4TH AND BOSTON

 By William M. O'Brien, CHS '49 

Written and compiled for the Class of 1949's 50th Reunion 

The history of Tulsa Central High School is also the history of the city of Tulsa. The successful development of both clearly demonstrates the dedication and foresight of those who built the civic foundation that evolved into the metropolitan expanse now dominated by the beautiful city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Those who first recognized the potential of the geographic area were citizens of the Domestic Independent Creek Nation who had been forced at the point of the bayonet, by the United States Government in 1836, from their pastoral life style on their ancestral lands in Alabama. They arrived in the area in 1837. Between their arrival and the beginning of the Civil War, they transformed the land into productive farms and grazing lands for cattle, horses and hogs. The commodities they produced served the great American western migration in what's called the period of Manifest Destiny, 1840 to 1860. It was a time of prosperity and peace for those living in their community called Tulsey Town along the banks of the Arkansas River.

Everything the Creeks had accomplished in the 24 years they occupied the land was lost in the five years of the Civil War. From a population of about a thousand in 1861, over 80% lost their lives in the war. Those who survived and returned found a devastated land harassed by wandering bands of renegades with no organized law enforcement and a Federal Government intent on destroying the domestic independent national status of the nations (Five Civilized Tribes) for control of their lands.

Over the following 42 years, the community of Tulsey Town became a center for ranching, but never regained the population or prosperity they had known before the war. In 1879, the United States designated the first post office in the area as "Tulsa." and appointed Josiah Perryman, rancher, first postmaster.

Just 16 years after the war, everything began to change when the first railroad surveyors and track layers came into the area. They came by wagon from Claremore to extend the Saint Louis and San Francisco (Frisco) Railroad to the Arkansas River. With the arrival of the Frisco Railroad on August 7, 1882, a new Tulsa emerged from the tent camp setup to shelter those working on the railroad. From the beginning, tents were replaced by wooden structures and a new communal area began to develop adjacent to the railroad tracks.

As more people came, businesses followed and on January 18, 1898, the federal court at Muskogee granted Tulsa its official charter of township incorporation. Within six months of incorporation, Congress terminated all tribal governments and provided for the disposal of all tribal properties in Indian Territory. Existing townships were allowed to create platted surveys, appraise, evaluate and sell the lots at one-half to two-thirds the lots' declared value. This was the procedure by which Tulsa became private property. 

The growth of Tulsa's education system began in 1884 when the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, New York City, established a church school located in the northwest corner of the block now bounded by Fourth & Fifth, Boston & Cincinnati. The 2-room white frame building was located on Creek Indian land and was established to teach the Indian children. Children of the white settlers were allowed to attend classes by paying tuition. In 1899, when the Presbyterian Mission board closed the school, it was purchased by several civic-minded citizens to use as a town school. It was then necessary to elect a school board to take the responsibility for the financial operations of the school. They were confronted with countless problems during the first few years of getting Tulsa's first public school system off to a good start and at the same time having to contend with the frustrating results of the oil boom's impact on the growth of the town.

The city council set aside only $1,750 for the maintenance of the school for the first vear and the School Board insisted on that being raised to $2,500. Also during the first year of the public schools the mushrooming enrollment necessitated the adding of a second floor room to the Mission schoolhouse. Dual stairways were added to the exterior of the east end of the building, starting from opposite sides and meeting at the top where a small platform or porch served as an entrance to the new second floor room.

The school administrators soon brought the first classes of high school work into the school and eagerly looked forward to the day when it would no longer be necessary for Tulsa's students to "go away" for high schooling. The following from a 1903 pamphlet: "The school board has already added the first grades of a high school course to their curriculum, and expect to raise the grades as the scholars advance. A faculty of eight teachers are employed this year and will be increased in number as rooms are added."

By 1905 the Mission school was pitifully inadequate to handle the ever-swelling number of students. By that time the oil boom was beginning in earnest after the discovery of the Glenn pool and people were swarming into Tulsa at a startling pace. Plans were made to build a larger school to replace the old Mission. That year the first bonds ever voted for a public school in Tulsa were sold to pay for the erection of the new Tulsa High School on school property.

There were four members of the first graduating class (1905) - three girls and one boy: Leroy B. Moss, Nell Neves, Belva Maurine Mitchell, and Frances Burson Sleeper.

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL by Joyce Saunders (Faculty and Administrator  1937-2022

In 1906 Tulsa High School, a new cream-colored brick building with a gold-leaf dome, was erected in the center of the 4th and Boston block at a cost of $60, 000. Surrounding the building before long were many small (one and two-room) buildings called "jitneys" much like our present pre-fabs. In later years, when that building was razed, the Greek columns at the entrance were placed at the northeast corner of Lee School, which had the stadium where Central High School football games were played for many years.

