A supplement for a Jewish history bike tour of Philadelphia - Sun., Sept. 11, 2016

[NOTE: Thanks in advance for any dimming of pleasure technically, in that you have to cut and paste any urls here as opposed to the expected "click" to reach their sites.]

Recently, I was fortunate to be hired as the overall guide for a Jewish history bicycle tour here in Philadelphia, now just around the corner in three days. From my first preparations, I envisioned a number of visual aids which would fully supplement the ride, spanning several neighborhoods and 130 years or more of this city's awesome Jewish history.

In the end, given in part the discipline of a deadline tonight, my first effort deals with one of the latter neighborhoods of the tour, a stretch of South Philadelphia's 6th Street. The core of my first offering tonight, to be expanded somewhat before Sunday, will be a quick look at ex-synagogues and the Jewish legacy within them. The main theme might, in its most simplistic sense, will be that "we are here because they are here", or, in a more qualified way, that the huge Jewish legacy of South Philadelphia still physically survives - at times - because of newer faith communities in ex-synagogues.

Tomorrow, I hope to just dip into the beauty of old maps - not too old in this city's case - but still hopefully of interest and at least suggestive of the historical subject here.

Additionally, I hope to begin to show the beauty of the two main segments of a Buddhist Temple at 6th and Ritner Streets, whose annex is right across Ritner Street in a former synagogue. The Temple will be a beautiful digression:).

This blog is directed in part to riders on the tour on Sunday, but I encourage any history lovers to join in, and hope, that as with a town indirectly in my past - Detroit - with six Jewish history bike rides on its resume when I last checked - we will all join in to support future bike rides through Jewish Philadelphia.

This blog HONORS in part the people who continue places of Jewish life, such as Bishop James Brickhouse, at the Prophetic Church of Christ, at 1826 S. 6th St., at a corner of tiny Sigel Street, where riders on Sunday will see the name of the past Jewish congregation on the outside, as in this picture (to the right of the Bishop), but where there are no plans to enter the church....

Thanks to Bishop Brickhouse in a wonderful visit on Tuesday, Aug. 30,  I saw remnants of Jewish worship or its context inside the church.

One of them was a once-open space between Orthodox Jewish men on the ground level and women on the second floor, which he pointed out here in his office in the form of a light wooden board....

and its bottom side is seen here above the church sanctuary, a grand space as compared to the cozy second floor, but - like several places we will ride past on Sunday - in a rowhouse, far from the large buildings Americans often associate with synagogues....

The reverend also showed me one of three white pews given to the Prophetic Church some years ago, coming from another structure on an adjacent corner of 6th and Sigel....

While plain, the pew apparently was given to Bishop Brickhouse and others by the once-colorful "South Philly" Lebanese-American politician Jimmy Tayoun, who the Bishop noted had an office in that adjacent building. The fact that we are talking "pews" suggests that Jewish worship took place in the neighboring building, where we will see an inscription that suggests a group helping neighbors, but not religious activity.

Farther down 6th, the exoticism of Buddhism - at least for many Westerners - has both kept and converted what was once Beth Shmuel synagogue, seen here across a railing for the main segments of the Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple....

Once again, our tour will not go inside the ex-Beth Shmuel, one reason I wanted to see it and at least share it here if possible, and while there are concerns about the physical future of this 20th-century Jewish house of prayer, it seemed structurally sound and definitely a cultural hybrid as I entered a door on the west side of the ex-sanctuary....

Once inside, courtesy of the Preah Buddha Temple's sexton - Romeo Lopaz, seen here with a fellow high school-age friend - Mimi Berry....

you can see the richness of newer Buddhist aesthetics, if relatively ancient in their reverence for the Buddha, including a view of the Buddha's passing in the main mural here....

and, as of Sunday, Sept. 4, a Jewish version of the Zodiac on the ceiling; while faded and in unclear light here, it was still somewhat preserved, except for an erased symbol at the east end, just outside the top of this photo....

For tonight, I will leave the reader with three images from that zodiac, each perhaps easily translatable....

and a Hebrew sign above a basement door where my success rate in the "translate", partly as a student of Yiddish in my younger days, was maybe 15%....

[Sept 10 - I have since learned that the above can be translated as "prayers daily, evening and morning, sabbath and holidays, ashkenazic (eastern european) tradition".]

Please look back at this blog by tomorrow night, for further images regarding the former Beth Shmuel, and the beautiful interiors for the two main parts of the Preah Buddha Temple. [Footnote 1]

Sept. 8 evening entries....

