Thorpe, Jim, House - Yale, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 36° 06.909 W 096° 41.439
14S E 707850 N 3999190
This home was owned and occupied by Jim Thorpe from 1917 to 1923.
Waymark Code: WMZT1D
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2018
Views: 2
The Jim Thorpe Home is currently a museum. A wood sign shows it is open Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00 and Sunday 1:00-5:00; however, a whiteboard next to the front door showed Wed-Sat: 8:00-12:00. Their phone number is 918-387-2815.
This is a small home very typical of its day. It is a one-story, frame 5-room home with clapboard painted gray. The roof is gabled, and a covered front porch leads to a wood-door entrance flanked by double hung windows. A wood outhouse is also located on this property. The house was placed on the National Register in 1971. The Thorpes bought the home in 1917 for $2,800 and lived into it until they sold it in 1923. It was obtained by the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1968 and was refurbished and made into a museum.
Jim Thorpe (5/28/1888 - 3/28/1953) was of mixed Native American and white ancestry. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and named Wa-Tho-Huk, roughly translated as "Bright Path". Untrained, he was a natural athlete and the first Olympic competitor to win both the pentathlon and decathlon. He later went on to play professional baseball, football and basketball.