In 1913 Tulsa High School was accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges - the third school to be accredited in the state. Muskogee HS and Friends Hillside Mission Academy, 4 miles north of Skiatook, were accredited earlier. Tulsa Central High School has been continuously accredited since 1913.

In 1916 voters approved $300, 000 in bonds to build a new and larger high school at Sixth & Cincinnati. The north half of Central High School opened in 1917; the south half of the redbrick building was added in 1922. The Manual Arts Building at Ninth & Cincinnati was opened in 1925 and the shops classes were moved there. Today the old Manual Arts/Industrial Arts Building is a part of the Activities Center for the Downtown Campus of Tulsa Community College.

Tulsa grew and so did Central High School. Peak enrollment was reached in 1938 with over 5,000 students in Grades 10-12. At that time the Board of Education Building on the northeast part of the block housing the original mission school provided 10 classrooms and also housed the entire administrative staff of the school system. Students in the Central High Building were given 4 additional minutes to reach classes in either the "Board'1 Building, a block and one-half north, or the Manual Arts Building, two blocks south. 

Until 1939 Central High School was the only white public high school in Tulsa. Booker T. Washington, which dates to 1913 was a separate school with separate funding until schools were integrated in the 1950s. Central can be called the "Parent School" for some of her students and staff left when Webster opened in January 1939 and when Will Rogers opened in the Fall of 1939. Later Edison (1955), Nathan Hale (1959), McLain (1959), Memorial (1962), East Central (1962), and Mason (1974) opened. Mason was later closed. Washington High School was restructured as a magnet school, half white and half black in the 70s. Central's traditions helped to mold the character and rituals of the other high schools in Tulsa as staff and students moved to the new schools.

With growth of the city and changes in traffic patterns, two major deficiencies in the red brick Central High School became apparent: a lack of outdoor physical education facilities when the downtown and no free parking.

Bonds were voted and the Sixth & Cincinnati site was sold to Public Service Company. The new Central High School was located on 47 acres at 31st and West Edison in a beautiful tree-covered area "where the Osage hills look down". Designed by Joseph R. Coleman the building has an open Commons area, two revolving classrooms

Public Service Company of Oklahoma renovated the old red brick building at 6th and Cincinnati to use as its headquarters. Although PSO completely redesigned the interior of the old building, the exterior has been carefully restored. In November 2007, PSO received the Foundation Landmark Award from the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture for preservation of the building as a significant part of Tulsa’s heritage.

In 1906 Tulsa High School, a new cream-colored brick building with a gold-leaf dome, was erected in the center of the 4th and Boston block at a cost of $60, 000. Surrounding the building before long were many small (one and two-room) buildings called "jitneys" much like our present pre-fabs. In later years, when that building was razed, the Greek columns at the entrance were placed at the northeast corner of Lee School, which had the stadium where Central High School football games were played for many years.

Tulsa grew and so did Central High School. Peak enrollment was reached in 1938 with over 5,000 students in Grades 10-12. At that time the Board of Education Building on the northeast part of the block housing the original mission school provided 10 classrooms and also housed the entire administrative staff of the school system. Students in the Central High Building were given 4 additional minutes to reach classes in either the "Board'1 Building, a block and one-half north, or the Manual Arts Building, two blocks south.

In 1906 Tulsa High School, a new cream-colored brick building with a gold-leaf dome, was erected in the center of the 4th and Boston block at a cost of $60, 000. Surrounding the building before long were many small (one and two-room) buildings called "jitneys" much like our present pre-fabs. In later years, when that building was razed, the Greek columns at the entrance were placed at the northeast corner of Lee School, which had the stadium where Central High School football games were played for many years.expressway cut off access to Central Park and made it more hazardous to reach Tracy Park tennis courts; and a lack of free parking for students and faculty.

Bonds were voted and the Sixth & Cincinnati site was sold to Public Service Company. The new Central High School was located on 47 acres at 31st and West Edison in a beautiful tree-covered area "where the Osage hills look down". Designed by Joseph R. Coleman the building has an open Commons area, two revolving classrooms

Public Service Company of Oklahoma renovated the old red brick building at 6th and Cincinnati to use as its headquarters. Although PSO completely redesigned the interior of the old building, the exterior has been carefully restored. In November 2007, PSO received the Foundation Landmark Award from the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture for preservation of the building as a significant part of Tulsa’s heritage.