My joy at seeing both the former Beth Shmuel and the relatively spectacular main parts of the Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple was mixed with thoughts that I understand challenged Buddha himself, not to mention many more mere mortals over time.

While I believe in extending the life of so many historic landmarks, these visits on Sept. 4 were partly about impermanence, and I was re-learning about it from a 16-year old, basically.

At one point, for example, Romeo summarized the lower mural at the east end of the former Beth Shmuel, and its display of the famous and epiphanous scene as the Buddha realizes he will leave a life of courtly materialism upon seeing an ascetic from his lofty coach....

and the painting's kind of sobering inset of aging, illness and death in our lives.

Upstairs, where Orthodox women had once sat, Romeo showed me one of two walls of ashes of deceased Temple members, with the one below on the south wall, or just inside from Ritner Street....

In terms of the Beth Shmuel building, Romeo and a monk I briefly met later noted that the Temple is not sure about plans for the building, and, at a visit to the two main sections of the Temple - just south of Ritner Street, I discovered that the Temple's general plans include a new temple in suburban Voorhees, New Jersey, with my not asking if this would replace the 6th & Ritner activities or not.

But again, life is moving on, as Jews moved away from South Philadelphia, and there is impermanence in this location, or at least in having just one Temple location.

AND, just as various Philadelphia-area neighborhoods - Oxford Circle, Cheltenham and so on - must have been a golden vision for Jews as they left working-class South Philadelphia for years after World War II, the image I saw of the Voorhees Temple looks paradisiacally green....

As with many such illustrations this one at first seemed like - "boy, this is gonna be astounding (in this computer graphic)!" [aka too good to be true], but if Romeo's point about context is correct - that there will be a nature preserve right next to the Temple, then maybe this South Jersey idyll will look positively idyllic!

Romeo, seen in last night's entries, dropped out of school last year to study Buddhism in Taiwan, and he said he will become a monk next month.  While I have not received confirmation of his points, they seemed serious and knowledgeable and came after he generously offered his time to me after noting that the head monk at Preah Rangsey, who I tried to reach, has very limited English fluency.

One point which i DO hope is partially incorrect from Romeo came when he showed me a painting within which he pointed to a Buddhist temple perched on a distant hill, adding that the general view showed "what Cambodia used to look like"....

With thanks for continued reader-ship prior to Sunday ridership, I hope, I will return to additions and modifications here tomorrow.



Sept 10....

Continuing with the beauties of a Buddhist Temple, an altar to the left of the rural Cambodian vision above depicts what Romeo referred to as the three most important points in the Buddha's life - his birth, enlightenment and passing....

and to the right of the countryside view, Romeo pulled back a curtain to reveal a very realistic sculpture of a man who passed away in 1980 and who he said was a major patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism....

All three of these last sights are at the south side of an ex-factory, oriented from north to south and larger and longer  than the ex-church housing the Temple, and with both structures seen here from the east side of 6th Street....

as well as below and diagonally to the lower left of Mifflin Square - though the factory's specifics are not named, in 1931[Footnote 2]....

Returning to the smaller annex of the Temple, you could say that while Beth Shmuel's interior presents some pretty big subjects - such as the Zodiac:) - it was basically a small working-class synagogue, a little more ambitious than the Fastover Congregation's edifice [now Bishop Brickhouse's brick house (and that of all Prophetic Church attendees)].

This matter of "humble houses" of worship was underscored in a sense that my expectations of seeing loads of synagogues identified in old city atlases were dashed, at least for what would have been a deep forest of S. Philly Judaism around the 1931 atlas I saw this past Tuesday at the awesome Maps collection of the Free Library main branch.

While I did not scour its detailed depiction of Philadelphia east of Broad and south of Washington Avenue (the eastern half of S. Philly, Yo!! anyways....), I saw ONE synagogue noted within its property outlines, appropriately on Porter Street - which might be called the center of Jewish gravity in 20th-century S. Phila; this congregation was known as Talmud Torah, and can be seen at the upper left below. Its building is almost certainly that of the later Stiffel Jewish Center, and we will glimpse it before heading east to a Jewish-inspired mural at the Taggart Elementary School, whose structure is shown at least vaguely at the upper right here....

In what would have been a fairly-crowded synagogue stretch - 6th below Pierce, the beautiful pinks and straight lines of 1931 reminded me that it would have been naive to try to write perhaps ANY synagogue names, with 6th visible as the right-most north-south street below....

