OK Historical Society and a new way to learn from past mistakes

Local news outlets recently highlighted the planned implosion of two buildings in downtown Oklahoma City. Media footage featured cheering crowds as the historic buildings fell.

I am a bit hesitant to join in the excitement that accompanies the destruction of iconic buildings. These scenes tend to remind me of the many Guthrie-area buildings which have been destroyed over the years, the first and foremost of which was the Guthrie City Hall building.

The old City Hall had served as home to Oklahoma’s Constitutional Convention. Ironically, just forty years after its destruction, local government leaders acknowledged the mistake, tore down its new, modern replacement, and built a new structure which mimics the original in design.

In recent years, the Oklahoma Historical Society has embarked on a program of making its various media collections available on the web for all to see.

This includes the ongoing, online placement of Oklahoma’s newspapers dating back to the 1800s. I am especially appreciative of this project. As a new City Councilman, I spent a good deal of time at the Historical Society scanning through microfilm of old local newspapers and gaining a perspective of local history including the destruction of the original City Hall. While this was educational and extremely helpful to me as a local policy maker, the process of scanning through microfilm would quickly cause a headache and is inferior to online research.

As the collection of online newspapers continues to grow, it will give interested individuals the ability to truly understand the history of their communities. It will be possible for members of the public to learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid the repetition of them in the future.

You may view the growing online newspaper collection at gateway.okhistory.org.

Additionally, OHS has endeavored to place historical video footage online at their YouTube account, YouTube.com/OHSFilm. The YouTube collection features an especially haunting video produced in the 1960s by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority. The promotional footage describes Oklahoma City’s urban renewal project, a federally-funded government program to buy out, destroy and replace many downtown buildings. The footage speaks in grandiose terms of the “beginning of a brand new city” and equates the city’s urban renewal project with the rebuilding of European cities after the conclusion of World War II.

An especially fascinating series of building demolitions takes place at the video’s 13-minute mark.

Today, it’s hard for someone to watch this footage without realizing the destructive nature of these types of programs. At that time, many believed in the effort’s ultimate success and that it would transform the city. It did, but not necessarily for the better.

With the help of the OHS effort to make print and media footage available online, we can learn from the mistakes of the past, and hopefully not repeat them in the future.

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