The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Summary
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is an early twentieth-century residential neighborhood located in Oklahoma City, the state capital of Oklahoma. The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is approximately 2.5 miles north of the city center. It encompasses approximately thirty-three blocks and its resources include 253 buildings, and one site, the Fairlawn Cemetery, which is approximately one-third of the district's area.
Of the 263 documented resources (262 buildings, one site) in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District, 210 of the buildings and the site are contributing and 42 buildings are noncontributing. The Bungalow/Craftsman style is, by far, predominant. Other architectural styles represented include Tudor Revival, Classical Revival, National Folk, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, Commercial Style, Prairie School, Colonial Revival, and Minimal Traditional.
The neighborhood boundaries in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District are roughly Northwest 30th Street on the north in the western half of the district, Northwest 28th Street on the north in the eastern portion of the district, Northwest 24th Street on the south, North Walker Avenue on the east, and North Western Avenue on the west. The neighborhood north of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is Central Park, a residential area that was developed at the same time as the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. South of Northwest 24th Street is Northwest 23rd Street, a busy commercial artery. Across North Walker on the eastern boundary is the Jefferson Park Historic District (National Register, 12/14/1995), another residential neighborhood developed at the same time and very similar to the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. The west boundary, Western Avenue, is dominated by the grounds of the Fairlawn Cemetery and the First Presbyterian Church. The northeast corner of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is anchored by a Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival artists' studio and shopping district locally known as The Paseo (Spanish Village, NR 2/24/1983). The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District and its surroundings maintain a high degree of historical and architectural integrity.
Description
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is approximately one-quarter of a section in size and includes thirty-three blocks. Twenty-one blocks have primarily residential construction. A large contributing site in the northwest portion of the district, Fairlawn Cemetery, occupies approximately twelve blocks, over one-third of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. Three more blocks south of Fairlawn Cemetery are dominated by the buildings and grounds of the First Presbyterian Church.
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District has a neighborhood identified as a potential historic district on the north, Central Park, a residential area that was developed at the same time as the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. To the east is the Jefferson Park Historic District (NR, 12/14/1995), another residential neighborhood developed at the same time and very similar to the Paseo neighborhood. The south boundary is adjacent to Northwest 23rd Street, a busy commercial artery. The west boundary, Western Avenue, is dominated by the grounds of the Fairlawn Cemetery and the First Presbyterian Church. The northeast corner of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is anchored by a Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival artists' studio and shopping district developed around a distinctive two-block-long curved street locally known as The Paseo (Spanish Village, NR 2/24/1983). The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District's name was derived from this street.
The Fairlawn Cemetery is a dominant site within the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. The cemetery itself is counted as a contributing site, but there are resources within the cemetery that merit their own distinction. These resources include three buildings — a brick masonry maintenance building on the south end, a small office building, and a large limestone mausoleum.
The main north/south streets are North Walker Avenue on the east boundary, North Western Avenue on the west boundary and North Shartel Avenue, which bisects the district in a north/south direction. North Shartel Avenue used to be the location of the Oklahoma Railway Company's electric streetcar line that extended from the downtown business center to the north. The convenient streetcar service, which extended through the Paseo neighborhood by 1913, was a prime impetus for residential development in the Paseo neighborhood. The remaining north/south streets and east/west streets within the neighborhood tend to be much less busy and more residential in character, with mostly single-family residences.
Most construction, nearly eighty percent, occurred in the district between 1910 and 1939. Between 1900 and 1909, nineteen structures were built in the area encompassed by the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. Between 1910 and 1919, the number of new structures jumped to ninety-one and, between 1920 and 1929, one hundred and thirty new structures were built. In subsequent decades the rate of construction declined, however, by 1929, much of Paseo was occupied. The period of significance for the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District extends from construction of the first extant residences in 1905 to 1953. The earliest extant residences in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District are in the 700 blocks of Northwest 24th and 25th Streets, the 800 block of Northwest 25th Street, and the 600 block of Northwest 26th Street. Generally, development occurred from south to north, with a majority of the earliest structures tending to be closer to public transportation routes and main north/south streets. Development in the Paseo neighborhood was dominated by single-family residences, with a fair proportion of duplexes and quadruplexes. Multi-family housing was developed mostly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as the demand for housing grew in response to the general prosperity of the 1920s and the development of oil fields in and around Oklahoma City during that time. Construction steeply declined from 130 units in the 1920s to forty-seven units in the 1930s. From 1940 to 1989 fifty-one structures were built in the Paseo neighborhood. Currently, there are 211 contributing buildings and one contributing site in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District.
