The Manhattan Building, also known as the Phoenix Building or the Phoenix-Manhattan Building, is a historic skyscraper in

Muskogee, Oklahoma Muskogee () is the thirteenth-largest city in Oklahoma and the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0 percent decrease ...

. The building has eight stories, containing of floor space, and was initially intended as the home of the

Manhattan Construction Company The Manhattan Construction Company is an American-owned construction company founded by Laurence H. Rooney in Chandler in Oklahoma Territory in 1896. Today, the firm operates under its parent company, Manhattan Construction Group with affiliate ...

, reportedly Oklahoma's first incorporated business.Davis, Kirlee. "These Walls: Manhattan Building in Muskogee, Oklahoma." ''Journal Record''. Undated.
Accessed September 22, 2019. It was built in 1911 with a

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

frame and gray

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

cladding. These walls were lined with windows to provide light and ventilation, the latter were essential to cope with torrid Oklahoma summers in an era when hardly any large buildings had air conditioning. It was built in

Sullivanesque Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

architectural style, with two-story columns flanking the entrance and a second floor

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

with

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Reviv ...

s. The entry opened into a two-story lobby whose walls were covered with tile. A rooftop penthouse was added in 1957. The Manhattan Building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

for architectural significance in 1983. By 1911, Manhattan Construction was already 15 years old, and had completed several notable buildings in Oklahoma, including: * Guthrie Convention Hall; * Oklahoma City's First National Bank Tower; * Oral Roberts University (Tulsa) Prayer Tower. It is one of five skyscraper buildings, ranging from five to ten stories tall, built in 1910–1912 and included in the Pre-Depression Muskogee Skyscrapers Thematic Resources study. The others are: * Railroad Exchange Building * Severs Hotel * Surety Building * Baltimore Hotel

Design features

The building was designed by Charles H. Sudhaelter and Co. whose work echoed the style of famous architect, Louis Henri Sullivan. Manhattan Construction Company founder, Laurence H. Rooney, instead of making the building his own company's headquarters, decided to sell it to a popular retailer, Phoenix Clothing Company. He not only enlarged the first floor, but also topped the structure with a rotating electric sign that reached three stories above the roof.

Notes

References

Manhattan Building, Oklahoma Historical Society Listing

External links

{{NRHP in Muskogee County, Oklahoma Skyscrapers in Oklahoma Skyscrapers in Muskogee, Oklahoma Buildings and structures completed in 1911 1911 establishments in Oklahoma

Design features

Notes

See also

References

External links