| City/Town: • Oklahoma City |
| Location Class: • Government |
| Built: • 1980's | Abandoned: • 2004 |
| Status: • Abandoned |
| Photojournalist: • AbandonedOK Team |
According to City Council Resolution documents, 7.2 acres was purchased for the Walter M. Harrison Park through a grant authorized by Title VII of the Housing Act of 1961 and more land was conveyed to the City from W.K.Y. Television Inc. a Delaware Corporation over time in January of 1964. The parks department sold the park (29.15 acres more or less) in the time period of 2005-2006.
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Thank you for this information. When I looked on Google you could tell something was there but nothing is there anymore. I never knew about this park, even though I have lived less than 10 minutes away. I now work in front of the ‘park’.
The images of the Walter M. Harrison Park shared here on the page are so interesting and inviting. I am interested in visiting such abandoned places and this site has been helping me a lot. Keep up the good work catalina island hotels
Does anyone know if this pool is still there in the same state of the images?
Hello Houston. I was there a couple of days ago. It is still full of dirt and the grass is much higher everywhere. No mowing going on there.
When I was in Jr High School (circa 1967-69) the recreation center there would have weekly "sock hops." Or maybe it was monthly. My dad used to take me there and pick me up. One night after the dance was over, my dad was not there to get me. I had started walking east on Wilshire and got almost to Kelley before he came driving up. He had fallen asleep on the couch that evening.* That was along time ago. A couple of weeks ago, as I was passing through the intersection of Wilshire and Broadway Ext., I was reminded of that, and of the place, so I drove down in there to see if it was all still there. It wasn't of course, but I wasn't surprised.
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*My dad was not at all neglectful, it was just an anomaly that he happened to fall asleep and forget about me. At that time I had no fears at all about walking alone in the area at night, May have been my stupdity, but I never felt like there was a threat there.
An ongoing housing expansion of Hope Meadows just north of the festering dump called Musgrave has cut into th eland on the east an dnorth east corners of the property. Plans are to urban renewal Musgrave one house at a time until that blight has been cleaned out and replaced.
Ah memories. This area was upper-middle class African American, called Musgrave, during the late 60's and early 70's, which was destroyed when a housing projected was erected, lowering property values. I had middle class friends who lived in the area, and we would walk there to swim. I remember that the park was in a remote location, and had to walk 6 blocks of the main road to get there.
A new update on this facility. The building is gone and the pool has been filled in and sodded. I drove out there a couple months ago and contractors were taking down the building.
I was thrilled to find this information. This place has captured me since I first found it 2003. Very interesting…apparently now it is owned by Arcadia Farms, LLC, just like everything else is.
I remember when Oklahoman employees would take a quick drive to the park to enjoy a smoke break when the company was being super strict on the no smoking rules. They've relaxed a bit, it seems, and more often than not employees are just going to their cars or the garage to get their fix.
Excellent information Michael! Thanks!
Walter M. Harrison was the Managing Editor of the Daily Oklahoman from the early 1920's into the 1950's. In 1928 he was elected President of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. E. K.Gaylord owned this land for many years. He originally built the WKY radio transmitter here in the late 1930's, then in 1951-52 added the building for WKY Radio and TV, then the seperate WKY Building in 1975 and finally the printing plant then the complete newspaper operation. Harrison wrote several books, my favorite is "Me and My Big Mouth." This will give you some idea of why the park was established in the location. And where the name came from.
To update this post: Walter Harrison was hired by E. K. Gaylord as managing editor in 1916. In 1940, the FCC issued a new license for WKY radio to increase power from 1 kilowatt to 5 kilowatts. That meant building a much taller tower. The transimitter was located on what was then called the 39th street highway, and was in the landing and take off pattern for what was then called Two Lakes Airport (Wiley Post today.) The FCC approved moving the transmitter to land E. K. owned on Britton Road. Construction began in 1940, and early 1944 engineers began moving equipment from the old location into the new brick building. The main two was 980 feet tall, the two directional towers were quite a bit shorter.