The graffiti that first caught my eye has been covered up. Exiting from the Broken Arrow Expressway or from 244 into downtown my eye was drawn from the bright spray paint down to the blackened and broken windows of the burned out and abandoned Tulsa Club. The fire that torched the grand ballroom on the ninth floor happened in 2010, before I came back to the Tulsa World.
Obviously people had been inside. The graffiti was proof of that. I was curious to see what the inside looked like. What people had done to the place while it sat unoccupied, but also I wanted to see an historic project of that size before any renovation had taken place. To
see what it looked like at its worse.
Owner Josh Barrett, staff writer Kevin Canfield,who
wrote this story about the building, and I walked the entire building and even crawled up onto the roof, a trip that took about 3 hours. I took 2,136 photos of the building in an effort to document the extent of the damage.
Finally inside the building, I had fun looking around and exploring. I'm always interested in people, so what they've left behind after occupying a place illegally was particularly interesting. Damage, of course, broken windows and mirrors, empty containers of paint, champagne and beer and predictably, graffiti. The paint on the walls ranged from artistic to unprintable. Some of my favorite things though, were left behind by previous tenants. A hulk of a treadmill in a room that was once used as an indoor running track, and the records room.
Fire damaged the room where letters, receipts and other records were kept. Firefighters had tipped over the file cabinets, spilling the smoldering contents onto the floor. There are bars on the windows but no glass. The letters and receipts from old members of the Tulsa Club fluttered gently in the breeze, lit by the early morning sun while the sounds of the city floated in, just as they've been doing since the fire.
I'll follow up over the next few years to record the construction and ultimately, what the burned up, old and abandoned building became.
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Walls of the Ladies Lounge were damaged by the elements and vandals while the Tulsa Club sat abandoned over the last few years. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Discarded papers damaged and scattered during a fire at the Tulsa Club, are lit up in the sunlight at the downtown Tulsa building on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. Josh Barrett plans to begin construction and renovation of the building in downtown Tulsa within a year. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
A treadmill sits in a room that was once used as an indoor running track at the Tulsa Club on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Josh Barrett, who recently purchased the Tulsa Club building in downtown Tulsa, walks around the debris inside the ballroom at the top of the building during a tour for the Tulsa World on Sept. 13, 2013. Barrett plans to begin construction and renovation of the building in downtown Tulsa within a year. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Walls of the Ladies Lounge were damaged by the elements and vandals while the Tulsa Club sat abandoned over the last few years. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Temperature changes and moisture have caused paint and wallpaper to crack and peel on an abandoned floor of the Tulsa Club on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. Josh Barrett, who recently purchased the building in downtown Tulsa plans to begin construction and renovation of the building in downtown Tulsa within a year. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
The ballroom at the top of the Tulsa Club sits abandoned on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. Josh Barrett, who recently purchased the building in downtown Tulsa plans to begin construction and renovation of the building in downtown Tulsa within a year. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
Badly damaged in a recent fire, the ballroom at the top of the Tulsa Club sits abandoned on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World
