Cotton-Exchange Building - Oklahoma City, OK - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Cotton-Exchange Building is a ten-story red brick and limestone building at the corner of Robert S. Kerr and N. Harvey in downtown Oklahoma City. Designed by respected architects, Hawk & Parr, it was built in 1923. Cotton had been a major cash crop in Oklahoma since the 1850s and by 1920, Oklahoma farmers harvested 1.3 million bales per year from 5 million acres of land. The market was the third largest in the country. Twenty-three cotton companies had representative in Oklahoma City to purchase cotton and they were scattered throughout the city. The Cotton-Exchange Building was built to centralize the cotton market - to house all the companies and also provide telegraph services to facilitate communication.

This is a beautiful building. Separate bays are defined on the exterior walls, with brick pilasters and groupings of three and sometimes four single windows. At the corners, limestone surrounds the windows, with limestone columns from the first to tenth floors. The tenth floor windows are also surrounded by limestone. On the ground floor are large square openings which contain entries and display windows for the eight retail occupancies.

In 1930, the price of cotton dropped and the market nosedived. The building was sold and became offices for non-cotton related businesses. Again, in 1945, the building was sold to a large lumber company and became known as the Leonhardt Building. Today, the building has been named the Court Plaza. Its offices on the upper floors house a variety of companies, with many being attorneys. Among the occupancies on the ground floor are Subway sandwich shop and the Harvey Grill restaurant.

Street address: 224-232 Robert S. Kerr 212-224 N. Harvey Oklahoma City, OK US 73102 County / Borough / Parish: Oklahoma County Year listed: 1980 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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