The Bungalow/Craftsman style dominates the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District, with fifty-nine percent of contributing buildings and forty-eight percent of all structures. Tudor Revival is represented by 20.3 percent of contributing structures and 16.5 percent of all structures. Other styles represented include Classical Revival (4.8 percent and 3.9 percent), National Folk (4.4 percent and 3.5 percent), Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival (3.4 percent and 2.8 percent), Minimal Traditional (2.9 percent and 2.4 percent), Prairie (1. 9 percent and 1.6 percent), and Colonial Revival (1.5 percent and 1.2 percent). Other styles represented in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District include Moderne, Modern, Commercial, Renaissance Revival, Gothic Revival and buildings with no distinctive style.
A large number of garages and garage apartments are located in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District. Two-story garage apartments that are located on side streets, are highly visible, and have separate addresses are included as either contributing or noncontributing properties. Garages or garage apartments that are at the rear portion of a property are considered to be an accessory building to the main building at the front of the property and are not counted separately.
Significance
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as an excellent example of community development and planning and as an example of architectural styles from the first five decades of the twentieth century. An important site within the neighborhood is the Fairlawn Cemetery, established in 1892 in the northwest portion of the district. A feature adjacent to and anchoring the northwest corner of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is a Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival artists' studio and shopping district locally known as The Paseo (Spanish Village, NR 2/24/1983), named after the distinctively curved street along which it was developed. This colorful shopping center has become a magnet for residents of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District and surrounding neighborhoods. Another impetus for the development of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District as a desirable residential area was its ready access to public transportation. The Oklahoma Railway Company's electric streetcar line extended from Oklahoma City's downtown business center through the center of the Paseo neighborhood along Shartel Avenue by 1913. The streetcar line, along with the booming economy of the 1920s, encouraged rapid residential construction in the district through the 1930s. Architectural forms present in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District include single and multi-family residences and a few commercial buildings. The most prevalent architectural styles present in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District include Bungalow/Craftsman, Tudor Revival, Classical Revival, National Folk, and Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival. The initial plat of the east half of the district was in 1892. Replatting of the east half and southwest quarter of the district occurred between 1902 and 1903. The period of significance begins in 1905, when the oldest extant houses were built, and ends in 1953, when over ninety-seven percent of the structures and the site within the district were completed.
Historic Context
Overview
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is a part of the development of Oklahoma City during a dynamic period of growth in the early portion of the twentieth century. Oklahoma City benefited from a varied economic base, including a diverse industrial core within its limits, an oil boom, and the surrounding agricultural community. The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is a microcosm of the city's residential development pattern during the first half of the twentieth century.
The construction of the Paseo neighborhood reflects the dynamic growth of Oklahoma City from an ad hoc tent city to a nascent urban center just six years after the first tents were pitched after the land run.
"A common description of western towns is that they 'sprang up overnight.' In the case of Oklahoma City, the literal truth is that it came into being between noon and sunset of April 22, 1889...ten thousand settlers...camped by nightfall over the wide expanse east and west of the Santa Fe's single-track boxcar station, where land had been set aside for a townsite."[1]
The boundaries of the townsite were established two months after the opening, "... at Seventh Street on the north, Walker Street to the east, Seventh Street to the south and the Santa Fe Railway on the west."[2] In the 1890s, growth continued at a steady pace, and the development of a streetcar system in 1902 helped to launch more rapid growth to the north.
