I got word Kendall was once its own town before being annexed by Tulsa.
Is this true? When was it founded, and annexed? Did it ever pose a threat to Tulsa being the main town in the region?
Thanks in advance.
Without first-hand knowledge, I'd be skeptical. The only reason I say that is that University of Tulsa, originally that was called Kendall College. It originally was Henry Kendall College, in Muskogee Oklahoma. It moved to Tulsa in 1907, and was renamed in 1920. So, it seems more likely that the Kendall name comes from the University of Tulsa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tulsa
Typically, it's easy to locate old towns that we're annexed at one time. And the Kendall-Whittier area certainly looks the part. However, my guess, without any first-hand knowledge, is that any old community or town located there would have been called Whittier. If it did in fact exist at one time. Though, since old towns names that remain have the tendency not to be merged with other names, I'd still be skeptical. It's just as likely that "Whittier" was someone's last name. However, for research purposes, I'd start with the name "Whittier", unless you can locate some period maps.
More potential nails in the coffin for Kendall-Whittier being an old annexed town. Keep in mind, before Tulsa grew significantly South, it grew it's way East along Route 66. And it's fastest growth was mostly between Admiral and 11th.
http://www.circlecinema.com/pages/history.html
Circle Cinema, one of the primary structures of Kendall-Whittier area, opened in 1928. That's 21 years after Kendall College moved to Tulsa, and 8 years after Kendall College renamed itself. The town-like structures of Kendall-Whittier likely do not pre-date annexation of the area.
After digging around a bit and coming up with absolutely nothing on Whittier, I ended up back on the same site, page 2
http://www.circlecinema.com/pages/history-2.html
Circle Cinema "is located in the historic Whittier Square Shopping Center, Tulsa's first suburban shopping center." If that page is correct, Whittier is looking more and more likely to not have been an old town. It is still certainly possible, it's possible that the buildings were built over what used to be a town called Whittier. Evidence for that doesn't seem wide-spread.
Noting of course, in 1938, 10 years after Circle Cinema was built, Rogers High School was built.
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Will-Rogers-High-School
That's 1.5 miles east of Kendall-Whittier, and Kendall-Whittier itself is a little less than 2 miles east of the center of downtown Tulsa.
It does not appear that what we currently call Kendall-Whittier was a part of any town except Tulsa. And since the current buildings are all I know of Kendall-Whittier, I find it highly unlikely that either name represented a town. Without more evidence, it's just as likely that this was residential, farmland, or woodlands before the shopping center was built. Whittier may have been the developer's last name.
Kendall-Whittier is a very interesting area, and it certainly gives the appearance of being an old downtown, even if it isn't.
"Whittier" was the name of the grade school TU tore down to build the tennis complex, replaced by the new "Kendall-Whittier" (was it renamed to that when built?) complex at 5th and Birmingham.
The stock dripping ceiling tile into a bucket footage used during school bond issues was filmed there.
Schools often are named after people, but certainly are also named for location if the only school in a town.
My guess is "Kendall-Whittier" became a district name due to the schools and surrounding area being descrete from central Tulsa at the time.
But, it also makes some sense of it being a town name at some point. If so, wouldn't it actually pre-date Tulsa?
I have a 1914 USGS map that shows "Kendall" as a town, much like "Scales", "Dawson", "Hickory", "Alsuma", and "Mohawk". The intresting thing is that it looks relatively large. With maybe a 1/2 mile gap from Tulsa. I'll see if I can't scan this to show you better.
Wrinkle, the tennis courts are on top of the former location of Kendall Elementary and the nearby city park. I attended the school in the 1950's. A fine, well built school that resembles Lee Elementary in style and construction, TU provided much support to its staff with supplies and student aides. Kendall was allowed to decline while Lee, sitting in Maple Ridge, has been better cared for. The school served the neighborhoods I grew up in, notably Hillcrest among others. Hillcrest was developed in the 1920's and it was that growth that spurred Whittier Square. It was never known as Kendall-Whittier until the area started a renewal and the two schools were united to form the new elementary. None of those Whittier Square buildings or surrounding homes are older than the 20's.
