Making the Mark: A History of Tulsa’s Street Signs

Photo: Unveiling the monument at the Tulsa Historical Society (May 2024)

Monument Unveiling & Historical Presentation

The Street History (1901 -1937)

Street naming – Part I 

Aug 11, 1901 the town site of Tulsa in Indian Territory was plotted by a survey crew on behalf of the U.S. Geological Survey. The group of 4 men arrived and established an office on Main street between 1st and 2nd street. The naming system, often referenced as the Philadelphia System is a numerical and alphabetical ordering system that was easy to understand without street signs.

The Frisco railroad tracks were used as the baseline for north and south, and the cities pre-developed Main Street was used as the division between east and west. Roads located to the east of Main Street were named after eastern cities in the United States, while roads to the west of Main were named after cities thought to be western cities. (Over the years, there has been misconceptions that these are cities east or west of the Mississippi River, or Tulsa, however, there are many examples where this doesn’t hold true).

First street signs and other city improvements (1905 – 1909)

In September of 1905, the Tulsa City Council meets to consider the placement of the city’s first street signs. Within 10 months, the city purchased and installed 791 street signs attached to oak posts within the business district and beyond. These first street signs were enameled metal measuring 4 x 20 inches and contained white lettering on a blue background. They were guaranteed to last 5 years but immediately ran into issues.

In August of 1906, only a month after the placement of these signs, citywide street paving begins, soon followed by the re-construction and improvement of Tulsa’s sidewalks. Despite a city ordinance for sidewalks in the business district in 1904, improvement over the years was lacking. After all, adequate sidewalks made the difference between free mail delivery by postmen and having to pay to have mail delivered.

In 1908, sidewalk contractors and their construction crews repairing and rebuilding sidewalks, curbs, and gutters adjacent to the newly paved brick roads, were responsible for the destruction of hundreds of signs. Many removed from the ground and left abandoned nearby recent completed construction work. After months of citizen concerns and complaints, including demands for fines for the destruction or removal of signs, the chief of police H. F. Newblock merely instructed sidewalk contractors to replace the signs if they were temporarily removed but it seems little was done about the issue, leaving many streets without signs once again.

Street naming -Part II

By 1913, the few remaining signs originally place in 1906 were rendered “worthless” on account of street name changes over the years. Admiral Blvd was known as Berry Street until 1907, E. First Street known as Hodge Street until the 1920s, and Peoria even known as Pearl during the 1900s. This was only a few examples of many name changes that occurred, mostly related to the exponential growth of the young city.

Street signs continued to be a topic brought up by and city commissioners alike. In 1915, a local firm proposed painting street signs to the curbs of street intersections as a solution. Samples of these signs were painted on the curbs at Third and Main and were considered by the city.

However, 2,727 signs would need to be painted across town, and with only a year guarantee, the commission passed on the idea but searched for other solutions.

New sign designs (1916 – 1917)

In 1916, the Chamber of Commerce became involved with the street sign issue. Sign styles were submitted for recommendation with a variety of personality. Some made of oil and gas piping, decorated and even designed with sponsored space for local businesses. When considering punishment for the destruction of signs by motorist, an idea to add sharp spikes to the signs was suggested. Alluding to the fact that the price for a tire repair was in turn a fine itself.

Movement on the sign issue stalled, while citizens sentiment continued to grow. An article titled Street Signs Are Needed published in the Tulsa Democrat on March 14, 1917 says: “it is true that the streets of Tulsa have names but they are recorded only in the city directory and the telephone book… It is said that some residents are uncertain about the name of the street on which they live. They may have heard of it, but there is no proof that the thoroughfare has such name.” Many streets had colloquial names, one of the most well-known that remains today is Cherry Street.

Corner street signs & naming (1918 – 1920s) 

In 1918, steel street markers designed to be attached to the corners of buildings or metal post if no building existed, were ordered for all downtown intersections, with residential areas to be ordered at a later date. However, due to the mislabeling of the signs, the order was delayed. The signs would not be installed until February of 1919. By December, a familiar issue would arise again, the dramatic inconsistencies of street names throughout the city of Tulsa, and some streets with multiple names, and others without official names at all.