During the 1890s, Oklahoma City grew primarily within the original townsite and to the northeast.[3] In 1892, Fairlawn Cemetery was established outside the city limits towards the northwest. The City's growth led to an expansion of service by the railroads. The Santa Fe Railway Company was present before the land opening; the Rock Island arrived in the city in 1895; and the Frisco Railroad entered the city in 1898. This expansion led, in turn, to more economic development. By the turn of the century, Oklahoma City was booming with several industries, including two cotton gins, a flour mill, and an ice factory, in addition to the three railroads.[4]
In the following decade, progress continued towards the north. The presence of the railways proved to be a deciding factor in the development of Oklahoma City. A 540 percent increase in city population between 1900 and 1910, from 10,037 to 64,205, is credited largely to the railroads.[5] In 1902, continued city expansion to the north was encouraged by the construction of an electric street railway system. The first streetcar, owned and operated by the Metropolitan Railway Company (later to be reorganized as the Oklahoma Railway Company), ran on February 2, 1903. Within one year, ten cars were operating on four miles of track.[6] From 1902 to 1903, the east half and southwest quarter of the additions making up the future Paseo district were replatted. Oklahoma City annexed more land to accommodate the growth of the central business area and to address the related demand for housing.
Oklahoma's statehood in 1907, the winning of the state capitol from Guthrie in 1910, and Oklahoma City's role as a crossroads for the railways paved the way for its "...vigorous growth as the trade center of an expanding new territory." In twenty years, the population grew from 10,037 to 66,408, and it had become by far the state's largest city. As the state capital, Oklahoma City attracted thousands of state employees, many of whom remained after their political employment ceased. And with the development of the state's natural resources of oil, coal, and metals, the city became a financial and manufacturing center as well.[7]
This rate of growth continued during the 1920s. Population grew "...by over one-hundred percent in ten years," and the value of building permits issued "...increased...from about five million dollars in 1920 to eight million dollars in 1924."[8]
After World War I, economic activity intensified. Petroleum exploration allowed the state's economy to diversify, greatly benefiting Oklahoma City. "Manufacturing became less bound up with agriculture and expanded into new fields, and in the late 1920s, a gusher oil field was developed on the east side, within the city limits. As Oklahoma City grew industrially, it added new iron and steel plants, factories for making furniture, clothing, and electrical equipment. Various large utility companies, brokerage houses, and commission concerns also established their headquarters downtown."[9]
As new businesses and industries moved into the downtown area, the city necessarily expanded. "In terms of geographical area, the city covered 15.6 square miles in 1910, 17.2 square miles by 1920, and by 1930 it had grown to 25.2 square miles."[10]
The direction of residential growth away from the city center was not strictly concentric, but had a northward pattern. One reason for this was a force of nature. "The flooding of the North Canadian River had disastrous consequences for city development in the early years on the south side, especially the disastrous flood of 1923...The broken and wooded lands along this valley impeded residential development."[11]
No doubt this unsuitability for development on the south side of Oklahoma City influenced far-reaching decisions by two of Oklahoma City's major early developers. "In 1902, John Shartel and Anton H. Classen began the construction of the street railway system, which allowed further growth to the north...The residential sections responded by shifting into the areas that were served by the lines...this period began the noticeable shift in single family dwelling residential areas away from the original townsite..."[12] Thus, an early northward settlement pattern was established by civic leaders. Civic amenities and further residential development followed the lead of Shartel and Classen.[13]
Between 1907 and 1908 twenty-two additions were incorporated into the city. Among these were the Pleasant View, Guernsey Park, and Fairlawn Cemetery additions, which make up the present Paseo Neighborhood Historic District.[14] This expanded the northern city limits beyond 23rd Street to approximately Hill Street. This growth, combined with the relocation of the state capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City, engendered a construction boom from 1909 to 1912.[15]
Construction began in the area of the Paseo neighborhood in 1905. Between 1900 and 1910, nineteen of the Paseo's dwellings were constructed, and construction rapidly accelerated during the next two decades.[16] In fact, the rate of construction within the neighborhood outpaced the growth of the city as a whole. During the second decade of the twentieth century, the city's population increased 42 percent[17], while construction in the Paseo district increased from nineteen units in the first decade of the twentieth century to ninety-one units in the second, an increase of 479 percent.[18] This enormous growth in the Paseo neighborhood (and in surrounding neighborhoods) indicates a strong trend for the growth of the (mostly) single-family residential neighborhood within Oklahoma City to serve a newly urbanized work force in the early decades of the twentieth century.