Whittier was an older school that was built before Whittier Square. Never heard of either area having been towns of their own like Dawson or Alsuma. Doesn't seem likely, especially since Kendall was named after Henry Kendall when the college moved here. There are no homes predating the 20's in that area either. Whittier was Tulsa's oldest school till it was demolished a few years ago.
Here's a pic from the Beryl Ford Collection labeled:
Kendall addition 1914 blueprint
(http://www.losttulsa.com/uploaded_images/Kendall.jpg)
You can barely make out labels on each "sub-division": Pleasant View, College, Heights (or is that College Heights?).
Here's another one from the Beryl Ford Collection.
Kendall College: main building and dormitory
(http://www.losttulsa.com/uploaded_images/KendallCollege.jpg)
No date listed, but apparently between 1907 when it was built and 1920 when they changed the name.
Interesting map. It has some strange markings of streets though. It starts with third street on the north, then 4th,5th,6th,7th. The streets are actually 3rd, 4th, 4th place, 5th, 5th place, 6th then 7th. The location for Kendall elementary is hard to place without the correct streets.
It also fails to show where Lewis street is on the west. None of the following streets appear though they could be just illegible: Atlanta, Birmingham, Columbia, Delaware, etc.
I wonder if this might have been a proposed plat or a plan for a separate town that didn't materialize. The name Birlingame is on the accompanying letter. Isn't that a real estate name?
Good work Tbad. Very interesting.
BTW, that's College and Highlands.
There are other problems with it too. One of the North/South streets seems to be named Gillette. That street actually runs West of Lewis rather than East of Lewis. I lived at 4th place and Lewis among the original homeowners in that area. Also, from what I can tell, The Kendall Elementary location seems to be divided into city lots.
Those two items lend credibility that this was probably a proposed plat of some sort. I also am not as sure of the date as you are. Its probably a double digit but I don't see a '14 when I look at it. Maybe my system is not as good as yours.
ps- If you drive 3rd street today, you'll note the jog to the right it makes at Delaware. That correction is not shown on this map. Also of note is the north boundary which is labelled, "Creek Line". That would be about where Admiral Blvd is.
I do know the street names in the larger area have been renamed. Post-1920, I believe.
For example, I know Birmingham Avenue was once named Washington Street.
Then, there's good ol' 15th being Cherry Street.
Old platts will show many of these disparities.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
Wrinkle, the tennis courts are on top of the former location of Kendall Elementary and the nearby city park. I attended the school in the 1950's. A fine, well built school that resembles Lee Elementary in style and construction, TU provided much support to its staff with supplies and student aides. Kendall was allowed to decline while Lee, sitting in Maple Ridge, has been better cared for. The school served the neighborhoods I grew up in, notably Hillcrest among others. Hillcrest was developed in the 1920's and it was that growth that spurred Whittier Square. It was never known as Kendall-Whittier until the area started a renewal and the two schools were united to form the new elementary. None of those Whittier Square buildings or surrounding homes are older than the 20's.
Whittier was an older school that was built before Whittier Square. Never heard of either area having been towns of their own like Dawson or Alsuma. Doesn't seem likely, especially since Kendall was named after Henry Kendall when the college moved here. There are no homes predating the 20's in that area either. Whittier was Tulsa's oldest school till it was demolished a few years ago.
Hmm, there was a school named Whittier, active when I was in grade school. We played them in baseball.
I just assumed that was it, didn't realize there was even a 'Kendall' school.
Could it have been renamed?
I kind of recall 'Whittier' being somewhat negative, as in the B-film (xxx really) district.
Perhaps the school (Board) wished to disassociate.
Where was the older Whittier school building of which you spoke?
The road dead-ending into Kendall College is Sixth Street on the Platt, isn't that now 5th Street?
That would give room between 1st and 5th to add Place street for some.
How bout this... I heard that Brookside was once a small town that got swallowed up by Tulsa too.
Whittier was on the corner of Admiral and Lewis. It was a large "U" shaped building in the same style as Kendall, Lee and Central with red brick and ornate cement trim. It operated as a city property (adult education?) up until a few years ago.