That heritage of smaller places of prayer continues to the south, where we will see the current front of the Galilee Christian Hope Baptist Church, at 2113 S. 6th St., next to the small east-west street of Cantrell, and seen here in a view towards the key thoroughfare of Snyder Avenue....

The view below of the stone "nameplate" of the ex-Talmud Torah Adath Jeshurun, within the Galilee space, reveals a little bit of the wealth of Hebrew letters along the front of the Galilee structure....

Outside of and PRIOR to our S. Phila culmination....

I wanted to at least give a sense of a few other attractions we will at least pass by tomorrow morning....

Chestnut Street just after 23rd Street (AND the west side of City Hall if we have time to stop there)....

Both at 2200 Chestnut, aka the Albert Greenfield Elementary School, and at the west side of City Hall, there are remembrances of Albert Greenfield (1887-1967) much more than just a major realtor in shaping 20th-century Philadelphia.

He is seen here in an undated photo but one I would guess is from the 1960's....

18th Street northbound at Rittenhouse Square....

Minutes ago, I learned that the legacy of Samuel Yellin - one of whose early-20th century ironworks we will whizz by at the Curtis Institute of Music headquarters on 18th below Locust - still is carried on, as per the website below, with the reminder that you need to cut and paste any url here....

http://www.samuelyellin.com.

A much more prominent Yellin work, now gracing the front of the Packard Building and its steakhouse tenant at 15th and Chestnut Streets, can be accessed 10-20% of the way down below....

http://www.traditionalproductreports.com/ornamental-metalwork-morethan.html


North Broad just north of Vine Street....

Shortly after leaving City Hall, we will pass near a large and very utilitarian parking garage, but on the site of another massive construction along N. Broad, known as the Broadwood Hotel, where Jews made their mark at times in early big-city basketball, under the name of the "SPHA's", or South Philadelphia Hebrew Association.  My readers may already know that this organization went well beyond a few young guys of one religion in one section of the city, thanks largely to Eddie Gottlieb, who helped others to keep towering in the sport, as here in a May 13, 1959, where he is a "desk" for a contract-signing by one of the great and often needless-to-name landmarks in the field [Footnote 3]....

532 Spruce St., as seen shortly after we start heading south on 6th Street through the Society Hill neighborhood....

For now, I will finish a "G(reat)" trio - coincidentally or subconsciously - with Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869), who is remembered more than almost any Jewish woman (or man perhaps) in this city. At 532 Spruce, we will see the inscription for the Rebecca Gratz Club, a 20th-century refuge for working women and others, a place I think she would have approved of, as she lead pioneering efforts to help women, orphans and others, both Jewish and Gentile.

Her beauty, as seen here and in other images, was legendary....

Footnotes

1. As of Sept. 25, 2016, Romeo Lopaz has helpfully clarified that in three sources he has recently seen - noted just below - the ex-synagogue building used as the Preah Buddha Rangsey annex housed a synagogue known as "Adath Shalom". In the near future, I hope to confirm that that was at a separate time from its housing what I have noted as Beth Shmuel, but now I will just note the first of Romeo's sources, which is from the wonderful website "Hidden City" and has 24 photos related to both the main part of the Temple and the former synagogue....
http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/04/transcendental-renovation/

In another article within the treasure trove of "Hidden City Philadelphia", there is at least a partially correct statement from Sept. 2012 that "Adath Shalom now houses Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple, the city’s largest Buddhist temple". [http://hiddencityphila.org/2012/09/key-sites-of-jewish-south-philly-are-threatened/]

Besides these sources, I should note the synagogue being referred to as Beth Shmuel near the bottom of p. 61 in  the "Philadelphia Area Jewish Genealogical Directory" [at http://www.jgsgp.org/Documents/ResourceGuidev5C.pdf]  while with three different spellings there.

Additionally, I've just been reminded that it appears to have become Adath Shalom in the 1950's as noted near the bottom of p. 50 in this extensive listing, where one reads that it was "Formed in '50's from combination of Young People's Shaare Israel, Young People of Beth Samuel, Young People of Bnai Moishe". [js 10/3/16]








2. St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church image - plate 10 of the Atlas of the 1st and 39th Wards of the City of Philadelphia...,
Philadelphia: Elvino V. Smith C.E. (Civil Engineer, I believe:)), 1931.

