Marland Grand Home

Last updated

Marland's Grand Home
Marland Grand Home 05-26-2021 IMG 3930.jpg
Marland Grand Home, south entrance, former residence of E. W. (Ernest Whitworth) Marland (1874-1941) and family, 1914-1941 on Grand Avenue in Ponca City, (Kay County), Oklahoma, designed by Solomon Layton (1864-1943)
Marland Grand Home
Established1914 (1914)
Location Ponca City, Oklahoma
(Kay County)
Coordinates 36°42′45″N97°4′21″W / 36.71250°N 97.07250°W / 36.71250; -97.07250
Type Museum
Founder E. W. (Ernest Whitworth) Marland (1874-1941)
Architect Solomon Layton
(1864-1943)
OwnerCity of Ponca City
Website https://www.marlandgrandhome.com/

The Marland Grand Home (also known as Marland's Grand Home, the Grand Home, and the Marland-Paris Home) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (listings maintained by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior). [1]

Contents

The Grand Home is the first home built by Pennsylvania and Oklahoma oilman, businessman and politician E. W. (Ernest Whitworth) Marland (1874-1941), in Ponca City, (Kay County), Oklahoma and is considered a landmark in the community.

The Grand Home was given its name because the home is on Grand Avenue in Ponca City, the community where Marland lived with his first and second wives and adopted children for 33 years from 1908 until his death in 1941 and the town where he founded his Marland Oil Company (which later merged with Continental Oil Company and later became known as Conoco) and also where he built his Ponca City oil refinery, which is still in operation today more than 100 years later.

Marland's Grand Home is a 1910s period mansion built in the luxurious Italian Renaissance Revival architecture style. It was designed by architect Solomon Layton (1864-1943) and built in 1914, just before the First World War (1914/1917-1918). The Grand Home is owned today by the City of Ponca City and includes exhibit rooms for Miller Brothers 101 Ranch history, Native American archaeology, artifacts and art, and Daughters of the American Revolution exhibits. The Grand Home was also formerly known as the Ponca City Cultural Center Museum. [1]

History and description

After Marland hit his first oil well in 1911, Marland and his wife Virginia moved from the Arcade Hotel in Ponca City to a home on North 6th Street while Marland had his Grand Home built. [2] Designed by architect Solomon Layton, construction of the Grand Home began in 1914 and was completed in 1916. Marland lived in the home until 1928 when he moved onto the huge estate he had built on 640 acres outside of Ponca City, the Marland Mansion. During this era E.W.'s net worth, not including his oil company, exceeded 100 million dollars, over a billion in today's standards. [1]

The first floor of the Grand Home is decorated with period furnishings, art, china and silver services and family photos that evoke the Marland era. The Grand Home featured a central vacuuming system, an automatic dishwasher, and an indoor swimming pool, all considered fabulous luxuries at the time. Later when Marland's wife Virginia became ill with cancer in 1919, Marland had a Frigidaire indoor central air-conditioning installed in the Grand Home. The massive unit cooled only one room to keep Virginia Marland comfortable before she died from pneumonia on June 7, 1926. The Grand Home also featured an attached three-car garage along with an additional three-bay carriage house. [3] [2] [4]

According to the application with the National Park Service for the Grand Home to be designated a historic landmark: [5]

The mansion sets (sic) at the summit of quite a rise of ground while gradually sloping away are a series of terraced gardens ending with the greenhouse at the foot, there being six acres in this garden surrounded with a line of tall growing trees resembling poplars. This is an enchanted spot with its rose gardens, pond lily basins, where all the familiar flowers of the north vie with the lovely varieties of the semi-tropics running a perfect riot.

The one-time home of Oklahoma's 12th governor is more than a magnificent mansion ordered into existence by a millionaire oilman. It is a majestic monument in stone to one of the last of a "breed" - a fantastically successful wildcatter, a rags-to-riches individualist, an ambitious empire who created on the frontier a classic European villa where but a few decades earlier there had been only tepees.