Kendall was always named as such and was built in the late teens. Whittier was a few years older. The Whittier and Kendall neighborhoods were working class and middle income homeowners through the late 60's when they began to deteriorate. By the time 1978 rolled around, Whittier Square was in deep trouble. The kids I grew up with in the 50's were street wise and fast maturing but it was a low crime area. It has since shown signs of rebirth. Lots of TU administrators families lived in the area.
Until a couple years ago the entrance to TU was at the end of 6th street which is Delaware. The building shown on this thread was on the east end of the oval there. I had always been told that a street car trolley ended there from downtown but Bates indicated that it only went as far as Lewis Avenue.
There simply aren't enough streets on the map to match what ended up there. And the alleys shown were closed off in the 20's. I'm thinking McCoy might have been Lewis Ave. With all that in mind, I think this may have been a proposed layout for a housing addition.
Well, I am certainly impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness I recieved here and in PMs. You have no idea how much this means to me.
I had wondered about Tulsa's early history with respect to other communities and neighborhoods-most major cities today had to fight with many rival hamlets and villages to get where they are, and it was annex or be annexed. Tulsa seems to have bucked the trend because I noticed an amazing lack of information in this regard-the only name I could find that was a now-annexed neighborhood was Red Fork, and that intruiged me since the majority of Tulsa looks to be across the river from there.
As such, I wondered what early communities and neighborhoods might have been on the 'mainside' so to speak, that were once independent. A site claims Tulsa and Kendall combined in 1914 (//%22http://www.okgenweb.org/~oktulsa/history.htm%22) which definately implies a connection to a 1913-1914 map of Tulsa county I recieved showing Kendall as a separate community in said private message and the map pasted here showing a 'Kendall Oklahoma'-which, without 'Tulsa' in the name somewhere again implies was its own community.
Going with what Waterboy's posts, I'm willing to guess Kendall was A) an independent town, however short-lived that independence was, or B) as Waterboy proposed, Tulsa annexed the land of a separate town before it even got the chance to get off the ground in reality.
I'm focusing on such would-be places that were physically closest to historical early Tulsa, like Kendall and the apparent Brookside (though Brookside's site claims it began in 1940, which seems to go with Neptune's post of Tulsa expanding east before south).
1907 Kendall College moves from Muskogee, to Tulsa
1912? Kendall Elementary opens
1914 Kendall Addition mentioned in maps. (perhaps another map?)
1917 Whittier School opens
1920 Kendall College becomes U of Tulsa
1928 Whittier Square/Circle Cinema. (the only known structures that resemble an old town)
1938 City of Tulsa extended at a minimum, to Will Rogers High School.
http://www.tulsaschools.org/schools/kendallwhittier/Powerpoint/Kw%20History%20Web_files/frame.htm
Kendall Elementary opened 1912?
http://abandonedtulsa.blogspot.com/2005/12/whittier-elementary.html
Whittier School opened 1917?
quote:
Originally posted by TheArtist
How bout this... I heard that Brookside was once a small town that got swallowed up by Tulsa too.
http://www.brooksidetheplacetobe.com/about.php
"The "Brookside" name was first used by Guy Scroggs when he named his store Brookside Drug in 1940. The "brook" was presumed to be Crow Creek named for an early railroad president. Mr. Scroggs also is credited with beginning the "friendly neighboorhood atmosphere" prevailing in this area with his policy of awarding free ice cream to good students from nearby Eliot Elementary School."
It should be noted though, in Oklahoma, the words "town" and "community" are not typically used to describe the same thing. A "town" is a populated area that goes through the state process of "incorporation." A "community" is a populated area that does not go through that process.
Dawson and Red Fork were probably "towns", Mingo was probably not.
If you look at the free maps the State gives out, the ones you can pick up at a visitors center or toll booth, you'll notice that some "towns" are represented by a square. Those are not "towns", they are "communities." These communities typically have no city gov't, no ability to levee city taxes, no city services. Yet, just like "towns", they are in fact mapped.
Since I'm familiar with the area, I'd mention Frink, Nashoba, Honobia, and maybe Smithville, as examples of "communities". Though that may have changed at some point. The community of Frink may have been annexed by the City of McAlester by this point.
