aware of the "Core To Shore" general plan and have perused articles at OkcTalk.com and at OkMet.org to sort of keep up with this exciting futuristic development in a very general way, but I had other pressing "real" matters to contend with, e.g., the Centennial, the March 4 vote, the Thunder, as well as several other historical articles were were more backward in time, etc. etc. etc. Besides that, I had to get my Springlake book done, and the potential of the prospectively proposed Core To Shore would just have to wait. I figured that when that concept came closer to becoming a reality that I would "snap to" and, then, dive right on in.

I didn't expect THAT TIME to come so soon. The reality check came in perusing this thread at OkcTalk.com a couple of mornings ago. More, I noticed that Blair Humphreys had picked up on the topic and posted an article about this project in his fine imagiNATIVEamerica blog -- and he was the 1st blogger to do so!

The initial post in the OkcTalk.com thread was by "mturner" where he said,

Hey Great news - The City unveiled their choice for the New I-40 Pedestrian Bridge - Of the 4-5 finalists, they chose a design by Hans Butzer, inspired by Oklahoma's own scissor tail. I'm glad they chose someone from the home team!

As far as I've seen, the credit goes to "mturner" for breaking this story, and hats off to him or her! Where was the Oklahoman, or the Journal Record, etc., on Friday, September 5 -- out of town somewhere? I mean, if this proposal comes to be completed as planned, we're looking at something which could well be a "stamp" for this city close to if not the same as St. Louis' arch is for that city, in my opinion.

Anyway, "mturner's" post caught my fancy and I continued reading the thread — at the time, I was unaware of what his comment meant. There, after passing by a rather mundane image in the thread of a "pedestrian crossing" (which, it seems, didn't directly relate to this project at all), I eventually came across the image which is the lead-in to this post — and that striking image put my immediate interest on a much higher level than before the time that I saw it.

Although no mainstream media contained any reports about this project until September 9 (only God knows or could possibly understand why not), the City of Oklahoma City's September 4, 2008, press release reads:

A model of the proposed I-40 pedestrian bridge will be unveiled and the winning design firm announced at 4 p.m., Friday September 5 outside the Council Chamber on the third floor of City Hall.

More than 16 design firms responded to the City’s request for proposals and design competition for a pedestrian bridge over the realigned I-40. Four firms were selected to compete, each receiving $10,000 to build a model of the bridge design and prepare a presentation.

A committee of qualified jurors from the community at large, downtown central business district, Core to Shore area, City of Oklahoma City, and State of Oklahoma reviewed the four models and selected the winning design.

On Tuesday [ed note: presumably September 9, 2008], the City Council will vote to authorize staff to negotiate a contract with the winning firm for the bridge design. Actual construction of the bridge should begin in March 2010 and will be overseen by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation as part of the I-40 Realignment Project. [Emphasis added]

The winning entry was submitted by the firm headed by Oklahoma Citian Hans E. Butzer, Butzer Design Partnership. Butzer is an associate professor of architecture at the University of Oklahoma, he also designed the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum and the Route 66 Interpretative Center in Chandler. His vita at the OU link, above, shows many other of his accomplishments. Others are involved, too, and I'll add their names as they become available from authoritative sources.

ORIGINS. The I-40 Pedestrian Bridge is one of many projects spinning out of Oklahoma City's "Core To Shore" city planning. By way of background, a 12-month review process by the plan's steering committee completed its work in December 2007. See this December 13, 2007, Journal Record article for a little more background. By late 2007 or early 2008 (I've not located an exact date), the City's huge "Final Plan," a 118-page PDF file describing the concepts, plans and aspirations became available on-line at this page of the City's website. Page 1 shows a concept of what the area bounded by the "core" (current downtown) to the "shore" (Oklahoma River with a southern pedestrian crossing into Wiley Post Park) might look like:

Click the image for a much larger picture


A center-top crop of the above shows the I-40 Pedestrian Bridge Location


To read more from the City's Core To Shore web pages, go here. Also, see this nice May 14, 2008, USA Today article.

The I-40 pedestrian bridge is part of a larger concept — the "pedestrian spine" referenced in the Core To Shore documents which runs along where Harvey would be from the south end of Myriad Gardens to about a mile south to Wiley Post Park on the south side of the Oklahoma River. Page 17 of a 55-page presentation made to the City Council in late 2007 shows that "spine" by the yellow vertical line in the middle of the Core To Shore area:

Click the image for a larger view


In late 2007 or early 2008 (I've not determined the date), the City solicited competitive designs for this project, indicating that submissions needed to be made by March 10, 2008, and a "Background" document was published which contained the following images:

Click the image for a much larger view



Click the image for a larger view


Some facts gleaned from that document are:

• Estimated Cost: $3,300,000
• Dimensions & Location: 30 feet wide and 440 feet long over the new, semi-depressed section of 10-lane interstate highway and the BN&SF Railroad, on the south edge of downtown Oklahoma City
• Function: Provide access and connection for pedestrians and bicyclists between a new large park and proposed new convention center and hotel north of I-40 with a smaller, promenade park, one block in width, which continues south to the Oklahoma River

Page 70 of the 118-page PDF file, mentioned earlier, said that the bridge should be a city "landmark," and showed this as a possibility:

Click the image for a larger view


THE WINNER! As noted above, Oklahoma Citian Hans E. Butzer's group won the competition.

