Districts in the National Register of Historic Places
White City Historic District
Significance
Glenn T. Braden, founder of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company and one of the first proponents of using Oklahoma’s wealth of methane gas for fuel, bought the land that later became the White City neighborhood from the Creek Indians in 1912. Early histories of Tulsa indicate that Braden, a Pennsylvania native, brought a herd of Jersey dairy cattle to this area during World War I. He established the White City Jersey Dairy Farm four miles outside the city limits. It was so named because of the color of the buildings and silos Braden built there. After his death, Braden’s children closed the dairy, platted the land and began selling lots to employees of the nearby steel and oil field supply companies.
The W.D. McCoy “organization” was put in “…active charge of developing White City and the sale of its acreage tracts.” Targeted at Tulsa’s middle class, the addition offered “…something new and inviting — modern suburban acreage.” The addition was platted into large acre tracts of various sizes. Many of the streets were graded, rolled and oiled or chatted. City land records show 1946 to be the high-water mark in White City land sales. The open fields began to fill with homes.
One of the important amenities included within the original White City Addition was a park area for the neighborhood. Located towards the southern end of the development, the park was originally called “White City Park.” However, within a few years of the neighborhood’s opening, the name changed to “Braden Park,” under which the park continues to operate. A popular attraction in the park during the 1930s through the late 1940s was a wading pool. The city of Tulsa closed all wading pools in the city in the late 1940s due to a polio scare. In the late 1930s, the WPA undertook some improvements on the park but nothing on a significant scale. Although the facilities in the park have changed over the years, the park continues to be a focus of the neighborhood. Significant churches serving the neighborhood include the White City Baptist Church, the Yale Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Will Rogers Methodist Church and several others.