Sunday, January 10, 2010

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

An interesting item came through my inbox this weekend that an Art Deco Museum is being planned for Tulsa. It is known as Decopolis and at this stage exists only as a website, decopolis.org, with a fundraiser planned for February this year.

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

Tulsa has a great stock of interwar architecture and one of the best Art Deco building is Tulsa is the Fire Alarm Building. It is also one of my least successful photographic efforts. I don't know if I accidently adjusted the white balance on my camera or whether it was just playing up. I any case, the photos were a horrible washed out blue colour and I've only just salvaged these examples by converting them to B&W.

You'll also notice that when I visited in 2001, this fine (and now listed) building was in a bad state of repair, fenced off with the windows boarded up.

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

Luckily Tulsa Gentleman and the Tulsa Preservation Commission have posted better and more recent photos on their sites.

The Fire Alarm Building was designed by Frederick V Kershner along the lines of a Mayan Temple. The decoration around the sides of the building feature stylised floral forms and dragon's heads.

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

However, the frieze above the door is the buildings crowning glory.

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

It portrays, what the Tulsa Perservation Commission website describes as

"... an 'Adonis-type' male, stripped to the waist. He has Gamewell alarm tape running through his hands. Flanking him from behind are two helmeted firefighters. A two-headed dragon is shown connected to stylized hoses with the nozzles appearing as their heads.'

Tulsa Fire Alarm Building

I hope you can see, even from my photos, that this is a stunning piece of art.

Best of luck to the people working to establish the Tulsa Art Deco Museum and when completed will further enhance Tulsa's deco credentials.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Dave thought I was losing it - couldn't see the dragon's heads, but the book on Tulsa Art Deco has a good photo that shows the dragon in the section beneath the letering.Love the lightning bolts and the industrial cogs.

    cheers Robin

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  2. Yes Robin, even when you know where to look it is very difficult to make out the detail from my pics. I'd love to go back and see it restored and being used again.

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