City of Tulsa history

In 1901, crude oil was struck in Red Fork, across the Arkansas River from Tulsa.

The Oil and Gas Journal was first published in Beaumont, Texas in 1902 following the oil discovery at Spindletop.

In 1903 a group of women formed the Comedy of Errors Book Club.

In 1904, Tulsans constructed a bridge across the river, allowing oil field workers, supplies, food and equipment to cross the river, reaffirming Tulsa’s position as the center of the oil field.

Black businesses clustered on the strip of land that would become Greenwood in 1905, when African Americans acquired the land.

In September of 1906, a Labor Day celebration, complete with a parade that began in downtown Tulsa, speeches, games, and sports was held.

However, construction did not begin until early 1907.

These have included the May Brothers Department Stores and the Tulsa Rig and Reel Manufacturing Company, both established in 1908.

Park Board meetings were held in a room above his garage. It first came into being on August 18, 1909, when the City of Tulsa bought Owen Park from Chauncey and Mary Owen for $13,500.

After some spruce-up efforts with the planting of 600 roses, Tulsa's first City park officially opened on June 8, 1910.

In May 1912 the Hotel Tulsa opened as one of the finest in the Midwest.

The Park System was established in 1918.

In 1919, the Curtis-Southwest Airplane Company was formed and, in August of that same year, they flew the nation’s first commercial interstate air freight shipment.

In September 1920 the Spavinaw water project began as one of the era's largest public-works endeavors.

There are no issues of the Tulsa Star after January 1921, and the office was destroyed in the race massacre.

Eighty businesses were opened by the end of 1922.

In 1923 Tulsa held its first International Oil Exposition to bring oilmen together and to display the current technology.

The largest park in the system, Mohawk Park, was an afterthought of the Spavinaw Dam that brought water to Tulsa in 1924.

In 1925, the first written minutes of the Park Board were recorded.

W.O. Doolittle, the first park superintendent, was hired in 1926.

On January 27, 1928, Spartan Aircraft Company opened.

The City of Tulsa had a branch library in the Red Fork community, west of the River, at 2410 West 41st Street beginning in 1929.

In 1930, the Library established the first bookmobile in Oklahoma.

On a hot summer day in 1931, opening ceremonies were held for the largest of the four original library branches built in Tulsa.

Some public work projects, such as the Twenty-First Street Bridge completed in 1932, were built by the Works Progress Administration.

James M. Hall, The Beginning of Tulsa (Tulsa, Okla.: N.p., 1933).

So when O.E. Zeigler, a disciple of Doolittle, became superintendent in 1937, he further developed recreation programs.

Her first husband was Tulsa oil man George S. Bole, who died August 26th, 1939.

According to the 1940 census the community had grown to 142,157.

Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Capital (1943) by Angie Debo

At that time American Airlines took possession of the former Douglas Aircraft's modification plant, reopening it on June 1, 1946.

Florence Park opens in new building, expanding service begun with trailer in 1951.

A bond issue in 1952 built much of the park system.

The first performance of Drunkard & Olio was performed there on November 14th, 1953, and it has played virtually every Saturday night since then.

“Library of the Future Is Here Today” exclaimed the Tulsa Tribune when the Florence Park Library opened in January of 1955.

Funding took a new turn in 1960, when through a Park Department initiative, a partnership was formed with Tulsa Public Schools to take advantage of federal programs.

By 1961, 90 percent of African American income in Tulsa was spent outside the Greenwood District.

The two-story building was leased to the Tulsa City-County Library (TCCL) system when the system was started in 1962 and continued to serve as the downtown community library for many years.

When it opened in 1963, the Nathan Hale Library was the largest branch in the city.

In 1964, The Woodland View Library opened in a strip center at 61 st & Lewis with Pat Woodrum as the Librarian.

Hundreds of oil companies now have plants and offices in the city, which was the site of the International Petroleum Exposition (held 1965–80). The main economic activity is based on petroleum—exploration, drilling, production, refining, and research.

Both Apache Circle and Greenwood closed when Seminole Hills opened in 1967.

Bond issues became tougher to pass and in 1969 an omnibus bond issue failed.

The first barge reached the Tulsa port on January 21, 1971.

In 1972, voters passed a $13 million bond issue that was matched with $3 million in federal funds to build park facilities.

Note: Alwilda Millikin Owings was a former Tulsa philanthropist who died January 21st, 1973 in Santa Barbara, California, where she had lived for 27 years.

A group of twenty-four civic-minded ladies and Claude Miller, the spokesperson, formed the Sperry Friends of the Library Group in 1975.

During his tenure, the last two recreation centers, Manion and Hicks Parks, were built in 1976.

By 1980, Tulsa’s population stood at 360,919, ranking it the thirty-eighth largest city in the nation.

The Peggy V. Helmerich Library opened to the public on February 10, 1991 as a 9,800 square foot facility, on a three acre lot, with capacity for 35,000 volumes.

Report, Tulsa Race Riot Disaster Relief (1994) from the American Red Cross

In 1997 the Oklahoma Legislature enacted House Bill 2468, creating the Tulsa Race Riot Commission to reinvestigate and report on the bloodshed and destruction.

A Neighborhood History of Tulsa's Owen Park (1998) from Tulsa Preservation Commission

The official investigation in 2001 found the city partly responsible for the casualties and property damage of the Tulsa massacre.

In August 2004, the Rotary Club of Tulsa’s nonprofit subsidiary Tulsa Archives Inc. purchased the collection from Beryl and Lydia Ford.

Mary Ann Summerfield became the department director in July 2002 and retired at the end of 2007. It opened in 2006 and continues to be one of the more popular park facilities in Tulsa.

In December 2007, TCCL staff successfully completed the Centennial Project.

The Herman and Kate Kaiser Library opened on June 23, 2008.

In 2009, Holly Corporation purchased the Sunoco Refinery and the Sinclair Refinery.

In 2010 John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was opened in the Greenwood District.

In 2016 numbers, more than $30 million worth of property damage was sustained.