That does look like a townsite map, but I don't know whether Kendall was ever incorporated or just one of the unincorporated communities that Neptune mentions.
(Dawson was a separate municipality, annexed by Tulsa in 1949. I'm pretty sure Red Fork, Carbondale, Garden City, and Highland Park were also separately incorporated at one time.)
That looks like the Tulsa Street Railway line running down 4th, Grant, and 7th up to the college. (When Oklahoma Took the Trolley shows the line going out of downtown on 3rd, north on Madison, east on 1st, south on Lewis, then east on 7th to College. TSR had another branch from 3rd St that went south on Madison to 5th or 5th Pl -- hard to tell -- then south on Quincy to 15th.)
The north-south street names also show up on the 1915 Sanborn city map. Starting at Lewis and going east:
Lewis
Grant (Atlanta)
Cleland (Birmingham)
McCoy (Columbia)
Gordon (Delaware)
Evans (Evanston)
College
Kerr (Florence)
Nicholson (Gary)
Kendall School was on McCoy between 7th and 8th, using the old numbering. Henry Kendall College was on College between 5th and 7th.
What TBadd's map called 9th and 10th is now 10th and 11th. Their 3rd, 4th, and 5th is now 4th Pl, 5th St, and 5th Pl.
What TBadd's map called E. Lynch and E. Scott are now 2nd and 3rd Streets.
I'm still pretty sure Whittier is older than Kendall by a few years. I have a brick I saved when they demolished Kendall. If I remember right, it was from a kiln in Sapulpa and had a date on it. I'll check tomorrow.
One more interesting tidbit about Kendall. Its kindergarten was of a very different style and brick than the rest of the school. It was a blonde brick, like Wilson Jr.High nearby, where Kendall was red brick. I suspect Kindergartens were not heard of until the 1920s.
quote:
Originally posted by MichaelBates
That does look like a townsite map, but I don't know whether Kendall was ever incorporated or just one of the unincorporated communities that Neptune mentions.
(Dawson was a separate municipality, annexed by Tulsa in 1949. I'm pretty sure Red Fork, Carbondale, Garden City, and Highland Park were also separately incorporated at one time.)
That looks like the Tulsa Street Railway line running down 4th, Grant, and 7th up to the college. (When Oklahoma Took the Trolley shows the line going out of downtown on 3rd, north on Madison, east on 1st, south on Lewis, then east on 7th to College. TSR had another branch from 3rd St that went south on Madison to 5th or 5th Pl -- hard to tell -- then south on Quincy to 15th.)
The north-south street names also show up on the 1915 Sanborn city map. Starting at Lewis and going east:
Lewis
Grant (Atlanta)
Cleland (Birmingham)
McCoy (Columbia)
Gordon (Delaware)
Evans (Evanston)
College
Kerr (Florence)
Nicholson (Gary)
Kendall School was on McCoy between 7th and 8th, using the old numbering. Henry Kendall College was on College between 5th and 7th.
What TBadd's map called 9th and 10th is now 10th and 11th. Their 3rd, 4th, and 5th is now 4th Pl, 5th St, and 5th Pl.
What TBadd's map called E. Lynch and E. Scott are now 2nd and 3rd Streets.
Yes, that explains alot about the map. For instance, it explains why 4th street is wider just east of Lewis up to Atlanta. The map shows a solid line that comes up 4th, turns south on Atlanta over to 7th then east to the University. Seventh is also wider than other streets in the area. That also explains why there was a cool little general store at 7th & Atlanta that we all used to visit after school. A similar one was at 5th and Columbia.
However, TU's Western boundary was, and is at Delaware. College may have been the entrance to the library but the Oval that we all played baseball & football on started at Delaware and 6th.
As I understand it, there were a lot of towns gobbled up by Tulsa at one time including Mayo, Alsuma, etc. Union Public Schools was formed as a rural district serving 9 towns/communities.
quote:
Kendall addition 1914 blueprint
This, I have questions about. The word "addition" is fairly specific, at least the way it is used today. And as the word is used today, additions can be very large. I looked up the link for the pic, and hopped around until I ended up at...
http://www.berylfordcollection.com/
Couldn't get a more specific explanation of it, but did notice there is a vertical file at the downtown library labeled
Kendall Neighborhood Planning Council. Might be pertinent, might not.