3. Wilt Chamberlain and Eddie Gottlieb - picture on p. 192, Philadelphia Jewish Life 1940-2000, edited by Murray Friedman [Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003].



Sources

Yellin, Samuel - biography - https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/23067.

Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church

Not too long ago (specifically on Sunday, March 6), after perhaps 33 years of knowing it was out there, I saw what could be called the "Holy of Holies" of Tulsa Art Deco, the Boston Avenue Methodist Church.

Here, I will add my joy to that of many other non-Tulsans over the years, encouraging your own visit to this 1929 pioneer of a new expression for an old activity.

My comments are limited and in a sense a litmus test of what I found interesting, partly because there is much more material on this edifice.

First, I was moved to see the front of a National Historic Landmark church for the first time, as attendees to an 11am Sunday service, including me, arrived....

and then to sit under its grand ceiling prior to the service....

during which I admired various components in the sanctuary, including the stained glass....

Afterwards, I was very fortunate to take a tour led by Bill Schillinger and his wife Shirley, at the right side just below, who were joined by a guide in training, Dick O'Neil, with all of them being members of the church, Bill for about 45 years or so....

Our tour, one of many over time which have begun shortly after Sunday services, started next to the Archives room of the church, and one of Bill Schillinger's first themes there was how the heartiness of early Methodists in Tulsa and of the later ones who opened the edifice just prior to the Great Depression is depicted through images of two plants in various materials throughout "Boston Avenue....". These are known as the coreopsis and the tritoma, seen here at the left and right side respectively in this photo in the Archives Room....

Repeatedly, we saw beautiful images of these plants in glorious "Deco" forms, including a "Tritoma Grill" (I'd eat there!) in the "Great Hall".....

a floor detail....

 ....seen at the bottom of this next image just before we entered a rear stairhall....

and in a segment with both plants in the sanctuary window seen here earlier....

Just outside of that stairhall and prior to entering the sanctuary, we stepped outside through a south portal on what may have been a typically windy day. Above us, near the top of the elevation pictured here, there were three carvings of circuit-riding Methodist preachers, a big part of the frontier toughness preceding the ecclesiastical elegance inside....

Later, a much smaller portal yielded a story of struggle, in a relative sense, between Boston Avenue preservationists and the Tulsa Fire Department, which at first did not accept a desire to keep this sign and similar ones....

but happily for the original aesthetic intentions here, the Department relented:)....

Before my final exit from the Church, the tour ended in its restful Columbarium, where a wooden seating structure paid homage to another part of the perseverance which started the church, when the early members of Boston Avenue met in a "brush arbor" near the Arkansas River in the 1890's....

Further acknowledgement for this blog - and perhaps all blogs about "Boston Avenue" - goes to the lady widely recognized as its architect, Adah Robinson, seen here:) in the Archives Room....

and, in spirit, seen not so far from the church, in her innovative house at 1119 S. Owasso.....

May we cross your portals again, BAMC....

Further notes

[As with previous blogs, thanks for bearing with the cut-and-paste use of url's if you would be interested in exploring further:)!]

Adah Robinson home - http://www.tulsapeople.com/Tulsa-People/March-2011/Tulsa-rsquos-25-most-notable-Homes/index.php?cp=23&mode=popup&play=1&si=22&view=slideshow#galleryanc, which notes that her home was designed by Bruce Goff, 

--and-- 

http://historictulsa.blogspot.com/2009/08/adah-robinson-residence-1927.html, which says that Goff originally designed the home, but modifications were made shortly thereafter.

Boston Avenue Methodist Church (BAMC) - earliest years - The Church's site, at http://www.bostonavenue.org/welcome/about-us/history, speaks of the earliest congregants in 1894 meeting under a brush arbor, with "pews made of wooden planks stretched over railroad ties", and the shelter of the brush arbor is also noted at a Sept. 18, 2005 article headed "75 or older / Look familiar? Here are 153 Tulsa-area businesses, organizations, schools and churches that are 75 or older", at http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/or-older/article_72c28803-2aa5-5fb1-88f3-af454daccc2b.html.

BAMC - ranking among the largest Methodist congregations in the U.S. - After our tour, Bill Schillinger noted that  (BAMC) and the nearby First Methodist Church are among the ten biggest Methodist churches in the nation, with BAMC likely the 6th-largest in this order and 1st Methodist likely in the no. 7 position. He believed that 1st Methodist Church in Houston was the biggest such church as of early March.

