The Philtower Building is a historic building located at 427 South Boston Avenue in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Description and history

Completed in 1928, it was designed by Edward Buehler Delk and financed by renowned oilman and dedicated philanthropist

Waite Phillips Waite Phillips (January 19, 1883 – January 27, 1964) was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also develo ...

(1883–1964)."Philtower website: History"Retrieved June 20, 2011. Associated architects

Keene & Simpson Keene & Simpson was an American architectural firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, and in practice from 1909 until 1980. The named partners were architects Arthur Samuel Keene FAIA (1875–1966) and Leslie Butler Simpson AIA (1885–1961). I ...

performed architectural supervision in the construction of the building.Keene
In 1941, Phillips deeded the Philtower Building to the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

(BSA), along with most of his Philmont Ranch and

Villa Philmonte The Villa Philmonte is a large ranch home located outside of Cimarron, New Mexico, on Philmont Scout Ranch, owned by the Boy Scouts of America. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 as part of Villa Philmonte Historic ...

. The income from the building was used to help support Philmont. In 1977, the BSA sold the Building to a group of local investors. This group, The Philtower LLC, is the current owner. It is an example of neo-gothic and

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

architecture. According to the Tulsa Preservation Commission, the building represents the

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. A notable feature is the illuminated, sloping tiled roof. The office on the 21st floor that was used by Waite Phillips has been preserved.Tulsa Preservation Commission Website: "Philtower Building"
/ref>
/ref> Originally built as a high-rise office building, floors 12–20 were converted to loft apartments in 2004, making the Philtower Tulsa's first mixed use high-rise. The building has 24 floors and is 323 feet tall. It was listed on 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 ...

in 1979. It was included in the Oil Capital Historic District on December 13, 2010.National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Oil Capital Historic District.
Retrieved June 19, 2014.

References

External links

Philtower Official SitePhiltower at Skyscraper Page

First person interview conducted on May 5, 2009, with Elliot "Chope" and Virginia Phillips, son and daughter-in-law of Waite Phillips. Original audio and transcript archived wit

{{s-end Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Art Deco architecture in Oklahoma Office buildings completed in 1928 Residential skyscrapers in Tulsa, Oklahoma Historic district contributing properties in Oklahoma 1928 establishments in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Description and history

See also

References

External links