Street Naming – Part III 

Street revisions were desperately needed as the growth of Tulsa and its city limits continued to expand. During this process, annexation of residential additions developed years prior, were regularly being added into the city before their street names could be changed to match. At the time, Archer was the longest street in the city. It was also called Baird and Barton depending on where you were located. Many roads had multiple names due to this rapid advance of the city.

In 1926, a systematic method to revise street names, designed by city engineers, was finally adopted. It renamed many streets to make the city more uniform and the system could be expanded indefinitely as the city grew. Due to lack of money in the cities budget, street signs could not be afforded so street names were painted on curbs with a yellow background and black lettering instead. By June of 1926, every paved street within city limits, approximately 1,800 curbs that remained unmarked, were painted with these name plates. However, over time the paint used on the curbs began to fade.

In December of 1930, the city of Tulsa ordered 200 luminous street signs to be placed at unpaved intersections near the outskirts of the city and specific intersections within the city. These signs reflected the headlights of drivers at night making the signs visible in the dark. Tulsa was the first city west of the Mississippi to have these signs installed.

Advertising street signs (1932)

Searching for other solutions

As the city continued to search for a more permanent solution to the street marker issue, other designs were considered to forever replace the system of painted street names on curbs including, stone markers made of local rock as well as limestone pillars with the names of streets attached to the sides.

In 1933, the city commissioner had 100 concrete street markers made to be placed at 50 principal intersections within the city. In preparation, it was noticed that many of these concrete pillars were crumbling before they could be installed due to poor construction. Despite citizens who thought the markers looked like concrete tombstones, it was certainly a cheaper alternative to the metal signs which were three times as much more expensive to manufacture.

The ‘turning’ point (1934 – 1935)

The issue had reached its peak in the summer of 1934. An opinion piece published in the Tulsa Tribune by a concerned citizen matched the sentiment of many Tulsans in regards to the street marker dilemma. It says: “The quaint idea of painting street names on curbs hasn’t worked out… We have lived in the city for many years and we have never yet seen a time when more than 30 percent of the street markers could be understood.”

These painted markers lasted less than a year and were repainted annually. There was little doubt that the inefficient and antiquated system needed to be replaced.

With the city still lacking a major budget and direction for the project, city commissioner of streets, Ben O. Angel decides to joins forces with the Tulsa Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), to begin a campaign for the research and development of street markers.The U.S. Junior Chamber was a civic organization for young people to gain leadership training, and business skills that was founded in 1920. The Tulsa Junior Chamber of Commerce chapter was one of many across the country.

The organization was first instructed to conduct an informal survey that looked at modern street marking systems and asked Tulsans of their thoughts of what signs they would like to see, or signs they have seen in other cities that they would like to see here. They also gathered information on the total costs of the project, in order to provide a full recommendation to the city commission at the “opportune time”.

During their research, the Tulsa Junior Chamber was sent more than 10 different types of street markers by various manufacturers and individuals of marker designs. Three of these sample markers were placed at 21st and Peoria to be considered by the general public.

Images of the sample markers were also published in Tulsa Daily world in February of 1935 (seen below).

Making The Mark (1936)

In June of 1936, the street marker project won a silver plaque trophy at the national U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce convention in Memphis. Later that year, on the projects 1st anniversary, a stone monument with commemorative bronze plaque was placed on the corner of Eleventh and Boulder, adjacent to Tulsa’s first street marker (seen here). It commemorated the completion of the project and its success, that many didn’t think possible.

16 months later

In April of 1937, 16 months since the first sign was installed, the city had an estimated 3,500 street signs within the city limits. However, 15% of those signs had to be repaired or replaced due to vandalism and damage caused by automobiles.

The monument today

Find more Tulsa history here!

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