New Oklahoma National Register Listings
Lynda Ozan
(405) 522-4478
12/21/12
Oklahoma City, OK
For Immediate Release
The Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office is pleased to announce three new National Register of Historic Places listings. The National Register of Historic Places is our nation’s official list of properties significant in our past.
The Gillespie Drilling Company building, located in downtown Cushing in Payen County and constructed ca. 1954, is one of Blaine Imel’s finest non-residential works. A true representation of organic architecture, the natural environment served as the design framework for the Gillespie Drilling Company building. Blaine Imel is an Oklahoma architect recognized for his conceptualization and realization of organic architecture reflecting site location, materials, client’s desires and the influence of his professor and mentor, Bruce Goff. With an architectural career spanning from 1950 to 2004, Blaine Imel was an important contributor to the twentieth-century modern and organic architecture movements in Oklahoma. The Gillespie Drill Company building is one of two non-residential resources design by Imel in Cushing.
The remaining two listings are the result of an on-going state-wide barn survey in Oklahoma. The two barns were identified in the survey by Brad Bays, professor in the Oklahoma State University Geography Department, as significant and Preservation Oklahoma sponsored their creation.
The Bennie L. Aupperle Dairy Barn, located in the vicinity of Newkirk in Kay County, is significant for its architectural style. It is a distinctive dairy barn that has been well-maintained since its date of construction in about 1934. The barn is Kay County’s best example of a pre-World War II-era dairy barn exhibiting characteristics of family dairy farming as it existed before mechanization and the subsequent rise of large commercial dairies. By the early 1950s most dairy farms, including this one, had fully mechanized. Mechanization of dairy farming eventually necessitated an increase in the size of individual operations, which made barns like this example completely obsolete by the 1970s.
The Elmer Baker Barn, located in the vicinity of Hooker in Texas County, is significant its architectural style. It is one of the oldest and best-preserved examples of a large Transverse-crib barn dating to the state’s Territorial period found in Northwest Oklahoma.
Listing in the National Register is an honorific designation that provides recognition, limited protection and, in some cases, financial incentives for these important properties. The SHPO identifies, evaluates, and nominates properties for this special designation.
For detailed information, contact Lynda Ozan at 405/522-4478 or email lozan@okhistory.org.