The Paseo Neighborhood
The area containing the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District was initially settled as a 160-acre homestead on April 4, 1889. It is located in the southwest quarter of Section 21, Township 12-North, Range 3-West of the Indian Meridian. The homestead changed hands several times and was divided in half. The first public plats, for the Guernsey Park Place Outlots and the Fairlawn Cemetery were recorded in June of 1892. In January of 1902, the platting of Guernsey Park Place into "blocks, streets and avenues" was recorded. In October of 1903, a public plat for the Pleasant View addition was recorded. Thus, the three additions that comprise the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District were formed by 1903. Between 1907 and 1908 twenty-two additions were incorporated into the city. Among these were the Pleasant View, Guernsey Park, and Fairlawn Cemetery additions, which make up the present Paseo neighborhood.[19] Various subdivisions of blocks and lots occurred until 1921. In 1927, the public plat of the Spanish Village by G.A. Nichols Incorporated, one of Oklahoma City's premier developers at the time, became the last addition to be recorded within the original homestead site.[20] A distinctive two block long curved street, the Paseo, was created as the hub of the area. The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District's name was derived from this street.
Access to and from the area was made possible by the streetcar system, which was an important contributor to the growth of Oklahoma City. Placement of the various streetcar lines was routinely decided by a contract between the Oklahoma Railway Company and property owners in the vicinity of the proposed line. "In return for construction of the route in certain areas, real estate owners conveyed related rights-of-way through their property, thus lessening the construction price of the street car line and increasing the value of the area property...From these lines, connections to traverse the entire city, as well as nearby towns and cities were available."[21]
During the 1910s real estate developers began promotion of Central Park, the adjacent neighborhood to the north of Paseo, as having "good car service direct to the business part of the city; fine school close; paved streets and all modern conveniences."[22] Mary L. Mann, along with her children, owned the Ross-Mann Addition and the Central Park Realty Company controlled use of the Central Park Addition. Both entered into contractual agreements with the Oklahoma Railway Company in 1909 regarding a streetcar line that ran north from the downtown business district up Shartel Avenue.[23] By 1913, this route extended along Shartel Avenue from the downtown to approximately 33rd Street and eventually all the way to the Crown Heights neighborhood, north of NW 42nd Street.[24] Thus, streetcar service extended through both the Paseo and Central Park neighborhoods on the same line. The electric streetcars provided an important source of public transportation in all of early day Oklahoma City. Availability of streetcars encouraged expansion of the city to areas away from the downtown business district by creating the necessary transportation link between work and home. Essentially all of the electric track within Oklahoma City had been laid by 1916.[25] From their beginnings around 1902, use of Oklahoma City street cars reached their zenith in 1919, carrying a total of 17.5 million passengers, up from the 9.5 million passengers in 1915. Ridership fell in 1924 to approximately twelve million due to increased automobile travel. In 1925, the railway company put its first buses into operation, further detracting business from the streetcar system. By 1930, bus service was available throughout the city, including a route north along Walker Avenue, through the Paseo and adjoining neighborhoods.[26]
From 1910 to 1919, when the Shartel Avenue and other streetcars line were under construction, ninety-one dwellings were built in the Paseo neighborhood, equal to almost thirty-six percent of the extant structures. In addition, the United Presbyterian Church, the first church in the area, was constructed in 1917 at the corner of Northwest 25th Street and Shartel Avenue.
