Bricktown is an entertainment district just east of downtown

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, United States. It was formerly a major

warehouse district This is a list of notable warehouse districts. A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indus ...

.Bricktown Entertainment DistrictTravelok.com
(accessed June 10, 2010). The major attractions of the district are the

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark opened in 1998 in downtown Oklahoma City's Bricktown Entertainment District, replacing All Sports Stadium. It is the home of the Oklahoma City Comets, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League B ...

, the navigable

Bricktown Canal The Bricktown Canal is a canal in Bricktown, Oklahoma City, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The waterway opened in 1999 and has become a popular tourist destination featuring many attractions. Downtown OKC Partnership and the Bricktown Association ...

, and the 16-screen

Harkins Harkins is an Irish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Brett Harkins (born 1970), ice hockey player * Gary Harkins (born 1985), Scottish footballer * George W. Harkins (1810–1890), Native American leader, a chief of the Choctaw ...

movie theatre.

Boundaries and management

Bricktown Entertainment District includes some 50 square city blocks bounded between the

Oklahoma River The North Canadian River is a river, long, in Oklahoma in the United States. It is a tributary of the Canadian River, draining an area of U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset/Watershed Boundary Dataset, area data covering North ...

on the south, I-235 on the east, Deep Deuce District to the North, and the Oklahoma City Central Business District to the West. The general boundary of the Bricktown Core Development District (also known as Upper Bricktown) is as follows: An area bordered generally by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

; Reno Avenue; Centennial Expressway; and the railroad right-of-way between Main and NE 1st. The district is administered by the Bricktown Urban Design Committee which was established by the City of Oklahoma City to oversee modifications to the buildings and new construction within the district. Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. (an arm of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce) is charged with maintenance and operations of the district and oversees promotion alongside the Oklahoma City Tourism and Visitors Bureau. All entities are united with the ultimate goal of preserving Bricktown's historic 'warehouse district' flavor while allowing modern entertainment, commercial, retail, and residential development to flourish.

History

Four railroad companies had freight operations east of the Santa Fe tracks in what is now Bricktown in the late 19th and early 20th century.Blackburn, Bob,
History of Bricktown
,
Bricktownokc.com
(accessed June 10, 2010). The first brick structures, which were typically only one or two stories, appeared between 1898 and 1903. Larger brick buildings were constructed between 1903 and 1911, and the tallest brick buildings were built between 1911 and 1930. Working-class houses were built nearby. Oklahoma City's first black newspaper, the ''Black Dispatch'', was located in Bricktown at 228 E. First; it reported on the struggle to end racially segregated housing in the city. Also in that area was the first local chapter of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

(NAACP), founded in the early 20th century to work for the civil rights of African Americans. The decline of the area began with the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, which diminished businesses in the area. The growth of eastern suburbs and subsidized highways during and after World War II attracted many residents to newer housing. Railroads restructured and freight traffic moved to trucks and highways. By 1980, Bricktown had become a cluster of abandoned buildings. In the 1990s, mayor Ron Norick persuaded Oklahoma City residents to approve a series of tax incentives to lure new businesses, but these were not sufficient. A visit to

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, which had recently beat the city in a competition for a new airline maintenance plant, led him to believe that Oklahoma City needed a vibrant downtown. It lacked the range of activities and amenities to attract more residents and visitors. Along with Greater Oklahoma City Chamber President Ray Ackerman, Norick and their staffs developed the Metropolitan Area Projects or

MAPS A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

, which approval led to the construction of the Bricktown ballpark and a tree-lined, mile-long canal through the district, as well as other projects in downtown. The ballpark opened in 1998 and the canal opened in July 1999.

Water taxi A water taxi or a water bus is a boat used to provide public transport, public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an Urban area, urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a simil ...

s provide interactive guided tours featuring Oklahoma City history, Bricktown businesses, and local art along the canal. In 2024, a $1.6 billion development was proposed that included plans to construct the tallest skyscraper in the United States.

Arts and culture

The district contains a number of public sculptures and murals, including a monument to the Oklahoma

Land Run A land run or land rush was an event in which previously restricted land of the United States was opened to homestead on a first-arrival basis. Lands were opened and sold first-come or by bid, or won by lottery, or by means other than a run. The ...

. The

Centennial Land Run Monument The Centennial Land Run Monument is an art installation by Paul Moore, located in the Oklahoma City Bricktown District, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It commemorates the Land Run of 1889 in the Unassigned Lands. Sculpture The sculpture was ere ...

, a large bronze sculpture by artist Paul Moore, is at the south end of Bricktown Canal. It commemorates the

Land Run of 1889 The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands of the former western portion of the federal Indian Territory, which had decades earlier since the 1830s been assigned to the Creek and Seminole native peoples. The ...

, which marked the opening of the

Unassigned Lands The Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek (Muskogee) and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled. By 1883, it was bounded by the Cher ...

area to settlement. This area is now a city park, open 24 hours a day, year round, and there is no admission fee. An annual Bricktown Art Festival is held in mid-July.

Transportation

The

Oklahoma City Streetcar The Oklahoma City Streetcar (OKC Streetcar), also known as the MAPS 3 streetcar, is a streetcar system in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, that opened in 2018 and is operated by Embark_(transit_authority), Embark. The system serves the ...

loops around Bricktown and connects the neighborhood to downtown. It opened in December 2018.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Heartland Flyer The ''Heartland Flyer'' is a daily passenger train that follows a route between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Fort Worth, Texas. It is operated by Amtrak and jointly funded by the states of Oklahoma and Texas. The train's daily round-trip begin ...

'' service to

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

departs every morning from the old Santa Fe Depot, located by the west entrance to Bricktown, and returns in the evenings.

References

External links

*
Case, J. I., Plow Works BuildingAvery Building
First person interview conducted with Ray Ackerman on September 30, 2009. Original audio and transcript archived wit
Bricktown Urban Design Committee
{{Oklahoma City Busking venues Districts of Downtown Oklahoma City Economy of Oklahoma City Entertainment districts in the United States Historic districts in Oklahoma Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States Tourist attractions in Oklahoma City Warehouse districts of the United States