“If These Walls Could Talk” – Corrected Version
Posted on July 20, 2011 in Uncategorized and has 0 comments
We’ve fixed a few details from the “If These Walls Could Talk” article from our most recent newsletter – see below for the corrected version.
If These Walls Could Talk : A Brief History of the Mathews Warehouse
By Caroline Benediktson
On July 14, 2011, Brady Craft Alliance was officially offered space in the Mathews Building by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. BCA will have 3600 square feet in the westernmost section of the building built in 1958. Kinslow, Keith & Todd, Inc. is designing a plan to include gallery space, a gift store, offices for staff and storage for BCA, and a shared catering kitchen. Neighboring tenants will include the University of Tulsa, Gilcrease Museum and Philbrook Museum. Plans for the historic rehabilitation of the four buildings are being reviewed by the Oklahoma preservation office and the National Park Service. The buildings are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as contributing resources to the proposed Brady Historic District.
The Mathews Building is the most recent name for the four Tulsa Paper Company buildings. Long before Kimberly-Clark came to Tulsa, the Tulsa Paper Company was a wholesale distributor of paper goods – sacks, wrapping paper and toilet paper – on Brady Street. Tulsa Paper Company built the four commercial warehouses on Brady Street in 1922, 1927,1928, and 1958 directly north of the current Tulsa City Hall. The four brick buildings were built separately and were eventually linked together as the Tulsa Paper Company grew.
From 1919 to 1963, Tulsa Paper Company was part of an area of town dedicated primarily to commercial industry and oil. Industries supporting the oil industry were located in the Brady area including the Robinson Packer Company, oil and gas well manufacturers of swadge nipples, swabs and packers for “every know purpose”, and Mack International Motor Truck Corporation providing motor truck parts and accessories. Workers and salesmen could sleep and play in close proximity to their work in local housing and recreational facilities. Most of the historic hotels are gone and the Regal Hotel located in the upper two floors of the Robinson Packer Building is currently being converted into apartments
Interestingly, Tulsa Paper Company never owned the land beneath the buildings. The land was sold to Charles Page in 1918. Page transferred the land to his Sand Springs Railway Company in 1930, and then to the Sand Springs Home. The Sand Springs Home at the time was an orphanage founded by Page to fulfill a promise to his mother made after his father died to “take care of you, and I’m going to take care of other widows, and orphans too.” He built the orphanage west of Tulsa and the city of Sand Springs was built around the home. Today the Home provides residential care for 20 children who cannot live at their homes due to family problems. The Family Village houses single mothers and their children in duplex-style housing. The George Kaiser Family Foundation obtained the land and buildings in 2007.