The peak of building activity for the Paseo neighborhood occurred in the 1920s. It was during this decade, especially in the latter half, that Oklahoma City once again entered a boom period. City population experienced a tremendous increase, growing by over one hundred percent in ten years.[27] Valuation of building permits issued in the city increased slowly from about five million dollars in 1920 to eight million dollars in 1924. Permits slumped slightly in 1925 but rebounded to exceed twenty-four million dollars in 1929.[28]
The prosperity of the oil boom of the Roaring Twenties enabled many to purchase their own home and, at the same time, attracted more buyers to the city. As a result, much of the desirable close-in residential property in Oklahoma City was built up. Furthermore, expanded use of the automobile enabled residents to live further away from their place of business and yet reach them with more convenience and in less time.[29] As a relatively "close in" residential neighborhood, Paseo flourished and experienced its greatest growth in the 1920s. Thirty-eight percent of the remaining houses were constructed in the 1920s. Construction in the Paseo was distributed fairly evenly throughout the decade, with an average of approximately fourteen new residences per year.
The 1920s also boosted construction of public buildings to serve community needs. Harding Junior High School (NR 3/13/2002), a flagship school, was constructed in the adjacent Central Park area in 1924, and the classical Fairlawn Cemetery Mausoleum was built between 1924 and 1925.
People of differing races, religions and ethnic backgrounds all contributed to the development of Oklahoma City. This is illustrated in Fairlawn Cemetery, where there are large sections devoted to early Lebanese-American, Jewish, and Catholic inhabitants of Oklahoma City. (A 1929 map of Fairlawn Cemetery also shows two small sections marked "White" and one small section marked "Colored" on the south end, where the oldest markers are located.) From Oklahoma's earliest days, African-Americans comprised a significant section of the population. Within ten years of the Land Run, the Black population in Oklahoma City numbered almost seven thousand, equaling ten percent of the city's population.[30]
Until about 1897, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City were fairly well integrated. However, using the "separate but equal" doctrine of the 1896 United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1897 territorial legislature mandated racial separation of schools, juries and public facilities. This policy of segregation continued into statehood when the 1907 state legislature enacted a "Jim Crow" law restricting the use of schools and public facilities, including public transportation.[31] Restrictive covenants, in place in Paseo and adjacent neighborhoods, prohibited African-American occupation and ownership of area properties. Additionally, Oklahoma City twice passed City ordinances that restricted the areas available for Blacks to live. While these city ordinances each lasted only a few years, neighborhood covenants were commonly put in place during the platting of additions. In Oklahoma City, this type of covenant remained legally viable until 1948, when Judge Lewis R. Morris dismissed a case brought against two African-American families on the basis of these segregation covenants based on a prior United States Supreme Court decision rendering restrictive covenants unconstitutional.[32]
The only major non-residential development in the area of the Paseo neighborhood occurred in about 1929. At this time, G.A. Nichols, Incorporated undertook development of the Spanish Village, a relatively small business area in the northeast corner of the Paseo neighborhood. Promotion of this area rested upon its unique "Spanish" atmosphere, conveyed principally through the Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.[33] National recognition of the significance of this commercial zone was bestowed in 1983 when the Spanish Village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The establishment of the Spanish Village enhanced the desirability of the Paseo neighborhood by creating an easily accessible and attractive shopping center.