It was in 1914, just three years after his initial strike, that he first decided to build for himself a home more worthy of his increasing wealth and growing importance in the petroleum industry. This 22-room white stucco mansion at the east end of Ponca City's main street, Grand Avenue, is the result. It was completed in time for Christmas 1916. And for the next twelve years it was the scene of elaborate parties and increasingly important gatherings of social, political, entertainment world, and business figures from around Oklahoma and the country. Marland introduced fox hunting to the area and soon the white mansion was hosting redcoated hunters to traditionally sumptuous hunt breakfasts. Parties were held after polo matches and horse shows. [5]

Marland particularly enjoyed the indoor swimming pool in the Grand Home, the first indoor pool in Oklahoma. Even though his younger lieutenants (as he called his upper management employees) could beat him on the athletic field, Marland said he could outlast them in the pool. [6]

The Grand Home cost approximately $350,000 to build, equivalent to about $3.5 million in 2021 dollars. The Grand Home, at 16,500 square feet, included 22-rooms and was created in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. [1]

Gardens

The gardens that Marland had planted around the home were a big part of the Grand Home. Marland had a great love of English and French gardens so with the help of a Japanese gardener, Marland planned for four square blocks of lovely formal gardens at his new residence which would stretch eastward from the home to what is now known as 14th Street/HW 177. To the east of the Grand Home, Marland had acres of gardens designed and constructed to evoke the Gardens of Versailles. The gardens were overseen by Henry C. Hatashita who was approached by E.W. Marland's attorney in 1918 about a job in Ponca City. Hatashita would remain in the city, working for Marland until 1939. He left behind a living legacy in the Ponca City landscape and is locally considered a "horticultural wizard". [7]

According to the Application to the U.S. National Park Service to become a historic landmark: [7]

Before Hatashita's arrival, Marland's estate was described as "treeless, and barren". E.W. Marland possessed a grand vision of creating a formal garden to "equal or surpass the English tradition". To create Marland's vision, Hatashita designed and built formal and informal gardens, using elaborate shapes and patterns and a great variety of plants from around the country. He developed a hardy variety of English boxwood for hedges that could thrive in the Ponca City heat, boxwood used to mimic the gardens at Versailles. Beginning with the groundsaround Marland's Grand House along Grand Avenue, Hatashita eventually oversaw hundreds of acres of fully landscaped land including the grounds of the Marland Mansion completed in 1928, a seventy (70) acre golf course and a ten (10) acre formal garden, all part of the Marland estate. Beyond overseeing Marland's private gardens, Hatashita was responsible for overseeing thelandscaping of the grounds of Marland's corporate offices and for landscaping at all of the Marland filling stations. In order to make Marland's vision a reality, Hatashita oversaw a crew of up to as many as seventy-five (75) men and maintained a fifty (50) acre plant and treenursery. [7]

Across the street from the Grand Home Marland built a 9-hole golf course for his employees and the public to play free of charge. [5]

After Marland

Sale to Moran

After Marland lost control of his oil company to J. P. Morgan bankers in 1928, the new president of Marland Oil Company, Dan Moran, lived in the Grand Home with his wife, Carolyn, and six children. Marland had been forced to hand over the Grand Home, which belonged to the Marland Oil Company, to the new owner of what was now called Continental Oil Company (CONOCO). Moran purchased the Grand Home in 1930 and lived in it until 1940. [4] The sale included the home, carriage house, and two lilyponds with a large yard area. The Marland Gardens to the east were not a part of the transaction. Mrs. Moran continued to host the popular Ponca City Music Club in the home as Mrs. Marland had done the decade before. [4]

