#8: 4th and Boston
Tulsa's skyline is bizarre. 30 story skyscrapers
stand two blocks away from zero-story car parks. Why didn't they build more normally sized buildings? Because a few oil men made so much money that the City went post-economics.
"4th and Boston: Heart of the Magic Empire" tells the story of an intersection in downtown Tulsa. This blog post will be part Tulsa Top Trumps and part book review. The latter belies a longing to join a book group at an age when it's uncool to unironically like anything apart from alcohol, coffee and netflix shows. Alas.
Deep down every telling of history roots for some individual, group, or phenomena. "4th and Boston" roots for an early 20th century style of architecture favoured by oil men. The story is broken into three parts that can be roughly summarised as the founding of Tulsa, early oil men splurge on vanity projects, and oil men's splurges ebb and flow with time.
As the native Americans hustled and bustled, railways were planned. The Atlantic and Pacific Railway company began an expansion to connect to the Arkansas River in 1882. The book initially focuses on the Hall brothers who built Tulsa's depot and a general store as the railway was built. Tulsa quickly became a cow-town because Texas ranchers could sell meat via railway at three times the price they could in the South.
Despite booming business, early settlers had to contend with weak property rights for non-tribal members and gangs of gambling outlaws. The book talks about a polite understanding between the gamblers and early settlers. Even still, settlers with families hoped religion might tame the lawlessness. A Presbyterian church operating out of the Hall brothers store founded Tulsa's first school. In 1899, they moved to a wooden church at the intersection of 4th and Boston.
In 1898 Tulsa incorporated itself as a City. A few months later congress passed the Curtis Act which stripped tribal courts of sovereignty, making all persons in Indian Territory subject to federal law. This was combined with vast re-assignments of tribal lands (how the US cherishes the immutability of property rights) that would allow white settlers to benefit from the impending oil rush.
My summary of the oil rush reads something like "some individuals became very rich because they were arbitrarily assigned valuable land". In case you were interested in more details: the Sue Bland No. 1 rig struck oil in 1901 at 35 barrels a day. Ida Glenn No. 2 rig struck at 800 barrels a day in 1905, among many other rigs. A bridge was built across the Arkansas river in 1904 ensuring Tulsa, not Sapulpa, became the Oil Capital of the World.
The next section of the book deals with the spending of these oil riches on extravagant buildings. More interesting than the architectural details, mainly art deco influenced for what it's worth, is how quickly these buildings went up. One corner of 4th and Boston went from a wooden Presbyterian church to a 20 story skyscraper in about fifteen years.
The final section is my favourite. It's the story, told through gritted teeth, of high modernism sweeping away the oil men's vanity projects. Buildings and public spaces were to be designed with the inhabitant's lives in mind. I don't take a particular stance on style vs function in architecture but I was rooting for the antagonist (function) in this book, mostly because the author annoyed me.
Unfortunately the author's protagonist had a late flourish as the City offered tax cuts for renovations in keeping with early Tulsan architectural style. One renovation added sixteen floors to the Mid-Continent Tower by cantilevering over the original 20 story building, a technique commonly used in building oil rigs.
"4th and Boston: Heart of the Magic Empire" tells the story of an intersection in downtown Tulsa. This blog post will be part Tulsa Top Trumps and part book review. The latter belies a longing to join a book group at an age when it's uncool to unironically like anything apart from alcohol, coffee and netflix shows. Alas.
Deep down every telling of history roots for some individual, group, or phenomena. "4th and Boston" roots for an early 20th century style of architecture favoured by oil men. The story is broken into three parts that can be roughly summarised as the founding of Tulsa, early oil men splurge on vanity projects, and oil men's splurges ebb and flow with time.
Date of creation: 1899
The founding of Tulsa begins with a 700-mile march, the Trail of Tears, by the Cherokee people to find a new home. Tallasi was founded on the banks of the Arkansas River deep into Indian Territory where the Osage, Creek and Cherokee nations meet.As the native Americans hustled and bustled, railways were planned. The Atlantic and Pacific Railway company began an expansion to connect to the Arkansas River in 1882. The book initially focuses on the Hall brothers who built Tulsa's depot and a general store as the railway was built. Tulsa quickly became a cow-town because Texas ranchers could sell meat via railway at three times the price they could in the South.
Despite booming business, early settlers had to contend with weak property rights for non-tribal members and gangs of gambling outlaws. The book talks about a polite understanding between the gamblers and early settlers. Even still, settlers with families hoped religion might tame the lawlessness. A Presbyterian church operating out of the Hall brothers store founded Tulsa's first school. In 1899, they moved to a wooden church at the intersection of 4th and Boston.
In 1898 Tulsa incorporated itself as a City. A few months later congress passed the Curtis Act which stripped tribal courts of sovereignty, making all persons in Indian Territory subject to federal law. This was combined with vast re-assignments of tribal lands (how the US cherishes the immutability of property rights) that would allow white settlers to benefit from the impending oil rush.
My summary of the oil rush reads something like "some individuals became very rich because they were arbitrarily assigned valuable land". In case you were interested in more details: the Sue Bland No. 1 rig struck oil in 1901 at 35 barrels a day. Ida Glenn No. 2 rig struck at 800 barrels a day in 1905, among many other rigs. A bridge was built across the Arkansas river in 1904 ensuring Tulsa, not Sapulpa, became the Oil Capital of the World.
The next section of the book deals with the spending of these oil riches on extravagant buildings. More interesting than the architectural details, mainly art deco influenced for what it's worth, is how quickly these buildings went up. One corner of 4th and Boston went from a wooden Presbyterian church to a 20 story skyscraper in about fifteen years.
The final section is my favourite. It's the story, told through gritted teeth, of high modernism sweeping away the oil men's vanity projects. Buildings and public spaces were to be designed with the inhabitant's lives in mind. I don't take a particular stance on style vs function in architecture but I was rooting for the antagonist (function) in this book, mostly because the author annoyed me.
Unfortunately the author's protagonist had a late flourish as the City offered tax cuts for renovations in keeping with early Tulsan architectural style. One renovation added sixteen floors to the Mid-Continent Tower by cantilevering over the original 20 story building, a technique commonly used in building oil rigs.
Historical significance: 39
The early history of Tulsa was interesting. The rest of the book was a self-serving ode to architecture (the book's funder now owns two of the buildings at 4th and Boston).European-ness: 1.9
Most European cities grew slowly, long before skyscrapers were an engineering possibility. Neighbourhoods tend to follow a similar building size and style. These isolated skyscrapers are more in keeping with Riyadh's architectural impersonation of a bustling economy. Again, oil wealth and vanity projects.Cowboy hats: 0
Nope.Collective consciousness: 3
I dimly recall getting in someone's way as I snapped a photo and they went home after work.Wokeness: -73
This book is the anti-woke. A night Wikipedia describes as the "Tulsa Race massacre" or "The Bombing of Black Wall Street" was presented as some rich people heroically stopping the violence. The book focused on the weak properties offered by Indian Nations like they hadn't had to walk 700 miles to find a new home, and didn't even bother to mention redlining despite being a book about urban design.Overall
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