Probably the greatest economic incentive during the late 1920s and 1930s was the discovery of oil in the Oklahoma City vicinity in 1924 and within the city itself in 1928. Oklahoma City benefited greatly from its central location in the Mid-Continent oil field, one of the largest producers of oil in the United States in the latter 1920s and 1930s. Largely due to the presence of oil and its related industries, Oklahoma City was able to sustain growth during the Great Depression of the 1930s.[34] The city gained about five to ten thousand people each year from a base population of 189,389 in 1930.[35]
Oil contributed to another facet of development within the city, apartment houses. The influx of people employed by the flourishing oil and related industrial companies, requiring only a temporary place to live, created an unprecedented demand for apartments. Usually built of brick, with not more than four stories, apartments routinely consisted of one room, a bath and kitchenette.[36]
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, apartment building in Oklahoma City concentrated north of 23rd Street, around Robinson Avenue and Walker Avenue, in the midst of the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District.[37]
One of the well-known Oklahoma City development companies involved in apartment house construction was G.A. Nichols Incorporated. Erecting apartment buildings was touted as Nichols' "hobby." Nichols Incorporated built at least ten apartments in the Paseo neighborhood. The company's architectural staff carefully designed four-family apartments in the Paseo, as well as several other residential districts, that were "as beautiful in exterior line and interior finish as the best private residences."[38] Apartment houses, however, did not comprise a large percentage of the building stock in the neighborhood. Apartment buildings equaled only fifteen percent of dwellings in the Paseo neighborhood. Although the majority of residences in the Paseo were single residences, other types of multiple dwellings were also popular, including duplexes and garage apartments. Eleven percent of the remaining residences in the Paseo neighborhood were non-apartment building multiple dwellings.
Although the oil industry and related developments bolstered city finances, Oklahoma City, of course, did not completely escape the Great Depression. Oklahoma City experienced an inundation of displaced rural inhabitants seeking jobs, housing and aid. This naturally contributed to the economic burden of the city. In the early depression years, camps of substandard housing developed along the North Canadian River and destitute Oklahomans filled the soup lines.[39] The city's real estate market's depression, however, seemed to ease by the mid-1930s. This is attributable in part to the upswing in population resulting from the gravitation towards the city and a lessening in the downward slide of the economy as a whole.[40]
Construction in the Paseo neighborhood dropped in the 1930s to twenty-four of the remaining dwellings. In part, this can be attributed to the majority of the district already being built up. Most of these buildings were single-family residences along NW 28th Street, with a few multi-family residential buildings on or near Walker Avenue. One commercial building was constructed on Walker Avenue in the 1930s. The Paseo district experienced lesser development through the 1940s and 1950s. The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District contains eleven structures built during the 1940s and four constructed in the 1950s. Buildings constructed during this time include single-family residences on NW 28th Street, North Shartel Avenue, and North Lee Avenue, and a commercial building on North Walker Avenue. Only six buildings were constructed in the district from the 1960s through the 1990s. These include single-family residences on North Dewey Avenue and North Shartel Avenue, and the First Presbyterian Church and Shepherd Manor, which occupy the north side of the 1000 and 900 blocks of NW 25th Street, respectively. The tapering off of construction activity after the mid-1950s is the reason that the period of significance for the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District ends at 1953. By that time, the bulk of buildings had been built and the character of the neighborhood was established.
Architecture
Although Oklahoma City has spread far beyond its earliest boundaries, the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District represents an important stage in its evolution. It was during the first half of the twentieth century, when the neighborhood was developing, that Oklahoma City accomplished its transformation from a Victorian town to a modern metropolis.
The development of the Paseo neighborhood illustrates a continuum of growth and architectural styles in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City grew from a frontier settlement in 1889, to a nascent town at the time of statehood and, over the next two decades, became the Oklahoma state capitol with such civic amenities as roads, public transportation, public schools, utilities, and delineated government, business, and industrial districts and residential areas.
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District reflects not only the growth pattern of Oklahoma City but also the common appearance of Oklahoma towns and cities. The typical architectural style for single-family residences in Oklahoma during the first third of the twentieth century was the Bungalow. With its multiple windows, the Bungalow house was well suited to the hot Oklahoma climate. Almost sixty percent of the extant houses in the Paseo are Bungalows. The second most prevalent style in the neighborhood is Tudor Revival, reflecting the changing tastes in architecture nationally as the Paseo neighborhood continued to develop through the 1920s and 1930s. Other architectural styles in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District represented by more than one example include National Folk, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, Prairie School and Minimal Traditional.
