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This eight-story building was built in 1923 as the clubhouse for the Oklahoma Club, a men's social club modeled on the gentlemen's clubs of the Victorian era. Lower floors were dining and club rooms and the upper four floors were dormitory rooms for the city's elite, like club president John W. Shartel. The Chamber of Commerce officed in the basement for a years as well.


Tivoli Inn, c1967

Cloud, Sky, Building, Daytime

Tivoli Inn, 1967

Cloud, Sky, Building, Font

This eight-story building was built in 1923 as the clubhouse for the Oklahoma Club, a men's social club modeled on the gentlemen's clubs of the Victorian era. Lower floors were dining and club rooms and the upper four floors were dormitory rooms for the city's elite, like club president John W. Shartel. The Chamber of Commerce officed in the basement for a years as well.

Despite it's role as the "city house" for elites, the club was never really financially solvent and by 1960 was so far in the red, the clubhouse was foreclosed on. Although the Pei Plan was still some years off, investors anticipated renewal and purchased the clubhouse with plans to convert it into luxury apartments for the new Downtown.

The building sat on the northeast corner of the planned gardens superblock which early plans modeled on Denmark's Tivoli Gardens. And when the apartment plans never materialized, the club was converted to hotel space and renamed Tivoli Inn. Like the Biltmore one block west, the Tivoli was safe from the wrecking ball in some early Myriad Gardens plans and clung tenaciously to it's patch of ground throughout the 1970s. It finally fell in August, 1979, the last building over two stories to be demolished in the urban renewal era.

Devane, David. "Blasts Level Tivoli." Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) August 6th, 1979. .1.

"Oklahoma Club Bought for Remodeling Into 80-Unit Luxury Apartments." Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) April 21st, 1961. .28.

"The Oklahoma Club Completed." Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) April 15th, 1923. , B sec.5.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Metropolitan Library System Special Collections

Metropolitan Library System Special Collections