Tulsa's Lortondale Community

My mom's family is all from Tulsa, Oklahoma. My aunt recently sent her a "Tulsa A to Z" video, which featured the Lortondale development, located just blocks over from my grandmother Ruby's house. I had never heard of this, but watched the video practially drooling over these incredible mid-century houses.

What follows is a very brief history, but you can find much more information here. And there are some wonderful photos on the "Modern Tulsa" blog here.

With the popularity of "modern" architecture growing in the early 1950s, prolific Tulsa homebuilder Howard C. Grubb teamed up with architect Donald H. Honn to design cutting-edge, mid-priced modern houses that offered more amenities than were typically found in that price point. In 1954, after gauging the public opinion of four prototype homes built the year before, they began construction of the Lortondale housing addition at the corner of 26th and Yale Avenue in Tulsa.

[Don't you just love a design visionary?]

The original plans called for 540 homes, though only 220 were built due to a variety of issues (see article). Each home featured: central air (a true luxury at the time) and heat; low-pitched or flat roofs; open floor plans; floor-to-ceiling glass windows looking out on the backyard; mahogany paneled walls; and Formica laminate countertops...to name just some of the characteristics of these gorgeous homes.

In the video I saw that lots of young families were embracing this mid-century design [I think we can all relate!]. Some doing renovations that modernized the house, while still paying tribute to its retro roots.

If you're in the market, look at these photos of a Lortondale house currently for sale, listed at an incredibly reasonable $146,500.

I will definitely be checking out this neighborhood whenever I find myself in Tulsa again!