These styles, or variations on styles, reflect the development of the neighborhood. Those buildings called "National Folk" represent the marriage of folk housing forms and Late Victorian stylistic elements that popularized the carpenter-built houses of the 1890-1910 period. Some of the earliest houses in the Paseo Neighborhood Historic District date to this time. The Craftsman influence and Bungalows represent the period 1910-1925, the first great period of construction in the area. The eclectic period revivals, most notably the Tudor Revival cottages and the Renaissance Revival apartment buildings, reflect the 1925-1940 period of development. Finally, the Minimal Traditional houses reflect the post World War II era; these houses usually blend in well with their predecessors in terms of materials, massing and setback.
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District also shares architectural characteristics with adjacent Oklahoma City neighborhoods that also have a similar pattern of development. These architectural and growth characteristics include development primarily in the 1910s and 1920s, with a relatively small amount of construction afterwards. Architectural styles until about 1915 tended to be a mix of National Folk, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Prairie School, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, and Bungalow/Craftsman. After 1915 and through the 1920s, the Paseo neighborhood experienced its greatest growth. By far, the most prevalent architectural style was the Bungalow/Craftsman for construction of single-family housing. A much smaller number of Colonial Revival, Prairie, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, Gothic, and Commercial style buildings were also constructed. The Tudor Revival style became popular, mostly for multi-family housing, but also for single-family residences constructed during the late 1920s up to the early 1930s. The 1930s also saw the construction of a few examples of Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, Moderne and Renaissance Revival style buildings.
Limited demolition with very little subsequent construction occurred within the district after the 1930s. Only twenty-one extant buildings were constructed in the district from the 1940s through the 1990s.
The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District retains a high degree of integrity. Within the Paseo district, 210 of the 262 buildings, or more than eighty percent, were identified as contributing, and a major site within the district, Fairlawn Cemetery, was also identified as contributing. The Paseo Neighborhood Historic District is an excellent example of community development and planning and of architectural styles from the first half of the twentieth century as they relate to the development of Oklahoma City.
Endnotes
References
Allen, Susan and Cynthia Smelker, Final Survey Report — Intensive Level Survey of the Central Park, Jefferson Park, and Paseo Neighborhoods in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office. March, 1994.
Bender, Kim K., "Escaping the Frontier: Oklahoma City's Electric Railways, A Symbol of Metropolitanism, 1912-1924" (History 6400 Seminar, University of Oklahoma, December 1991).
Blackburn, Bob L., Heart of the Promised Land: Oklahoma County, An Illustrated History (Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1982).
The Daily Oklahoman, 5 May 1929.
Gibson, Arrell Morgan, Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
Halley, Stanton Murphey, "Factors Relating to Land Development Patterns in a Selected Area of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma" (MRCP thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1968).
Hare and Hare, City Planning Consultants, Report of the City Planning Commission: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 1930 (Oklahoma City: City Planning Commission, 1931).
Kerr, W.F. and Iva Gainer, The Story of Oklahoma City Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishers, 1922), vol 1.
Mahar, Janetta Isabel, "Social Changes in Oklahoma City from 1889 to 1930" (M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1933).
Meredith, Howard and George Shirk, "Oklahoma City: Growth and Reconstruction, 1889-1939," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 55 (Fall 1977).
Robertson, Leo L., "Geographical Changes Resulting from Oil Development in Oklahoma City and Vicinity" (M. S. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1937).
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Oklahoma City, 1906, 1922, 1949, 1955.
Stewart, Roy P., Born Grown: An Oklahoma City History (Oklahoma City: Fidelity Bank, National Association, 1974).
Work Projects Administration, The WPA Guide to 1930's Oklahoma (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1986).
‡ Jocelyn Lupkin, Robison & Associates Architects, Paseo Neighborhood Historic District, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, nomination document, 2004, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
23rd Street NW • 24th Street NW • 25th Street NW • 26th Street NW • 27th Street NW • 28th Street NW • 30th Street NW • Francis Avenue North • Guernsey Avenue North • Lee Avenue North • Shartel Avenue North • Walker Avenue North • Western Avenue North