Goff, Bruce (1904-1982)  - http://www.artic.edu/research/bruce-goff-archive and http://www.architechgallery.com/arch_info/artists_pages/bruce_goff.html.

Robinson, Adah (1882-1962)  - At http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=RO008, she is spoken of as "articulat[ing] the intellectual concepts that guided the overall design of Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church...and [being] widely credited with responsibility for the elaborate decoration of the interior".

At http://www.docomomo-us.org/news/designer_57, in a BAMC entry she is noted as a key designer of the church, but listed as the second and last name right after Bruce Goff - arguably the most famous Oklahoma architect of the 20th century - and she is also recalled as an art teacher for Goff when he was in high school.

Shades of Brown, and of Native America, in Tulsa....

In recent weeks I have had a rare and fleeting sense of Native Americans that goes beyond the generic, the quick nod to the landmark event - e.g., the Trail of Tears - and, on a recent visit to Tulsa, Oklahoma - to the honors I have seen of Native America such as its state's license plate, when I have wondered how deep and sincere they are.

With two encounters I was privileged to have in a local coffeehouse - Shades of Brown - seen here in the Brookside neighborhood....

I now see more of how those celebrations can have meaning, partly as, while I have often spoken "Indian" - from the "Cuyahoga" River in my native Northeastern Ohio to a "Wawa" convenience store in my long-time hometown of Philadelphia - I have almost never met an "Indian", at least that I have known as such.

In the fashionable section of Brookside, part of a very red state, I was not exactly thinking outside the Anglo-American mold, or conscious of multiculturalism, at times, while the relative diversity of Shades of Brown, with a crowd that in part was gay as well as straight, black as well as white, etc., helped to pave the way for a mix I do not meet very much - Oklahoma's theme of mixed-blood among at least some of its "White" and "Native American" residents.

On Saturday, March 5, I was working on my laptop near the front door of "Shades..." when I met Margaret Swimmer as she waited for her husband Ross, and started to tell her about my visit being largely to see Tulsa's Art Deco and other sights. While I am often a "buildings" person, meeting people is very much where it's at for me, and I was privileged to meet Ross Swimmer, seen here....

and learn, if more so since our brief talk, that he has not been just another Oklahoma citizen, or one of perhaps many Oklahomans who have lived in both white and native worlds, but was the head of the "BIA" (the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs) from 1985-89, and prior to that, the Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1975-85, centered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, about 60 miles east of Tulsa, where he was succeeded as chief by the memorably-named Wilma Mankiller.

Mr. Swimmer volunteered some basic information on Indian land rights including aspects of the "Indian Allotment" which started in large part as an agreement that Natives would be allowed to own parcels of land in the early 1900's if they did not contest the U.S. takeover of their ancestral lands in general. Over time, he explained that management of these "portionings" (my word) descended into a nightmare, logistically, legally and otherwise, with original lands so extremely subdivided that it was costing much more than it was worth to oversee transfers, etc.

He presented the scenario that "around 1900 say, one Native American might get 160 acres, but over time, 2000 people might inherit the land, so one of the owners might get 5 cents, or a penny [in a land transfer]" - and even that penny might at times represent a rounding-up of the value of an individual's land. Swimmer, a long-time lawyer, noted that "we had to probate estates where the total value was $5000", as an average cost.

I also asked him about what I thought was a remarkable statistic I had read before coming to Tulsa, that 6% of Tulsa County (which includes the city) was Native American, which seemed like a lot to me compared to my guess as to East Coast demographics. He suggested that that total group of residents would not be based on a "blood quantum", i.e., individuals having a high percentage of Cherokee (biology, basically), but on whether or not one has officially been on the "Dawes Rolls" of recognized members of the Cherokee nation as of 1906, when this epochal list, at least for Oklahoma, was closed shortly before statehood. He said that you could be 1/4000 Cherokee at this point and still be on the list.

The next day, at the same table at "Shades", I met another enrolled member of the nation, Fred Kirk....

and was grateful to receive his insights into having an Indian background.

As he became acquainted with other people of Cherokee background when he was a boy, he observed that "[t]hey were darker-skinned and looked Indian", with his being told he was Cherokee but his sensing that as "I looked in the mirror [I] couldn't see that aspect".

Still, as he "grew up, you begin to understand that we mixed a lot over the history, so now, when I go to any Indian-related Cherokee organization or meetings, events and stuff, and you look around them, most of the people look more like me than (stereotypically Indian)".

Fred said he is 1/8 Cherokee and that his grandfather on his father's side, Albert Kirk, was half-Indian.

