The Fabric of a Community

The Fabric of a Community. Route 66 Tulsa. By 1917, the area surrounding this intersection was being developed for its natural resources: coal and oil. Coalmining and oil wells survived until the 1930s when the area developed as a primarily residential and commercial community., One change leading to that transformation occurred when the White City Jersey Dairy Farm was platted into a neighborhood. Two famous early residents of the White City community were Johnnie Lee Wills of the famed Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, a western swing music-era favorite and Ed "Strangler" Lewis, a 1920 and 1928 world heavyweight wrestling champion and creator of the Sleeper Hold". , In 1927, Benjamin Franklin School was constructed on the southeast corner of this intersection. The school remains in operation to this day. By 1943, the southwest corner of the intersection was established. The mixed use commercial center included a grocery store, a drug store and a beauty salon. By 1946, East 11th Street was blossoming with additional grocery stores, plumbers, dry cleaners, filling stations, a realtor and the Will Rogers Theater. The Grotto Tourist Court, Whitt Motel and Cook's Court Motor Inn were serving Route 66 travelers and visitors to Tulsa., By the early 1950s, the range of services broadened and included insurance agents, bookkeepers, an architect, dentists and a financial investment company. By the end of the 1950s, the area was a defined community adjoining the nearby Expo Square to the south and the University of Tulsa to the west, home to Skelly Field, an Art Deco football stadium built in 1930 with money donated by oilman William G. Skelly.