Atlas Life Building | |
Location | 415 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA |
---|---|
Coordinates | 36°9′8″N95°59′20″W / 36.15222°N 95.98889°W |
NRHP reference No. | 09000358 [1] |
Added to NRHP | May 21, 2009 [1] |
The Atlas Life Building is a historic twelve-story building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Designed by the firm Rush, Endacott and Rush, the building was completed in 1922. It is located at 415 S. Boston Avenue, sandwiched between the Philtower and Mid-Continent Tower. On May 19, 2009, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [1] Originally an office building, it was converted to hotel use in 2010.
Atlas Life Insurance Company was founded in Tulsa in 1918. Within three years it had grown so rapidly that it had begun constructing its own high-rise office building. An elaborate ceremony accompanied its grand opening on November 22, 1922. The company's logo incorporated a figure of Atlas, a Titan of ancient Greek mythology, carrying the world on his back. A statue representing this is on top of the building facade. The company remained in business at this location until it was sold in 1991. [2]
The building's most recognizable feature is the four-story neon sign above the main entrance, which makes the Atlas Life Building a popular local landmark. The sign was installed in 1946, and has been retained by subsequent owners of the building. The ground floor occupies the entire 100-foot by 140-foot property. The second floor is T-shaped, with the top of the T fronting on Boston Avenue, while the remaining floors are 50 feet by 140 feet, centered above the ground floor. [2] The building itself is faced with red brick, with white marble ornamentation concentrated at the third, eleventh, and twelfth floors. At the top is an ornate cornice surmounted by a crouching statue of Atlas. The building is seven bays wide at the base, narrowing to three above the second floor to allow some separation from the taller buildings on either side.
The building has an area of 86,231 square feet (8,011.1 m2). The ground floor of the Atlas Life Building is home to the Tulsa Press Club, Baytide Petroleum and The New Atlas Grill. [2]
In 1991, State Mutual Insurance Company purchased Atlas Life Insurance Company and moved all its operations to Georgia. [2] The Pearson Group acquired the building in 1997 from Tulsa Public Schools. On January 6, 2006, the building was sold by the Pearson Group to Navajo Properties LLC, a company affiliated with investor Maurice Kanbar. [3] In 2008, Kanbar sold the building to new owners; it was then adapted for reuse as a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, with a planned opening in June 2010. [4] [5] [6]
The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower at 510 South Dewey Avenue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, United States. Built in 1956, it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically oriented Wright structures extant; the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower is a skyscraper occupying a full block in the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City. The building is composed of two sections: a 700-foot-tall (210 m) tower at the northwest corner of the block, at Madison Avenue and 24th Street, and a shorter east wing occupying the remainder of the block bounded by Madison Avenue, Park Avenue South, 23rd Street, and 24th Street. The South Building, along with the North Building directly across 24th Street, comprises the Metropolitan Home Office Complex, which originally served as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
The Aloft Liverpool Hotel, formerly the Royal Insurance Building, is a historic building located at 1-9 North John Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It was built as the head office of the Royal Insurance company.
Maurice Kanbar was an American entrepreneur and inventor who lived in San Francisco, California. He was particularly well known for his creation of SKYY vodka and was also noted for his extensive real estate investments.
The Mid-Continent Tower is a 36-story skyscraper located at 401 South Boston Avenue in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. At 156 meters (513 ft) in height, it is the fourth-tallest building in Tulsa and fifth-tallest in Oklahoma. Faced with bright white terra cotta and crowned with a distinctive copper roof, it is one of the city's most recognizable buildings. The design is unique because the first 16-story structure was built in 1918. The top 20 stories comprise a separate structure, cantilevered over the first 66 years later. The architects of the addition matched the design of the original structure so carefully that the result is considered a single structure. It is included as a contributing structure in Tulsa's Oil Capital Historic District.
The Mayo Hotel is a historic hotel opened in 1925, located at 115 West 5th Street in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Hotel Muehlebach is a historic hotel building in Downtown Kansas City that was visited by every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. It is currently operated as one of three wings of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown hotel.
First Place Tower is a skyscraper located at 15 East Fifth in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was completed in 1973 and has 41 stories. At 516 feet (157 m) in height, it is the third tallest building in Tulsa behind BOK Tower and Cityplex Towers, and the fourth tallest in Oklahoma. Although it shares an address with the adjacent First National Bank Building, it faces Boston Avenue.