Sale to Paris family

In 1940 the Marland's Grand Home was sold to Jay Paris, owner of the Paris Furniture Store of Ponca City. [8] After the Paris family moved into the home they added many fine furnishings, particularly several antique pieces which they had acquired through their furniture store. They added a European Chippendale-styled dining room furniture collection, still at the home today. It fills in the formal dining space. The present office area of the home was used as an informal dining and breakfast space. At the time there had been no bathroom on the 1st floor, so one was added utilizing space taken out of a next door powder room which held only a fainting couch and laundry chute. [9]

City of Ponca City purchase and renovation

Purchase and renovation

Jay Paris died in 1963 at an early age and his widow Jessie lived in the Grand Home for several more years. In 1967, through a sales tax vote, the City of Ponca City purchased the property for $85,000 [10] with the intent of creating a special events and meeting center. The city moved their collection of Indian artefacts, Marland family and Marland Oil memorabilia, and a 101 Ranch memorabilia to the Grand Home. When Jessie Paris moved out, the Paris' ornate music box, nostalgic rattan furniture, a hand-carved desk, Chippendale dining room suit, two crystal chandeliers and several mahogany tables were purchased by the City of Ponca City and remained in the home. [4]

Ponca City's Indian Museum, established in 1936 and concentrating on material relating to the five tribes of the area - Ponca, Kaw, Otoe, Osage, and Tonkawa - was moved into the Grand Home. Ethnological and archaeological materials of other tribes have since been added. The house also contains the studio of Bryant Baker, the New York artist who sculpted the famed Pioneer Woman Monument. The 101 Ranch Room was added with memorabilia pertaining to that famed institution and the D. A. R. added a Memorial Museum patterned after the one in Washington, D. C. The Grand Home began to serve as a City Garden Center and annually hosted countless parties, receptions, and other social events, as well as art shows, music club programs, and meetings of numerous civic groups. [5]

With the purchase of Marland's Grand Home by the city of Ponca City, renovators began to restore the home to what it looked like in Marland's time. "Shag carpeting was removed to expose the original wooden floors. Modern drapes and inappropriate window shades were removed, and a fresh coat of paint was applied to the woodwork. The unique hanging stairway steps were restored, and spindles were painted as well. Furnishings and accessories for the first floor, which was used mainly for meeting and event space, were chosen that would lend themselves to various uses. And for heat, a new boiler system replaced the old; and for air, a new energy efficient HVAC was installed." [4]

In 1976 the Marland's Grand Home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation selection was based on architectural, industrial and social history significance and brought historical recognition to the Grand Home. [11]

Renaming

On May 22, 2000, the City Commission changed the name of the Cultural Center to "Marland's Grand Home". The purpose of the renaming was to better market the Grand Home as a tourist attraction, give reference to E.W. Marland, reflect the Grand Home's location on Grand Avenue, and avoid confusion with E.W.'s second home, the Marland Mansion and Estate. In addition, the Friends of the Cultural Center changed their name to "Friends of Marland's Grand Home". [12]

Deterioration

The Grand Home has experienced deterioration in recent years. According to Jane Detten, Executive Director of the Marland's Grand Home, the Grand Home is experiencing a decline in terms of its structure. "I see significant damage happening in many areas daily," said Detten in 2018. "One of our greatest concerns involves the pool area, which is the public's favorite location in the home. The 100-year-old below-grade walls and tile work are failing due to water infiltration. We are in desperate need of waterproofing and repairing the exterior portion of the walls to prevent the groundwater from coming in. The interior walls are crumbling due to the infiltration and also need repair and reconstruction. The damage must be halted and corrected in the next few years or we may lose the pool space entirely." [13]

To restore and save the Grand Home, the "Friends of the Grand Home", was formed in 1997 to assist the city with the costs of maintenance and restoration. "They have helped with interior decorating, refinishing the wooden floors, purchasing vintage furnishings, remodeled the kitchen, replaced the heat and air system, restoration and framing of the Hunt painting and purchasing display cases to name a few," says FGH board member Donna Trewitt. [13]