Showing me his Cherokee identification card, with excerpts seen here....

he noted it is a more "upscale" version of two paper cards which used to identify your tribal enrollment. When he went to Tahlequah to obtain his I.D. card, "they had the Dawes Roll there and he thought 'I gotta see my grandfather's name'". [Footnote 1 if interested in the Cherokee-language heading on the top of the card's front side.]

I am glad that he did find his name, and thankful to both of these Tulsans for their time and sharing, with hopes that I return again to Native America, in reality as well as in learning.

Shades of Brown (near the center of this view), from S. Peoria Avenue & E. 33rd St., Mon., March 7, 2016

Footnote

1. The first line at the top of the front side of Fred Kirk's card means "Cherokee Nation", as per an e-mail from him on March 15 regarding a note he received from what appears to be a Communications Department for the Nation; a staffer in any event informed him that, in reference to the characters at the top, "The syllabary is tsalagi(hi) ahyeli, meaning Cherokee Nation".


Sources consulted

Dawes Rolls - http://www.okhistory.org/research/dawes 
and 
http://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/dawes/dawes-how-to.pdf

Native American land ownership - reform of record-keeping - See https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/migrated/ost/press_room/upload/2007-02-26FederalTimesInterview-RossSwimmer.pdf, including a passage which confirms one of Mr. Swimmer's observations to me that, in reference to an office set up in Lenexa, Kansas that...."[d]ue to a law that divides land rights among descendants of beneficiaries, the office grapples with the proliferation of tiny, nearly worthless land shares that must be tracked despite costing far more to administer than they will ever pay out".

Mr. Swimmer told me that he was a special federal trustee to oversee the "Indian allotment" for eight years starting in 2001.

Native American population - Tulsa County - While I have not retrieved the statistic I saw before my Tulsa trip, here is a more recent one from 2015, also of 6%, towards the upper right at: http://okpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/Tulsa-2015.pdf?997616.


Oklahoma statehood -  https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oklahoma/ 
and
http://www.okterritorialmuseum.org/STATEHOOD.html, with the latter including a picture of a flag presented to the state in 1908 by the City of Philadelphia.



Swimmer, Ross - http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/Chiefs/RossSwimmer.aspx 
and 
http://www.allgov.com/officials/swimmer-ross?officialid=28532 regarding his serving as the Cherokee chief.

In reference to his heading the BIA, see...
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2003/11/10/interview-ross-swimmer-89563
and
https://books.google.com/books?id=lT2AU3ZnK2wC&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&dq=Ross+Swimmer+head+of+BIA&source=bl&ots=P2-lYhKGLD&sig=rB3R_S5qU8XNM46onw1H3XNXkTc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjywuz66rfLAhXB4SYKHSn0DY4Q6AEINzAE#v=onepage&q=Ross%20Swimmer%20head%20of%20BIA&f=false,
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs#Heads_of_the_Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs



Tahlequah, Oklahoma - See http://www.cherokee.org/OurGovernment.aspx, which notes the Cherokee capital as being near Tahlequah.

Tulsa - a new place

[Most of the following was written on Saturday, March 5, in the "first bloom" of my days here in Tulsa....While I am finally eager to post it, I hope to modify it slightly in the next few days....JS, 3/8/16]

I am really lucky to be on my first visit to a place that in a way has been for me like a "world city" - e.g., Paris - would be for many other people. I assume that is partly because I originally come from a "second-tier" metropolitan region so that I am more likely to notice the assets of such an urban area.

For Tulsa, the key asset in terms of the urban and architectural heritage which I often pursue is arguably its Art Deco, and for years I have been hearing that it is a great place, at least in clusters and in particular landmarks, for that genre.

On a broader and deeper note, I was thinking of titling this article in part "New Simplicities and New Complexities", as Tulsa and so much of "fly-over country" is seen as simple, unsophisticated and uninvolved, and indeed, in its auto-dominance to a great extent, in the simplicity of all of the architecture outside of the Art Deco et al:), e.g., the place that people fly into after they have (flown over!)....

waiting area in the lobby of "TUL" (Tulsa Airport, March 4, 2016)

...it is simple as is so much of my native region of Greater Cleveland, as compared with larger chunks of the cities I have become more used to like my long-time home of Philadelphia, like San Francisco (after my visit there recently), and so on.

