The Tulsa World today provided a sneak preview of what the renovation of the Campbell Hotel in Tulsa looks like. It also told how close the historic property came to the wrecking ball just a few years ago:
No way it could be restored.
That’s what the gentleman told local architect Tom Neal in the late 1990s when they walked through the derelict Max W. Campbell building. A building many longtime Tulsans might refer to as the old Casa Loma Hotel at 2600 E. 11th St.
“It was dirty, probably had birds in it,” recalled Neal, who’s also president of the Renaissance Neighborhood Association. “The windows were falling apart from neglect.” […]
Hence that conversation Neal had in the 1990s with the man who thought it should be demolished – quite possibly for a parking lot.
That very well may have happened had not Renaissance Neighborhood Association volunteers intervened, Neal said.
The hotel, which recently was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now is the subject of Designer Showcase 2011, a fundraiser for the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. Forty designers used their talents to dress up about 30,000 square feet of space at the hotel.
The Designer Showcase will run from April 29 to May 29 (tickets are here). The Campbell Hotel will open as a hotel later this summer.