In the media

The Native American Collection at the Marland's Grand Home in Ponca City was featured on 'Discover Oklahoma' on KFOR-TV channel 4 in 2015. [14]

City of Ponca City

National Park Service Applications

Other Articles about the Grand Home

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponca City, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Ponca City is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrace Hill</span> Historic house in Iowa, United States

Terrace Hill, also known as Hubbell Mansion, Benjamin F. Allen House or the Iowa Governor's Mansion, is the official residence of the governor of Iowa, United States. Located at 2300 Grand Avenue in Des Moines, it is an example of Second Empire architecture. The home measures 18,000 square feet (1,600 m2). It sits on a hill overlooking downtown Des Moines, and has a 90-foot (27 m) tower that offers a commanding view of the city. The building's steeply pitched mansard roof, open verandas, long and narrow and frequently paired windows, and bracketed eaves give this house an irreplaceable design. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coonley House</span> United States national historic place

The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley House or Coonley Estate was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed 1908–12, this is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It is itself a National Historic Landmark and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the Riverside Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site</span> Mansion in Hyde Park, New York

Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is a historic house museum in Hyde Park, New York, United States. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1940, it is owned and operated by the National Park Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Marland</span> American politician (1874–1941)

Ernest Whitworth Marland was an American lawyer, oil businessman in Pennsylvania and later Oklahoma, and politician who was a United States Representative (congressman) and 10th Governor of Oklahoma. He served in the United States House of Representatives from a district in northern Oklahoma, 1933 to 1935, and as the tenth Governor of Oklahoma from 1935 to 1939. As a Democrat, he initiated a "Little Deal" in Oklahoma during the Great Depression of the 1930s, working to relieve the distress of unemployed people and the economic hardships affecting the state and nation-wide and to build infrastructure as investment for the future.

Lydie Marland, an American socialite, was born Lyde Miller Roberts in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, the second child of Margaret Reynolds (Collins) and George Frederick Roberts. Her parents decided to give up her and her brother for adoption as teenagers by their maternal aunt and uncle, Virginia and Ernest Whitworth Marland, who were both childless and fabulously wealthy from his success in the oil business in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Conoco, formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase neighborhood of Houston,, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens</span> Historic house in Ohio, United States

Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens is a historic house museum in Akron, Ohio. The estate includes gardens, a greenhouse, carriage house, and the main mansion, one of the largest houses in the United States. A National Historic Landmark, it is nationally significant as the home of F. A. Seiberling, co-founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oklahoma Governor's Mansion</span> Building in Oklahoma, United States

The Oklahoma Governor's Mansion is the official residence of the governor of Oklahoma and is located at 820 NE 23rd Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John G. McCaskey</span>

John Gruard McCaskey was an American oil businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. H. McFadden</span>

William Hartman McFadden was an American businessman and an essential factor in opening up the oil fields of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolaroc</span> Museum and wildlife preserve in Oklahoma, U.S.

Woolaroc is a museum and wildlife preserve located in the Osage Hills of Northeastern Oklahoma on Oklahoma State Highway 123 about 12 mi (19 km) southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and 45 mi (72 km) north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips. The ranch is a 3,700-acre (1,500 ha) wildlife preserve, home to over 30 different species of native and exotic wildlife, such as bison, elk and longhorn cattle. Woolaroc is also a museum with a collection of Western art and artifacts, American Indian material, and one of the largest collections of Colt firearms in the world. Also on display is Woolaroc, the aircraft that won the ill-fated Dole Air Race in 1927. Woolaroc features a nature trail and a living history area inviting visitors to experience the natural environment of Woolaroc, the life in a pre-Civil War 1840s mountain man camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oldfields</span> Historic estate in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

Oldfields, also known as Lilly House and Gardens, is a 26-acre (11 ha) historic estate and house museum at Newfields in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The estate, an example of the American country house movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller Brothers 101 Ranch</span> United States historic place

