The Railway Exchange Building 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 ...
is one of five skyscraper buildings, ranging from five to ten stories tall, built before 1912 and is listed in 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 ...
as part of the Pre-Depression Muskogee Skyscrapers Thematic Resources study.
The others are:
*
Baltimore Hotel,
*
Manhattan Building,
*
Severs Hotel, and
*
Surety Building.
This building is located at the corner of Second and Court Streets in downtown Muskogee.
Architecture
This building shares certain characteristics with the others listed above. Its architecture represents the
Chicago School of architectural design:
* It has a rectangular shape;
* It is flat roofed;
* It has a two-story base with large display windows;
* Upper story windows are arranged in vertical bands, separated by pilaster-styled mullions;
* Red brick and masonry appear throughout the building.
Notable tenants
The 8-story Railway Exchange Building was built to house railway company offices. Later, it was used for offices of
Muskogee County, Oklahoma
Muskogee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 70,990. The county seat is Muskogee. The county and city were named for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.[Connors State College
Connors State College is a public community college in Warner and Muskogee, Oklahoma.
History
The college was founded as an agricultural high school in 1908 and was quickly converted to a school of agriculture.
When Oklahoma became a state i ...]
before the school moved to
Northeastern State University
Northeastern State University (NSU) is a public university with its main campus in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The university also has two other campuses in Muskogee and Broken Arrow as well as online. Northeastern is the oldest institution of high ...
’s Muskogee campus on Shawnee Bypass. A news article in 2012 indicated that the building had been vacated in December 2011.
[Spaulding, Cathy. "9 historic buildings to be subjects of tour." ''Muskogee Phoenix''. May 4, 2012.](_blank)
Accessed February 8, 2017.
Status
Plans to renovate this historic building for another purpose have been put on indefinite hold in 2016, because the state has discontinued making such grants for such renovations due to its budget shortfall.
References
External links
{{NRHP in Muskogee County, Oklahoma
Skyscrapers in Muskogee, Oklahoma
Skyscraper office buildings in Oklahoma
Chicago school architecture in Oklahoma