The complexities are those, to my mind, of any big city, not just an "old one" like Philadelphia, Boston, etc. including Tulsa's world-class elements, its unexpected turns and its cultural subtleties and also what challenges one's own values and comfort zones, and I hope to introduce these elements here, while I may note one of the "subtleties" of regional culture in a second blog.

As to the world-class, it seems that the Gilcrease Museum might be the main example, as it is heralded in many places for its American and Native American heritage in the arts and humanities, and here (at the base of this next picture) in my "Brookside" neighborhood bed-and-breakfast literature....

I hope to see if it is indeed at the top of its cultural game, given in part that I have moved from "Philadelphocentrism" to "Tulcentrism", but I have heard references to its collection, especially its Frederick Remington paintings, for many years now.

In architecture, the holy of holies is the Boston Avenue Methodist Church, one of those rare structures which is in the more protected "preservation" category of "National Historic Landmarks" and what first suggested a visit to Tulsa for me in the early 1980's.

This image of its 258-foot high tower, from my cab ride into town yesterday, is so bad and bleak it is good, as it is guaranteed to not give away the exuberance and glory of this edifice, where I may be attending church tomorrow morning.....

tower of the Boston Ave. Methodist Church (looking west from near 13th and Peoria)

With no unexpected turns on that cab ride, the main one so far - had I not known about it before my trip - would have been that this very inland city seems to have developed a port for not just truck but river traffic as well, in the nearby town of Catoosa, as heralded in an ad at the airport seen when I came in....

Elsewhere, and much closer to where I am sitting in the only bed-and-breakfast in Tulsa City (part of Tulsa County), my prior "Tulsalogy" discovered the expected and sometimes open turns of Tulsa's tunnel system, which I hope to see and share in the next few days, and which was happily shared by a lady I met at the airport, proud of the city she has lived in "on and off" since 1963.

She recounted what I had begun to read, that in the 1920's, with the fears engendered by Prohibition-era violence and the prominence and potential target of vast new wealth in America, Tulsa oil barons - and perhaps most famously Waite Phillips - began to build tunnels under downtown Tulsa office buildings, such as his connection between his "Philtower" and "Philcade" buildings.

She noted that very recent interest in the tunnels, some of which are fairly accessible during the week,  led to 1300 people expressing interest in a tour of them when event planners expected 3-400 responses, and organizers cutting off the list of participants at around 900.

Deeper than the tunnels, and more challenging to a lover of renewables, is how the beauties of this city, of San Antonio (in reference partly to my blog of a visit there over a year ago), and so many places in Oklahoma, Texas and elsewhere) were built by the oil that is still a duke if not the king in this region and many others. That local hero is widely promoted - literally - in a 1966 mural once owned by the Smithsonian near the main entrance to the airport, titled "The Panorama of Petroleum", seen here aside from the glowing light coming from the outside yesterday....

There is no doubt that this mural is different to some extent from the ones that I recently celebrated at San Francisco's Coit Tower - with their clearly honoring the "worker" and this one honoring men who reached the top of the oil industry both here and nationally, while doing so as it portrays them in earlier roles on their way to top positions....

This section, near the lower left side of the 56 by 13 foot mural, is "keyed" just below as with at least three other sections, so that one can see, starting at the left, two of the main geologists for the Pan-American Petroleum Company - Harold Morley and Lewis Mossburg....

Elsewhere in this proud portrayal you have the skyline of Tulsa 50 years ago, in the rear center just below (and in the upper right portion of the giant painting)....

reinforced and modified here in a 1979 view within my B & B bedroom....

...and as seen yesterday in one of my first views of the real thing, which, like so many cities, has - respectfully speaking - seen the less-innovative presences of the international style and urban renewal, but also maintains beauties such as the 320 South Boston Building, originally opened as the offices of the National Bank of Tulsa in the late 1920's and still rising with its beautifully slender tip, which should be obvious below....

For now, I'll just give a brief taste of a few other sites from my first 24 hours or so here....

For starters - and enders right now....

I have begun to hang out in the Brookside neighborhood, a small part of whose attractive Peoria Avenue core is below, in what appears to be a former movie theater....

and businesses including the eatery "Brookside by Day" at the left just below, where I came into a happily crowded gathering of families, couples and others this morning for breakfast, just inside this view of its patio to the left side in this stretch....

I also give thanks for what will hopefully be a non-daily ride, as opposed to daily bread, and the vehicle that got me to Brookside from the airport in this sometimes public bus-challenged city....

