In today's fast paced busy world, it's not often someone would get the chance to step back in time and look at the way things were decades ago. This chance came my way this past week when my dad left me a message on my phone to stop by his home and see him. Always curious about any phone message from my dad gets me to thinking, since it's not often he sends me a message on my phone, it had to be of some importance. On my way home from work I pulled into his drive and parked. As I got out of the truck, there he sat on the bench by the front door and saying, "go get a Pepsi and come on back, I need to tell you something". My mind was thinking of a few different things it might be but there no clue to what it may have been. Arriving back outside I sat on the bench, popped open a Pepsi, as he proceeded to tell me about a project that was about to take shape in town. I had heard rumor that the old Texaco station was about to be restored but didn't known of anything certain till my dad told me he had just spent a couple hours with Gene Taylor. Gene and Clifford Taylor were in the process of restoring the Texaco station and they were looking for old photos of the station. This is where I come into the picture. Since I have numerous historical photos of Bigheart/Barnsdall and many of the businesses, I was asked if I could help with any photos and information on the old establishment so that it could be restored to what it looked like in it's earlier years. I knew I had the photos to help out but there was also a little extra with this as I found out from my dad. Clifford Taylor had just purchased the Ingersoll -Dunham building, better known to most as the Barnsdall State Bank building at the southwest corner of Main and 5th. He would be in the process of giving the building a make over, replacing the old plywood window coverings with actual windows and doing some maintenance on the building overall. It was at this point my dad told me that Clifford wanted me to go help him look through some boxes that were on the second floor of the building and if anything of historical importance was to be found that I would be able to remove it. All I had to do was give him a call to set it up.
After a visit with Gene and Clifford to exchange some photos, a time was set up for two days later to go upstairs into the old building and look for anything that might be of importance.
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1912 photo of the Ingersoll - Dunham building.
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As Saturday morning began, Clifford and myself gathered up lighting to illuminate the upstairs since all the windows had been covered over with plywood. As I stood there at the threshold, I looked up gazing at the stonework above the doorway and thinking about the history of the building. As a boy, I remember the building as the Barnsdall State Bank and had only entered into the lower east side of the building where the bank was located. Over the years I had been through all parts of the first floor of the building but never the second floor. After 51 years of living in Barnsdall this would be my first trip to the second floor. I don't have an exact date as for the closing of the second floor but it may have been in the mid 1970's. Documents found indicate it may have been around 1974. Since then it has been closed to the public except for the rare occasion the owner would go inside to check things out. As the door opened, years of pent up odors came rushing out. The smell of old musty dirty wood filled my nose as I walked inside. Standing there at the foot of the stairway I looked up as three flights of stairs led their way to the second floor. Looking at the banisters and steps, I could tell many trips had been made up and down the stairs. The steps had been worn so much that the edge of each step seemed to have been wittled away and sanded smooth with each footstep that had hit them. Making my ascension, each step on the stairway let out a creaking sound like the greeting of two old friends that had not seen each other in years. Making my way to the top landing, I stopped once more to look down the hallway that once bustled with people. After 102 years of standing, looking over the traffic of town, I could feel the building as being tired but vibrant. No more were the sounds of laughter or footsteps of people coming from the rooms as I walk slowly down the hallway. As I made my way to the last doorway on the right, I passed through it into the meeting room where many lodge meetings of the I.O.O.F. and Rebekah's would take place, I could feel an energy in the room that the rest of the second floor didn't permeate.
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This photo from around 1915-16 shows the I.O.O.F and Rebekah members and their families as they settle in for a feast in the meeting room on the second floor.
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I could see in the back of the room near the small stage that jut out from the wall sat boxes of papers, ledgers and old books. I would guess close to thirty boxes filled with unknown pieces of history. I was looking for any pre 1920 pieces that may have been stored by chance or anything that may have any historical significance to the building. After hours of searching there were a few items gathered. Only one piece from when the town was named Bigheart and some artifacts from the 1960's. The rest of it looked like a dumping ground of old reciepts and paperwork for the city when it operated City Hall on the first floor of the building. I won't comment on some of the articles found until the owner and the museum get together and sort things out but I can say that they are significant to the history of the building. I feel good about the find that was on the second floor and what is to become of the restoration. It would be nice to see the old building get a face lift in the center of town. Something everyone could be proud of.