I think we're at a dead end as far as answering the question "what exactly was Kendall"; unless one wanted to devote a little bit of real time to it. It seems the details readily available over the internet, are sketchy at best.
quote:
Originally posted by inteller
quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
Typically, it's easy to locate old towns that we're annexed at one time.
hehe, try to go driving and locate Alsuma.
Alsuma is an easy one, Inteller. When you drive by Stokely's billboards and you exit off 51 onto 169, Alsuma starts. Kraft Tours sits on old Alsuma. You can enter on 61st, cross some railroad tracks and you're there. Last time I was there at least one of its original buildings, a frame, clapboard home sitting on concrete block was still being used.
On the other hand, I've never even heard of the town of Mayo.
Although I am not sure what communities/town it served...but East Central was once its own school district. Since I don't live in Tulsa anymore, I am not sure if any trace of the old school buildings are left at Admrial and Garnett (NE corner).
There's a decent chance Alsuma was not "incorporated." A community can have several hundred people in it, without ever becoming a town.
It's not a hard and fast rule, but generally speaking, evidence for old annexed towns is easier to find than evidence for old annexed communities.
Mr Bates mentioned a few towns, and I have tendency to agree on most of them. Dawson was an incorporated town. Red Fork, Carbondale probably incorporated. Garden City 50/50. I'm skeptical about Highland Park.
A Post Office, or a School, those don't make "towns". There are plenty of non-incorporated communities still in existence today, that have both a Post Office and a School. To develop any more than that, typically a community must incorporate and become a town. And if the area was developed to a degree deemed worth salvaging, it's typically easier to locate.
And in the case of the current Kendall-Whittier area, which gives the appearance of an old downtown, it's likely a shopping center built in Tulsa before the era of strip malls.
quote:
Originally posted by jkeyeser
Although I am not sure what communities/town it served...but East Central was once its own school district. Since I don't live in Tulsa anymore, I am not sure if any trace of the old school buildings are left at Admrial and Garnett (NE corner).
Some of the old buildings are now used by Wright Christian Academy. I seem to recall Lewis & Clark Jr. High was there after East Central High moved into its new building on 11th.
Lynn Lane, Romoland, and Tower Heights are all communities that were within the East Central district -- Lynn Lane's school building still stands -- but none were incorporated.
Regarding Highland Park, I'm pretty certain that it was incorporated, as I've seen the newspaper articles about their vote to dis-incorporate and be annexed by Tulsa, sometime in the early '50s. The town encompassed the
quarter-section southeast of 31st and Yale.
(Edited: I just double-checked some annexation articles Jack Blair gave me a couple of years ago. Highland Park was annexed in 1956, and at the time it was the full square mile from 31st to 41st, Yale to Sheridan.)
quote:
Originally posted by MichaelBates
(Edited: I just double-checked some annexation articles Jack Blair gave me a couple of years ago. Highland Park was annexed in 1956, and at the time it was the full square mile from 31st to 41st, Yale to Sheridan.)
1956 isn't terribly long ago. I wouldn't bet against the destruction caused by the BA Expressway, but it's possible some non-residential buildings still exist from Highland Park.
Is the building a faded blue?
No, its a white frame clapboard building that was being used for storage at least a year ago. Very non-descript. Inteller, there are no large public buildings like a courthouse or a post office. Likely there never was anything more than homes near the railroad tracks. I just thought you didn't know where it was. It was a predominantly black community. Some folks said that it grew in size primarily because of the flight of blacks from Tulsa after the race riot. They probably followed those rails.
Honestly, before TPS combined the populations of Whittier Elementary and Kendall Elementary it was never known as the Kendall/Whittier neighborhood or schools. Our neighborhood was named for a slight hill, thus HillCrest. The Hospital name followed later. The closest neighborhood to Whittier was called Squiggle.
I think this stuff is fairly interesting. Good thread.