AND its driver, the interesting but (hidden:)) Eni. This man was a Nigerian native (of the Ibo tribe), who, learning of my interest in a "heritage pilgrimage" here, spoke of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church as designed by "Floyd Wright" (a wrong name for a "Wright" architect who I had not known of as the designer of "Boston Avenue...") but with Frank Lloyd Wright being a visitor to this region for sure, and designer of at least one existing structure in this city. 

Eni also responded that he has been in Tulsa for 25 years, if I understood correctly, and 10 years in Washington before that.  He commented that "Tulsa is 100 times better than DC" and when I asked why he felt that way, he said it is a "fair city", further explaining that that was the case because "it is an easy city to be in without too much hassle" and capping that "fair city" label with the statement that Shakespeare uses the term, perhaps in "Othello", to mean the same basic thing.

...........

Writing this last segment in my fourth full day in Tulsa, I can say that my main accommodation so far, noted above, and now fondly remembered as I have moved to a new place, was itself easy to be in. It is known as the "Mackintosh Inn" and is in part a loving memorial to the one-time pet, now in heaven I assume, of the B & B's owners, Ken and Judy Bailey (with my hoping to add a photo of them here shortly).

Their late dog was a Scottish terrier, with members of his "clan" pictured here on the east wall of my room at the "Inn", along with that Deco-famous Boston Avenue Methodist tower near the upper left....

Had Ken and Judy's late pet been just a matter of canine affection, I would not be quite as into this matter, but "C.R. Mackintosh Buster Bailey" (his official name) was an homage to what happens to be a mutual interest of Judy and me - the great Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), famous somewhat like Frank Lloyd Wright for his designs not just of buildings but of elements within them. I am more into the urban history angle on Mackintosh's city of Glasgow, and Judy is passionate about Mackintosh partly because she has been a long-time designer of jackets, greeting cards etc.

I am glad that the three of us had at least brief discussions, once in their beautiful outdoor seating spot, seen closer to the lower right here....

...and I hope to lift another wine glass with them someday...

I'll end with two sites which are likely to mark the beginning AND end of Tulsa iconography during my trip - a collage at the airport saturated with the popular culture of Tulsa, including places along its share of the great automotive way of "Route 66"....

and a 1912 "pusher plane" once owned by Tulsa-area flight pioneer Billy Parker, who may have had the 44th license to fly in the U.S. - with an undated article I received at "TUL" at least noting that he had "license 44"....

Sources

This is meant to be the briefest introduction to a few sources I have consulted here.....


Boston Avenue Methodist Church - http://tulsapreservationcommission.org/buildings/boston-avenue-methodist-church/ and an article on National Historic Landmarks in Oklahoma, at http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=NA010.

"Fair city" as a Shakespeare reference - A quick google here did not reveal if indeed this phrase is used in "Othello" but led to an interesting reference to Venice as a "fair city" according to Shakespeare scholars, regarding a study titled "Cosmopolitanism and the Literary Imagination" at https://books.google.com/books?id=4zkTBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT36&lpg=PT36&dq=fair+city+Shakespeare+Othello&source=bl&ots=QCDtbRMPCD&sig=HNqwRFJq8k2G9RiQ9k86PD62EIQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEiPnP06rLAhVnroMKHVbYAFQQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&q=fair%20city%20Shakespeare%20Othello&f=false.

Mackintosh, Charles Rennie (1868-1928) - http://www.scotcities.com/mackintosh/ and http://www.dwr.com/category/designers/m-p/charles-rennie-mackintosh.do.

"Pusher planes" - Beyond my pay (and time) grade, but the article here at least suggests that this label refers to planes whose engines are so mounted and operational that they push the plane forward even though "Jet engines are by their very nature push-engines" as per http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/3306/why-are-push-propellers-so-rare-yet-they-are-still-around].

320 South Boston Building - http://www.emporis.com/buildings/122915/320-south-boston-building-tulsa-ok-usa and http://skyscrapercenter.com/building/320-south-boston-building/12668. My brief look-up here has suggested the completion of the tower in either 1928 or 1929.

Tulsa downtown tunnels - http://livingarts.org/short-history-underground-tulsa-tunnel-system-written-urbane-chaos.

Waite Phillips - http://www.tulsapeople.com/Tulsa-People/November-2013/The-legacy-of-Waite-Phillips/

I plan to visit Phillips' one-time mansion, which has had a long-time role as a Tulsa art museum. [See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Philbrook.jpg for that glory! - or google "Philbrook Museum".]