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

On the southwest corner of W. Main and N. Walker in the downtown area, this decorative six-story Art Deco building retains some of the glory of the early days of Oklahoma City, much of which was demolished during the Urban Renewal projects of the 1980s. This building was constructed in 1929. It is the last surviving Art Deco commercial building in the area.

The Montgomery Ward company was established in 1872. Their mail order business met the needs of rural America, who had no access to retail shopping. By the 1920s, people were more mobile and the trend was toward downtown retail shopping. Montgomery Ward built ten large "department" stores, one of which is this building in Oklahoma City. They occupied the building until 1966 when a new trend toward suburban shopping developed and they moved their operations to the suburbs.

This building has large display windows on the first floor on the north and east sides. The storefronts and windows, however, are not original. The display windows are separated by pilasters and ringed with pink-tinted cast stone. Above the windows are cast iron spandrels with sunrise and floral designs. These designs are also cast into the blond and pink stone pilasters on the third to sixth floors and above the canted entries on the northwest and northeast corners of the buildings. These symmetrical and vertical designs add to the vertical lines of the building.

Eight ornate white and green stone parapets rise above the roof line, one at each corner, and four others on the sides. A large, vertical metal sign is mounted to the northeast corner of the building, from the third to sixth floors. It reads "MONTGOMERY."

From 1969 to the 1980s, the building was used by Evan's Home Furnishings as a warehouse and much of the interior of the building was allowed to deteriorate. Today, the first floor is used as offices, including Express Employment and a restaurant. The upper floors have been remodeled into condominium units. In 2005, the State Historic Preservation Office petitioned the National Register to remove this property as they felt the renovations to the building had been so extreme as to negate the historic integrity of the building. However, to date, it is still listed on the Register.
[Details of the building and its history were found in the 1980 Registry nomination.]

Street address: 500 W. Main Street Oklahoma City, OK US 73102 County / Borough / Parish: Oklahoma County Year listed: 1980 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic 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

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   04/09/2016 wildernessmama visited it