Skirvin Hilton Hotel history

Originally from Michigan, Skirvin had acquired land in Oklahoma City during the Land Rush of 1889.

Due to mounting pressure to legalize the land rush, Congress and President Benjamin Harrison formally organized the region into seven counties and approved the chartering of “Oklahoma City” in the spring of 1890.

In 1906, Skirvin and his family (including his daughter Pearl who would later become Perle Mesta, ambassador to Luxemborg and a famous Washington hostess) moved to Oklahoma City.

Several years later in 1909, an investor from New York City approached Skirvin with an offer to purchase his landholdings.

Historical Image of Exterior from Left Angle, The Skirvin Hilton Oklahoma City, 1911, Member of Historic Hotels of America, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Hotel History: The Skirvin Hotel (1917), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Art Deco as a style first became popular in 1922, when Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen submitted the first blueprints to feature the form for contest to develop the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune.

By 1926, with the investment of $650,000, the hotel had a new wing of 12 stories and two wings with 10 stories each.

Oklahoma City was buffeted by the mounting economic depression which began in December of 1929.

In 1931, he came to Oklahoma City and bought the Black Hotel.

Although this partnership added a $250,000 banquet room to the hotel and made grand plans for the development of both the Skirvin Hotel and Tower, they sold the destinations to H.T. Griffin in 1968.

Occupancy rates declined, reaching a nadir of only 32 percent in 1969, a period when an occupancy of 70 percent was necessary to pay operating expenses and outstanding bank loans.

Later owners would finish the interior and operate the Tower as a hotel until 1971, when it was completely remodeled into a glass-enclosed office building.

Suffering from sagging occupancy despite their investments, CLE Corporation in 1977 sold the Skirvin to the Businessman’s Assurance Company.

The significance of the Skirvin Hotel in the history of Oklahoma was officially recognized late in 1980 when two plaques were unveiled by Governor George Nigh.

In May 2002, Oklahoma City acquired the building from its current owners for $2.875 million and issued a request for proposals from potential developers late that same year.

The Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority selected Partners in Development as the developer in January 2004.

Weeman bought the building from Oklahoma City in 2005, and, using money he invested plus funds from various other public sources including tax increment financing, grants, Empowerment Zone credits, historic tax credits and New Markets tax credits, completed its renovation for about $51 million.