On edit: Although no Oklahoman news stories were published as of 9/8/2008, its website has added a nice interview with architects Hans Butzer (unless his OU website is wrong, it's Hans, not Hanz, as shown in the interview) and Stan Carroll:


And, on September 9, a nice article by Steve Lackmeyer hit the press.

Architectural Renderings. From that organization's website, the following images are presented of what motorists and others will see around the new I-40 and what would be Harvey Avenue:

Except for the 2nd, click on images for larger views



A crop from the above (larger image not available)






The text at the right side of the above picture reads:

Like Oklahoma City's skyline, SkyDance Bridge pierces the expanding blue sky against horizons of waving wheat. Much of this capitol city and state's history is defined by the sweeping Oklahoma wind. From Images of the tall grass prairie to the achievements of Wiley Post, Braniff Airlines and Tinker Air Force Base, to the expanding wind farms in the west, sculpted blades rise up to slice the wind. Graceful boat sails glide across our countless lakes and waterways. The flight of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher perhaps best evokes the shaping forces of our wind. This State Bird's "skydance" of spring is a v-shaped flight drawn against the sky. Its wings and tail feathers angled by nature cut like blades through the wind. So, it is from these that SkyDance Bridge takes foothold and projects its iconic form onto the Oklahoma City skyline.

The Model. I trotted down to City Hall this afternoon (9/8/2008) and found the SkyDance model in the City Council's offices and was kindly allowed to take some pics. Here they are, going around the model in clockwise rotation, starting at about 6:00 o'clock -- click any photo for a larger view:

South to North



Southwest to Northeast



West to East



Northwest to Southeast



Northeast to Southwest



East to West



Southeast to Northwest


If the completed project looks like the drawings and the model, motorists' jaws should drop as they drive under this bridge as they travel east and west on the new I-40, especially at night — and not just theirs, but ours, as well.

How Tall Is It? I've seen nothing published yet that says. But, Spartan, over at OkMet.org, wants to know (and, of course, so do I)! I've constructed a "model" using the west to east view by inserting it into a spreadsheet and made each horizontal unit (cell) 0.2" in height and width. The City's Background document said that the bridge length was to be 440 feet. So, guessing at the points at which the bridge "proper" begins and ends, below, I came up with the following as a guesstimate:

Click on the pic for a more readable view


I take it as given that the model is to scale. Since the model in the photograph is tilting toward the camera, it will appear to be lower in height than if a horizontally level photo had been taken. So, if I have reasonably placed the beginning and ending points of the 440' bridge, the approximate height would appear to be 207.78 feet, ± about 10 feet, I'd suppose. What's your guess?

NEW FUNDING CONCERNS. On September 7, 2008, News9.com reported that problems with the Federal Highway Trust Fund are causing concern about the federal government's substantial funding of projects like the I-40 Relocation:

Ninety percent of Oklahoma highway and bridge projects are paid for using federal funds. Even the Interstate 40 Crosstown relocation project could be put on the back burner if state officials don't find a solution or more money soon.

"I know that at least a dozen people at the department have lost sleep over this, literally," ODOT spokesperson Terri Angier said. Angier isn't sleeping much these days either. "It's fairly devastating news for Oklahoma," Angier said.

Late on Friday, a notice came in warning the Federal Highway Trust Fund will dry up at the end of this month. The federal government blames high gas prices, less driving and lower gasoline tax revenue for a $200 million shortfall.

Since federal funding pays for almost all bridge and highway projects in Oklahoma, the state could now be stuck with more of the bill, which could lead to more delays. "Basically it simply means you go enter into contract and send us a bill and we'll see how much we can pay," Angier said.

Normally, the federal government reimburses ODOT for construction projects on a daily basis, but this shortfall puts the repayments on a weekly basis. "Even at that, it's only a portion of the reimbursements," Angier said.

Many are wondering if the shortfalls will make ODOT pull the plug on projects like the long anticipated I-40 Crosstown Bridge or the proposed I-40 Pedestrian Bridge.

The Oklahoman carried a similar story on September 9. My guess is that the problem will be short-lived, but the days and months ahead may well be telling.

