Heritage Hills: Preservation of a Historic Neighborhood

Heritage Hills - Preservation of a Historic Neighborhood: "In 1902, only 13 years after the first land run into the Indian Territory, a solitary home was started more than a mile north of Oklahoma City's business center. That Victorian-era home, designed and built on a gently rolling, treeless prairie for city father Henry Overholser, was the beginning of the future landmark historic district, Heritage Hills. For the next twenty-five years the neighborhood developed in bursts, paced by the boom and bust cycle of a frontier economy and distinguished by dramatic swings in architectural preferences. The result was a unique street-scape where Queen Anne and NeoClassical giants stood next to Colonial Revivals and Prairie-style bungalows.As important as the homes, are the people who built and occupied them. There have been town builders such as Anton Classen and Charles Colcord, business pioneers such as E.K. Gaylord and Richard Vose, cultural leaders such as Angelo Scott and Nan Sheets, and political personalities such as Robert S. Kerr and impeached Governor Jack Walton. To the present day, the people of the neighborhood have represented a composite picture of a unique urban story."Author Bob Blackburn captures all of this in his writing and it is depicted beautifully by Jim Argos's extensive photography as well as Greg Burns' tinted pen & ink drawing of the Overholser mansion on the dust jacket cover.