One Main Place is a mixed-use skyscraper hotel and office building at 1201 Main Street in Dallas, Texas. The building rises 445 ft (136 m). It contains 33 above-ground floors, and was completed in 1968. One Main Place currently stands as the 27th-tallest building in the city. The architectural firm that designed the building was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which also designed the Willis Tower and John Hancock Center in Chicago and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Gordon Bunshaft was the lead designer of One Main Place, and a few of his notable buildings include Lever House in New York, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The Blackstone Hotel is the tallest hotel in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, at 268 ft (82 m) tall. Located on the corner of Fifth and Main Streets, it is noted for its Art Deco design with terracotta ornamentation and setbacks on the top floors. The hotel was constructed in 1929 and operated for over 50 years before it sat vacant for nearly 20 years. The Blackstone Hotel guest list is full of notable people including Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. The hotel was also host for a few movie stars such as Bob Hope, Clark Gable, and Elvis Presley. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 2, 1984. The building was restored in the late 1990s and is still in use today as the Courtyard Fort Worth Downtown/Blackstone, although it is still known as the "Blackstone Hotel" to those who live in or have ties to Fort Worth.
The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story boutique hotel operated by W Hotels at the northeast corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, across from Union Square in Manhattan, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insurance Company Building, it was designed by Albert D'Oench and Joseph W. Yost and built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style.
The Pierce Block is a historic building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma on the northeast corner of Third Street and Detroit Avenue, that was constructed as a hotel in 1909. According to the Tulsa Preservation Commission, it is the oldest remaining post-statehood hotel in Tulsa. Originally it was a few blocks west of the Midland Valley Railroad passenger station, which was at Third and Greenwood Avenue.
The Warrior Hotel is a historic hotel opened in 1930 and restored in 2020, located in downtown Sioux City, Iowa, United States.
The Oil Capital Historic District (OCHD) is an area in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma that commemorates the success of the oil business in Tulsa during the early 20th century. During this period, Tulsa was widely known as "The Oil Capital of the World." The area is bounded by 3rd Street on the north and 7th Street on the south, Cincinnati Avenue on the east and Cheyenne Avenue on the west.
The JW Marriott Downtown Houston is a hotel located at 806 Main Street in Downtown Houston, which opened in 2014. It had been previously known as the Carter Building, and was the tallest building in Texas when it opened in 1910. The building was renamed Second National Bank Building in 1923.
General Patrick Hurley opened the Ambassador Hotel in 1929, intending it to be a luxury "extended stay" residence for Tulsa businessmen, who were building mansions that were not yet ready for occupancy. Hurley never stayed in the hotel he founded. He moved to Washington, D. C. in March 1929, after President Herbert Hoover chose him to be Secretary of War, after the death of the previous Secretary, who died in December 1929. Hurley never returned to Tulsa.
The McBirney Mansion in Tulsa, Oklahoma was the home of James H. McBirney, co-founder of the Bank of Commerce in Tulsa in 1904. He was the original owner of the mansion, built by architect John Long in 1928, and lived there until 1976. The mansion contained 15,900 square feet (1,480 m2) and sits on a 2.91 acres (11,800 m2) lot. The mansion was bought by Donna and Roger Hardesty who lived there for 5 years. Eventually it was bought by a law firm that turned it into a law office. By 2007, was purchased by former American Airlines President George Warde, who had plans to transform it into a boutique hotel. In the meantime, the McBirney Mansion was used as an event center. Warde died in 2012, and events stopped being held at McBirney. By February 2012, the Pauls Corporation, a Denver real estate management company, acquired the mansion as part of the suit's settlement. Tulsa attorney Gentner Drummond bought the mansion from Pauls Corp. in 2014, announcing his intention to make it his family's home.
The Gillette-Tyrrell Building is a building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was begun in 1929 by two Tulsa oilmen, J. M. Gillette and H. C. Tyrrell. They initially planned to construct a three-story office building at 432 S. Boulder Avenue, topped by a ten-story hotel, but these plans were canceled during the Great Depression and they stopped construction at the third floor. In 1931, they sold it to the Knights of Pythias, who decided to complete it as an office building and renamed it the Pythian Building.
In 1899, the Vinita Electric Light, Ice and Power Company, which was headquartered in the Indian Territory town of Vinita obtained a charter to provide electric power to that community. In 1913, the company consolidated with similar independent companies in Tulsa, Guthrie, Coalgate, Lehigh and Atoka to form a new company, named Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO). The founder and first president of PSO was Frederick William "Fred" Insull, who moved the company's headquarters to Tulsa in 1916.
The Stowers Building is located at 820 Fannin Street in downtown Houston. The building was constructed in 1913 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The building is named for George Arthur Stowers and his furniture company, which had moved into the new "skyscraper" after a fire at his Main Street store. The local firm of Green & Finger designed the ten-story building which was constructed out of reinforced steel by Pearson & Co. The building was representative of a period of skyscraper construction in Houston between 1908 and 1913. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.