Oklahoma’s old downtown photographs contain a surprising amount of everyday geography: a theater marquee used as a meeting point, a hotel visible above the next block, and streetcars running through the middle of an ordinary errand. Some of those sights survived into recent memory. Others now belong to archives and family stories.
These seven selections focus on Oklahoma City and Tulsa. They are not a claim that the entire state once looked the same, or that every redevelopment project had the same outcome. The aim is to identify what actually disappeared and give each familiar name its proper place. Where an old business name survives elsewhere, it does not mean the original building survives with it.
1. Oklahoma City’s Criterion Theater Made the Main Street Sidewalk Part of the Show…