June long ago meant school was out. It was time to visit. To travel. It usually meant that my brother Gerald and I would be shipped off to our grandparents down in Leflore County to visit our grandparents and help out on the farm doing what my brother called “slave labor.”

But this was different. It was 1947 and I was headed for “The City.” I’d be paying a week-long visit to family friends— Buddy Harper’s family out on North Shartel in Oklahoma City. I had had little to no experience on city life and this was to be an eye-opening week for me. And what a week it was. Their kids, Eddie Ann and Ronnie, had everything all planned out. Every day of it. We’d ride down Shartel to Main then downtown on one of the old electric trolley’s that prowled the metro those days. There was no Covid back then. We had the run of the town. Just us. Free.

Downtown was a chaotic bumper-to bumper rattling of streetcars and traffic and the noise of a gigantic metro retail center. Great movie houses opened early and filled up with kids. And we loved the numerous penny arcades. We loved wandering around the enormous John A Brown Store. Among the tall buildings that caught our eye was the First National Bank. It was Oklahoma City’s tallest building. Once on an earlier trip to Oklahoma City my all-knowing big brother Gerald told me the Bank building was the tallest in Oklahoma. He introduced me to the word “skyscraper.” So tall it scrapes the sky, he said. Anyway, our little group barged into the building years later and I was awestruck by the beauty of this building. Especially its great banking room. This was right before we were unceremoniously tossed out by an alert bank guard.

Later, Mr. Harper had heard us talking about the big building and he said, “hey, I know the chief engineer of that building and I have to see him Sunday. You guys come along, and we’ll all have a good time.” We did, and we had a good time in that big high-rise, riding elevators without supervision. We looked out the high windows and even got to use the underground tunnel that went below the street to the old Liberty Bank.

And we looked over the great banking Lobby. It was awesome. I never forgot what I saw. The ceiling was 44 feet tall. There were four major works of art on its ceiling. Depicted were the Land Run, Louisiana Purchase, Cherokee Removal and one (I learned later) depicted the history of coins. These artworks were then insured for ½ million dollars. Now I am told they are priceless. Fourteen beautiful Corinthian columns framed this lobby.

But time has a way of passing and this building would eventually fall on hard times. After the bank moved away, came the speculators. Renters gradually exited the historic tower. Finally, the power bill went unpaid, and it was cut off. Without power, heat and humidity plus a water leak took a toll on the great Hall. The priceless murals painted by Edgar Spier Cameron collected deadly dust before several concerned and alarmed citizens stepped in. Somehow, they gained control of the tower which had already grown a weary and neglected look.

Plans were devised by some worried citizens to save this historic building. Downtown apartments had long been needed downtown. And too, there was that historic banking lobby. The play they made was ambitious. A hotel company has pledged to build a boutique hotel; the “Great Hall of Banking” would be its lobby. A high-rise parking garage would be built next to the tower. Apartments? For sure.

All this work just so some “big-shots” in OKC could preserve the looks of downtown? Well, not really. Apartments will provide living space for downtown dwellers. A nice downtown coffee shop and restaurant will use the lobby. A place to hang out, to have meetings in or meet for breakfast or even a nice dinner. This astounding project effects on downtown OKC are immeasurable Congratulations to these civic workers for seeing this project done—and to Steve Lackmeyer of The Oklahoman for keeping us up to date on a building which is just as much a symbol of Oklahoma as any building in this state.

Have a good weekend and my special thanks to a girl named Eddie Ann and her kid brother Ronnie for a good week one time, long ago in Oklahoma City. And yes, they are still living here in our Sooner State,

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com