Johnstone-Sare Building

Built in 1909 by influential Bartlesville resident William Johnstone, the Johnstone-Sare building remains a cornerstone of downtown Bartlesville. The building replaced the former Right Way Hotel, which also played a crucial role in Bartlesville’s early development by offering a place for visitors to stay and conduct business during the early years of the city's development and connection to the oil business. For almost a century, the Johnstone-Sare also housed one of Oklahoma’s oldest continuous family businesses, May Brothers Clothing, which was started by Russian immigrants who became a prominent local family in Bartlesville. Today, the building is a hub of the city's nightlife, even after two destructive fires engulfed the building in 2009.

Before the Johnstone-Sare building, the corner of Frank Phillips Boulevard and Johnstone Avenue was occupied by the Right Way Hotel. The hotel was unveiled in 1899 under the moniker the National Hotel and was renamed as the Right Way a year later. William Johnstone and Ola Wilhite built the structure, which is believed to have been the first hotel built in Bartlesville. After oil was found in the area, the railroad followed, and accommodations were needed for weary travelers. The hotel offered seventy rooms after an annex was added in 1904, and featured a two-table pool hall and a barber shop. The hotel played a major role in Bartlesville’s burgeoning oil business, hosting future tycoons like Frank Phillips, Harry Sinclair, H.V. Foster, and George Getty and oilfield workers looking for a place to eat a meal or play a game of pool. The hotel was moved to the northeast corner of Hensley Boulevard and Osage Avenue in 1909, where it served as a boarding house and apartment building for decades before being razed in 2008.

There was now a hole in one of downtown Bartlesville’s most prominent corners following the hotel’s relocation. William Johnstone again filled this space, completing the construction of the Johnstone Building in 1910. The new structure was brick and steel reinforced. It featured a flat roof on top of its three stories, a rounded southeast corner, and limestone aesthetics that hinted to its Chicago-Style architecture. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, various speculators and oil companies had offices in the building’s second and third stories. Like the hotel that was previously in its place, the Johnstone Building played a key part in the region’s oil boom.

The Johnstone Building’s first floor played host to a Bartlesville mainstay for almost a century. Shortly after the building’s completion, Model Clothiers opened their doors to Bartlesville shoppers. The store was the second of its kind, with the first Model location being opened in Tulsa in 1908. The company was operated by the Madansky’s, a family of Russian Jews who came to America from Imperial Russia in 1889. The Madansky’s, who changed their name from Madanic, moved to Oklahoma from Illinois to take advantage of the economic boom that followed the discovery of oil. In 1921, the family changed their name again to May during the Red Scare that followed World War I.

With the family’s change, the business transitioned too, switching its name to May Brothers Clothing in the same year. May Brothers would go on to occupy the first floor of the Johnstone Building until 2009, earning recognition as the state’s oldest clothing store still in its original location and operated by the same family until its closing. The store’s longevity served as an example of an immigrant family finding business success and accomplishing the American dream.

Disaster struck in 2009, as two fires took over the Johnstone Building in less than three months. However, the corner establishment was not to be condemned. The steel frame and limestone supports added during the original 1910 construction preserved the structural integrity of the building during the fire, allowing the building to be restored by Bartlesville politician and businessman Clyde Sare. After removing 7,000 tons of debris, the building was completely restored and is known today as the Johnstone-Sare Building. THe structure houses shopping and restaurant space, as well as an event venue on its top floor.

"Bartlesville Downtown Historic District" National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service).

Neece, Debbie. Return to Glory Days: A Look at the History of the Johnstone-Sare Landmark. b Monthly. July 1st 2020. 60 - 63.

Wilson, Linda D.. May Brothers Department Stores, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed May 1st 2022. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=MA042.