This page will be expanded and updated as further developments occur.

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The OKC THUNDER!

On Wednesday, September 3, 2008, Oklahoma City made history! Yes, this was the lowest "high" temperature on record for this day (68 ̊  for the high), and YES! THIS WAS THE GRAND DAY that Oklahoma City's NBA team would no longer be called the Oklahoma City "somethings!" The name, hardly a secret, was unveiled:


THE PRELIMINARIES. The event was set to occur at 5:00 p.m. (CENTRAL Daylight Time) right here in downtown Oklahoma City at Leadership Square in the atrium connecting the two gorgeous buildings. I got there around 4:30 and took a few preliminary pics, shown below.

Click on any photo for a larger view

Entering the Leadership Square atrium from Park Avenue



I had a little time to spare, so I went to the balcony for an overview









Downstairs, looking around at the crowd







The press was fully present and assembled



Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman, point NBA writer
at the Oklahoman and a heck of a good guy



Al Eschbach of the Sports Animal Radio
Myron Patton of KREF Radio
Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman and Peep Show infamy

And, of course, your silly "Ralphie" citizen journalist couldn't keep away when this Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle was unveiled and presented to Oklahoma City at A Christmas Story in September!

THE UNVEILING. I'll add more text later, but, for now, let's just enjoy the eye candy.

Some brief introductions and comments



Presti and Carlisimo



The Unveiling
Damien Wilkins and Desmond Mason flank the logo banner







Bennett, Carlisimo, Wilkens, Mason & Presti



Clay Bennett was roundly cheered and applauded
as he made some closing remarks


Wrapping It Up. Heck, the crowd would probably have been more than glad to hear lots of speeches and yell and go crazy for much longer than the presentation lasted ... about 20 minutes. While there, I bumped into some who, in one way or another, have made a serious contribution to helping this grand day to occur. I got photos of a few, others I didn't like Kim Searls, Downtown OKC's marketing director, Council Member Gary Marrs and others ...

Julie Riggs of the Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce
She worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the March 4 vote campaign



Josh The Eggman of HorentsCentral.com fame (soon to be renamed)
He drove to Okc from Ada to attend this event





A parting view from Park Avenue, looking through the glass


Press reports of this event are flourishing. But I like this one by AP writer Jeff Latzke who summarizes it this way at Yahoo Sports:

To unveil the logo, six children joined players Desmond Mason and Damien Wilkins to pull down a curtain as the AC/DC song “Thunderstruck” blared over the loudspeaker. What was revealed was a large blue banner with the logo in the middle, and splashes of yellow at the top and reddish-orange at the bottom.

Bennett said the light blue color coincides with the state flag to represent the inclusion of all Oklahomans, the yellow refers to the sun and the reddish-orange color to the sunset. With the University of Oklahoma featuring crimson as its primary color, and Oklahoma State using orange, Bennett said it was “not too red and not too orange.”

Thunder is a fitting moniker for the Oklahoma City franchise, not only as a reference to powerful storms in the area known as Tornado Alley. The Oklahoma City-based 45th Infantry Division carries Thunderbirds as its nickname, and that’s a reference to the state’s American Indian heritage. Even one of Oklahoma native Garth Brooks’ biggest hits was “The Thunder Rolls.”

“There’s just all kinds of good thunder images and thoughts, and the in-game experience of Thunder,” Bennett said. “Just here was a good sense of how that evokes emotion. It’s very powerful.”

So, there you, me, and we are ... the Oklahoma City ...


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When You're Good, Sometimes You're Just Being Lucky

While working on saving files in anticipation of creating a new template for this blog this morning, I got a call from my good friend Steve Lackmeyer with the Oklahoman and co-author of OKC: 2nd Time Around, and he asked what I thought about making page 2 of today's Oklahoman. "Huh?" I said (utilizing once again my remarkably high command of the English language). He asked if I'd read my paper this morning, and I said, "No, I'm trying to upgrade my blog ... have you seen my last blog post?" "No," he said, he'd not been there and done that just yet!

So, I went outside and frantically ripped open the plastic container which contained my new present rather like Ralphie in the movie A Christmas Story with his hands a-blazing when opening up his new Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle on Christmas morning in Hammond (I originally said Terre Haute, but thanks to a comment by Scott Selva, below, I stand corrected), Indiana, oh so long ago!

And there it was, on page 2, just like he said!


You don't have to be "good" with friends like Steve, just being lucky enough to have friends like him is enough!