Took me long enough, but I finally remembered two communities close enough to Tulsa to use as examples. Berryhill, not a town.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berryhill
Also learned a new term, "Census-Designated Place" or CDP. Essentially, the same thing as a "community."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census-designated_place
Gotta thank the Turley link at wiki for that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turley,_Oklahoma
Notice Turley's population, 3231 in the year 2000 census. Communities can be very large, and never become an incorporated town.
quote:
Originally posted by waterboy
No, its a white frame clapboard building that was being used for storage at least a year ago. Very non-descript. Inteller, there are no large public buildings like a courthouse or a post office. Likely there never was anything more than homes near the railroad tracks. I just thought you didn't know where it was. It was a predominantly black community. Some folks said that it grew in size primarily because of the flight of blacks from Tulsa after the race riot. They probably followed those rails.
The last time I recall structures still existing in the original, identifiable Alsuma was around 1970, at least that is the last time I remember seeing it. I remember the railroad tracks going through the neighborhood and lined by old houses, most very dilapidated. I think you are correct about the origins of Alsuma, at least that is the story I was told. It was primarily a black neighborhood up until the end. I vividly recall one old house that was completely covered on the exterior with old car license plates. The area was between 41st & 51st, east of Mingo.
In the 1960s, whenever Alsuma came up in conversation, it was always talked about in very "hushed tones," at least among middle-class whites. Probably because it was so shameful that in a city as rich as Tulsa, such abject poverty was allowed to exist.
If I'm not mistaken the Kendall Whittier area was considered Tulsa's first suburb. It was called "Eastland."
I don't know how long L&C has been at 7th and Garnett or any previous location(s).
quote:
Originally posted by MichaelBates
quote:
Originally posted by jkeyeser
Although I am not sure what communities/town it served...but East Central was once its own school district. Since I don't live in Tulsa anymore, I am not sure if any trace of the old school buildings are left at Admrial and Garnett (NE corner).
Some of the old buildings are now used by Wright Christian Academy. I seem to recall Lewis & Clark Jr. High was there after East Central High moved into its new building on 11th.
Lynn Lane, Romoland, and Tower Heights are all communities that were within the East Central district -- Lynn Lane's school building still stands -- but none were incorporated.
Regarding Highland Park, I'm pretty certain that it was incorporated, as I've seen the newspaper articles about their vote to dis-incorporate and be annexed by Tulsa, sometime in the early '50s. The town encompassed the quarter-section southeast of 31st and Yale.
(Edited: I just double-checked some annexation articles Jack Blair gave me a couple of years ago. Highland Park was annexed in 1956, and at the time it was the full square mile from 31st to 41st, Yale to Sheridan.)
quote:
Originally posted by inteller
There are only 11 people in this "town" and apparently its some rich indian women. pancakes is this?
Is she single?
Quote from: Neptune on January 31, 2009, 07:24:54 PM
Since I'm familiar with the area, I'd mention Frink, Nashoba, Honobia, and maybe Smithville, as examples of "communities". Though that may have changed at some point. The community of Frink may have been annexed by the City of McAlester by this point.
I believe Smithville is incorporated. Watson and Octavia are not. I could be wrong, however.
How is "Honobia" pronounced? I've always heard it as "ho-nu-bby".
Speaking of pronounciations, the talking weather heads almost always pronounce Poteau as "POE-toe" like it rhymes with "Chouteau." I've always heard it as "po-to" until I moved here.
This is a fascinating thread! any history on New Tulsa out east..I am sure it was old farmland and now all industrial..But I remember seeing it on older INCOG maps, and heard stories there wa some kind of small housing area there..Don't know if was just a few houses, shanty town, I don't think it would have been any kind of housing development..any thoughts?
Official list of incorporated areas in Oklahoma and classification (city of town):
http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/cities.html
If you go to the library at TU...go to the 5th floor(special collections) during normal business hours. They will let you look at any of the old yearbooks & if you like a pic or page, they'll scan it & email to you for a minimal fee.
I've done it several times & found some really cool pics that I had never seen before.
If I can remember to do so this weekend, I've got an old oklahoma map out of an atlas that I'll scan off and post on here. I can't remember the date on it, but it shows dawson, mingo and redforks.