The Active Historian

Hey, Friend! Welcome back to another post. Today, I want to show you a set of three columns from the historic Lee-Huckins Hotel. I stumbled across the columns at the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds in Oklahoma City, saw the plaque, and knew I wanted to know more. I did some more digging and was shocked at the stories these columns could tell. Let’s get started!

Each of these columns weigh approximately four tons and are about sixteen feet tall. The columns were stored at the Will Rogers Work Airport maintenance yard after the hotel was demolished for urban renewal in the early-1970s. From there, the columns supposedly moved to the Oklahoma County Historical Society’s Museum of the Unassigned Lands according to a newspaper article that I read. Today, the columns are laying on the grass near a sidewalk at the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds in Oklahoma City.

Historic Marker Transcription

“The Lee-Huckins Hotel, located at Main and Broadway in Downtown Oklahoma City was the site of First Capitol Building in Oklahoma City following the June 11, 1910 election to move the Capitol from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. Charles Gasham “Gristmill” Jones was instrumental in securing statehood for Oklahoma and establishing Oklahoma City as its Capitol. During his time in the Territorial and State Legislatures, Jones was persistent in the successful campaign to move the Capitol to Oklahoma City. Original arrangements called for Capitol to not be moved until 1913, but Governor Charles Haskell (a close friend of Jones) decided the seal should be moved immediately to the Lee-Huckins Hotel in Oklahoma City. The State Seal was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City after the polls closed on Election Day, effectively making the move to Oklahoma City effective immediately. The citizens of Guthrie appealed to the courts and state question #40 was put to a vote on November 5, 1912 to move the Capitol back to Guthrie.

The question failed and Oklahoma City continued to grow. Three of the four columns from the Lee-Huckins Hotel and original sign are now part of the display. The building was destroyed in 1971.”

Oklahoma City-County Historical Society

*End of transcription.

Continued History of the Lee-Huckins Hotel

The five-story Lee Hotel was built in 1900 by Oscar Lee according to the The Daily Oklahoman. Joseph Huckins and his brother, Marquand purchased the Lee Hotel in 1905-6 for $130,000. It became known as the Lee-Huckins Hotel in subsequent years.

The hotel was important during the 1907 Oklahoma State Constitutional Convention. Additionally, the hotel was the location of several businesses and company headquarters.

Huckins decided to add a seven-story annex with a basement to the Lee-Huckins Hotel in early-1908. The addition was valued at $150,000! You can see a photograph of the annex below.

In August 1908, the Lee-Huckins Hotel burned in a large fire in Oklahoma City. Miraculously all of the hotel guests and workers made it out of the fire alive. The annex was also saved from the fire. The hotel losses were estimated at $125,000 with $75,000 being covered by their insurance. The insurance coverage broke down to be $50,000 for the building and $25,000 for the furniture inside.

Huckins immediately began plans for a new and improved hotel in Oklahoma City. He stated:

“The Times can say today that it is a certainty that I will rebuild the ruined Lee-Huckins hotel. I will have plans drawn at once for the erection of a modern, ten-story, fire-proof steel building with every modern equipment, to cost in the neighborhood of $500,000; and that work on the new building will be well under way within sixty days and will be rushed to completion.”

Joseph Huckins, Jr.

“Ten Story Fire Proof Building To Replace Lee-Huckins Hotel.” The Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), August 17, 1908.

About a month after the devastating fire, The Daily Oklahoman released the following proposed plan of the new Lee-Huckins Hotel on September 17, 1908. The plan was estimated to cost $400,000 which was just under Huckins $500,000 estimate. The new Lee-Huckins Hotel was to be 110×140 feet with a re-inforced concrete frame to help prevent future issues with fires.

The Selden-Breck Construction company was hired for the rebuild. The superintendent of construction, A.W. Cornish, employed an estimated 200 men for the completion of this project. The company received their construction permit from Oklahoma City on March 26, 1909.

Initially, the new Lee-Huckins Hotel was going to house offices and hotel rooms for guests, but somewhere along the way the plan was changed. The Daily Oklahoman published an updated plan on April 22, 1909 shown below.

The Lee-Huckins Hotel re-opened to the public seventeen months later in December.

In 1910, the Lee-Huckins Hotel was the State Capitol for about 30 days as noted in the historic marker transcription above!

In 1961, the hotel was sold.

In 1964, the hotel was sold again to the Huckins Corp comprised of four businessmen: William J. “Billy Joe” Stafford, Victor Wickersham, Tom Bennett, and Homer R. Wharton. Things got complicated between the men and Wharton plead guilty to killing Stafford in the hotel hallway. There were some financial problems with the hotel that became apparent after this.

In 1967, the hotel closed its doors.

The building was demolished in July 1917 as a part of the urban renewal project in OKC.

Concluding Thoughts

I loved researching the history of this building that once stood in Oklahoma City. The columns that caught my eye at the Oklahoma State Fair have one amazing story to tell and I wish more people knew it.

I hope the next time you see something that catches your eye that you’ll pause, do a little digging, and learn something new!

Happy Traveling, Friend! I’ll talk to ya soon 🙂

Visit

To see the columns in these photos at the top of the post visit the State Fair Park in OKC. The address is below! 

3001 General Pershing Blvd. 

Oklahoma City, OK 73107

Sources

Historic Marker.

Primary Sources

Photographs

Clarke, H. H. Lee Huckins Hotel, postcard, Date Unknown; https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1596418/m1/1/, The Gateway to Oklahoma History, Oklahoma Historical Society.

Elite Hotel and Lee-Huckins Hotel in Oklahoma City, photograph, 1910~;https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc961008/m1/1/, The Gateway to Oklahoma History, Oklahoma Historical Society.

Newspapers

“Moving Day.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), August 23, 1907.

“Fire Destroys Lee Hotel.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), August 16, 1908.

“Ten Story Fire Proof Building To Replace Lee-Huckins Hotel.” The Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), August 17, 1908.

“Hotel Destroyed.” The Blackwell Sun (Blackwell, Oklahoma), August 20, 1908.

“Plans Nearly Completed For New $400,000 Hotel Building.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), September 17, 1908.

“The Selden-Breck Constrcuttion [Sic] Co.,” Oklahoma Labor Unit (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), March 13, 1909.

“Near Million Record For Permits Today.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), March 26, 1909.

“The Lee-Huckins Hotel, Now In Course Of Construction.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), April 22, 1909.

“Anniversary Lee-Huckins Hotel Conflagration.” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), August 15, 1909.

“Wickersham Asks the Governor to Tell Him.” The Oklahoma State Capitol (Guthrie, Oklahoma), June 14, 1910.

Denise Padilla. “Huckins’ Columns to Stand Tall.” The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), May 12, 1989.

*All newspaper clippings in this blog post were pulled from newspapers.com. All digitized primary sources were found on ancestry.com unless stated otherwise. I am not affiliated with either website. I just wanted to let you know where I found my digitized sources.