Thanks, Steve! And, of course, if you don't regularly do so already, visit his great OKC Central blog to get breaking news about our fair city. Besides that, be sure to check out his upcoming Arcadia book, Bricktown, when it becomes available a few months from now. I've seen a draft of it, and you'll need to have it in your library, and that's a promise from Doug Dawg! By the way, Steve's photo at the top of this article was taken on March 4, 2008, at the March 4 Vote's watch party ... so maybe Steve is also enjoying Disney World and a pony and all that other stuff, just like me! PLUS, this morning, I finally got a phone call from a ticket rep for our new NBA team ... I was sweating not having had such a call sooner ... so far, it has been quite a lucky day for Doug Dawg all the way around!
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Trouble Note and Guessing Game

NOTE: This very preliminary blog post was made in September 2008 and was not intended to be completed here. For the complete article about this 1903 Chamber of Commerce book, click here.

First, the administrative "trouble" note. Somehow, I've managed to screw up my template -- it works fine in Firefox but in IE Explorer the left panel doesn't appear. I've tried to do quick fixes but none have worked.

Soooo ... I'm preparing to create a new template altogether, one which will have some of the newer "Blogger" features which are not available in this earlier-style Blogger template, such as expandable articles so that only a small portion is shown if you don't want the whole article to load initially. My concern in making the transition, though, is that earlier posts may get "lost" in the process. So, before I make that transition, I'm doing something which I should have been doing all along ... SAVING copies of existing articles to my computer, just in case I need them for reconstruction after the template change occurs.

This will take a little time, not sure how much, but hopefully just a few days.

ON EDIT, Tuesday September 2, 2008: Ha ha. The joke's on me! Turns out, the problem wasn't with my blog's template, it was with a particular post that sort of "self-fixed" when run in Firefox but did not in IE Explorer! That post (Springlake via Arcadia) has now been fixed so all should be well when the blog runs in IE Explorer. But, since I've started my "saving articles and template change" project, I'll continue with it since it is best to do that, anyway. On further edit (9/6/2008), I'll go ahead an post the answers since the revised template will be delayed for awhile: Click here for the answers.

NAME THAT BUILDING. While that's being done, here are a few photos and drawings from a marvelous old "book" -- a 1903 Chamber of Commerce book put together to tout the merits of Oklahoma City to those outside the community. Click on any image below for a larger view.

Book Cover -- the original cover was probably different


Dean Schirf, Corporate Secretary of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, kindly allowed me to scan any pages from this book that I'd care to. Although the images are rather grainy, they are nonetheless good since they show a number of images from 1903 Oklahoma City days. This book will eventually be the subject of a much larger article -- consider this one to be a teaser and a little guessing game.

# 1 - Where was this 1903 panorama taken from?
Hint: The view looks to the southeast



#2 - Where was this race being conducted?



#3 - What is this historic downtown building?



#4 - Another historic building -- what is it?



#5 - Yet another historic building -- what is it?



#6 - Still another historic building -- what is it?



#7 & 8 -- Advertisements
The book contained advertisements for local shops, including the frisky Southern Club, not shown here. But here are a pair I thought you might enjoy.




Verrry interesting!

Answers

1. Vantage Point for #1 – Emerson School. This photo was taken from Emerson School at NW 6th & Walker looking southeast over what was a largely residential "downtown" area with the warehouse district in the background. "Downtown" in 1903 was largely focused along Broadway ... the further west one went the more residential what is today's downtown became. According to Vanished Splendor II, the original Emerson was built in 1894 but burned to the ground in 1917 along with all of the records of the Board of Education which were stored there. The current-day Emerson was built at the same location. The annotated pic below shows the location of Couch Drive today although the path was the location of railroad tracks at the time.
   


2. Colcord Park. Charles F. Colcord was president of the Colcord Park Corporation, which owned a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in the city devoted to public amusement and recreation, including the baseball park, the race track, Delmar Garden, etc. Colcord Park was part of that area immediately southwest from the corner of Reno and Western.


3. India Temple.This 1902 building, now with a facade on its exterior, is at the SE corner of the Sandridge (formerly Kerr-McGee) campus. From 1913-1917, it served as the temporary quarters for the Oklahoma Legislature until the State Capitol Building was done. Sandridge hasn't yet said what it will do with this very historic Oklahoma City building.


4. St. Anthony's Hospital. This was the 1st "permanent" St. Anthony's hospital, at the same location as today. This structure was built in 1899 at 1000 N. Lee, then outside Oklahoma City's limits.


5. Culbertson Building. This 1902 building sat on the Broadway "jog" at Grand (now Sheridan), later with the Phillips 66 sign on its top, and many early day photos were taken from its top looking north on Broadway.


6. Overholser Opera House. This photo shows the building being constructed at 217 W. Grand (now Sheridan) in 1903 a bit west Robinson. Later, this building became the Orpheum Theater, and, last, the Warner, OKC's 1st Cinerama theater. In the later days, a Beverly's Chicken-in-the-Rough was immediately east of it, next to which was the Colcord Building.

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