The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a 110,000-acre (45,000 ha) cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893. The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and one of the early focal points of the oil rush in northeastern Oklahoma. It was the largest diversified farm and ranch in America at the time. Bill Pickett's grave and the White Eagle Monument are located on the ranch grounds. The location of the former working cattle ranch was subdivided and all of its buildings destroyed. An 82-acre (33 ha) area of the ranch is a National Historic Landmark. In 2003, the ranch was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Marland Mansion</span> Historic house in Oklahoma, United States

The E.W. Marland Mansion is a 43,561 square feet (4,046.9 m2) Mediterranean Revival-style mansion located in Ponca City, Oklahoma, United States. Built by oil baron and philanthropist Ernest Whitworth (E.W.) Marland, as a display of wealth at the peak of the 1920s oil boom, the house is one of the largest residences in the southwestern United States, and is known as the "Palace on the Prairie." It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973, and is now a museum open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey Towers National Historic Site</span> Home of Gifford Pinchot, founder of U.S. Forest Service, outside Milford, Pennsylvania

Grey Towers National Historic Site, also known as Gifford Pinchot House or The Pinchot Institute, is located just off US 6 west of Milford, Pennsylvania, in Milford Township. It is the ancestral summer home of Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the newly developed United States Forest Service (USFS) and twice elected governor of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Andrew Layton</span> American architect

Solomon Andrew Layton was an American architect who designed over 100 public buildings in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area and was part of the Layton & Forsyth firm. Layton headed partnerships in Oklahoma from 1902 to 1943; his works included the Canadian County Jail in El Reno, Oklahoma State Capitol, sixteen Oklahoma courthouses, and several buildings on the University of Oklahoma campus. Layton had a considerable influence on the area's architecture, and he became known as the "dean of Oklahoma City architecture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Duncan Forsyth</span> Scottish-American architect (1886/87 - 1963)

John Duncan Forsyth was a Scottish-American architect who became prominent in Oklahoma. Based in Tulsa and working in a variety of styles, he was connected with a number of significant buildings around the state.

<i>Pioneer Woman</i>

The Pioneer Woman monument is a bronze sculpture in Ponca City, Oklahoma, designed by Bryant Baker and dedicated on April 22, 1930. The statue is of a sunbonneted woman leading a child by the hand. It was donated to the State of Oklahoma by millionaire oilman E. W. Marland. He commissioned models from twelve well-known sculptors and financed a nationwide tour to get feedback from art critics and the general public in order to decide which model to use for the final statue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osage Casino</span>

The Osage Nation operates seven casinos in Oklahoma, under the name Osage Casinos. The 25th largest tribe in the United States, the people are based on their reservation encompassing Osage County, Oklahoma. It is larger than the U.S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Marland's Grand Home Web Site retrieved May 26, 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Kay County Legends: E. W. Marland" retrieved May 25, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Marland Grand Home". Green Country Oklahoma. retrieved May 25, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Marland's Grand Home Centennial Articles – March 2016" City of Ponca City. retrieved May 26, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Application for Marland Grand Home to be designated as a Historic Landmark" National Park Service. February 24, 1976.
  6. ↑ City of Ponca City. "Marland's Grand Home Centennial Articles – 1920 to 1930" retrieved May 26, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 "Designation of Henry C. Hatashita House as Historic Landmark". Department of the Interior. retrieved May 25, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Marland Grand Home". Gluseum. retrieved May 25, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Marland's Grand Home 1940-1960 Part 1". City of Ponca City. retrieved May 26, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Marland Grand Home - 1950s". City of Ponca City. retrieved May 26, 2021.
  11. ↑ Marland Grand Home - 1970 to 1980". City of Ponca City. retrieved May 26, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Marland's Grand Home Centennial Articles – 2000 to 2010". City of Ponca City. retrieved May 26, 2021.
  13. 1 2 "See what's behind the scenes in 'Hidden Spaces' tour at Marland's Grand Home". Ponca City Now. October 2, 2018.]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.