Districts in the National Register of Historic Places
Maple Ridge Historic District
Significance
In 1915, local builder John Blair reported that Admiral Bird McGuire, an early home-owner in Maple Ridge, stated that “No woman of any social importance would live outside of the Railroad tracks.” He proved to be mistaken when the Maple Ridge, Morningside and Maple Park subdivisions began to attract oilmen who could no longer easily buy lots north and west of downtown. The subdivisions were designed exclusively for large and expensive homes. The subdivision regulations were Oklahoma’s first. Oil and banking magnates Grant McCollough, W. G. Skelly, Harry Tyrell, Alfred and Lionel Aaronson, J. J. McGraw, R. Otis McClintock, J. Paul Getty and Waite Phillips were all residents.
The Maple Ridge Historic Residential District is significant because the development of the Maple Ridge area paralleled the growth of the banking and oil industry in Tulsa in the early 20th century. The men and women who made their wealth in the Glenn Pool Oil Strike of 1905, and later the Cushing strike of 1912, were the people who built their homes in Maple Ridge.
The district is significant architecturally because the homes are fine examples of post-World War I styles in emerging suburbs, as well as the architectural revival of grand classic historic styles from earlier time periods. There are Italianate, Georgian Revival, Neo-Classical Revival, Federal and Colonial Revivals, Gothic Tudor, Jacobean, Prairie, Bungalow, and Cottage Styles. The variety of housing styles gives the area a significant character different from surrounding areas. Today, the neighborhood’s many additions, spanning thirty years of development, make up Oklahoma’s largest intact residential area.