From one little house came many homes
For The Oklahoman
At 624 NW 19 is an unassuming blue and white bungalow located in Mesta Park whose importance to Oklahoma City might be missed.
But this little six-room house, almost hidden behind its landscaping, played an important role in Oklahoma City’s home building history. It was with this house that Dr. G.A. Nichols began his juggernaut construction career 100 years ago.
An article from The Oklahomanon May 5, 1929, explained how Nichols went from dentist to homebuilder:
...When Nichols came to Oklahoma City 25 years ago he entered the dental profession as a graduate dentist and in four years had built up one of the largest practices in the city. But the filling and grinding of teeth and the hammering of gold inlays failed to hold his interest when he realized that he wished to enter the actual work of building a great city in a comparatively new and underdeveloped country.
Urged on by the fact that his health was giving away under the strain of constant and confining work beside a dentist’s chair and by the fact that his interest in the building of Oklahoma City became stronger and stronger, he left the dental profession in 1907 and entered upon the work of fulfilling his dream.
A 1936 article from The Oklahoman titled “My First House,” continued Nichols’ story:
Some men keep the first dollar they ever earned, but G.A. Nichols sold the first house he ever built —and doesn’t even remember who the buyer was.
Well that was nearly 30 years ago, and a lot of concrete has flowed through the mixer since then.
Nichols, Oklahoma City’s real estate developer extraordinary, estimates he has built some 4,000 homes here. The first one was put up in the spring of 1908, and Nichols checked his files to verify it was at 624 Northwest Nineteenth street ...
Bob L. Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, wrote for The Oklahomanon May 2, 1987:
... Oklahoma City is blessed with a wide variety of unusual, older neighborhoods. And much of this quality is due to the accomplishments of G.A. ‘Doc’ Nichols.
From 1907 to the 1930’s, Nichols was a major home builder and developer in Oklahoma City.
During his career, he built more than 4,000 homes, influence the direction and quality of urban growth and left his print on a wide variety of neighborhoods.
Today, we know a few of them as Heritage Hills, Mesta Park, Lincoln Terrace, Crown Heights, Gatewood, Heritage Hills East, Paseo and his crowning achievement, Nichols Hills ...
Included in his life’s work are housing additions, Military Park, Central Park, Nichols University Place and Harndale, shopping centers, apartment buildings and the town of Nicoma Park.
... At the time of Nichols’ death in 1950,a reporter wrote,’He is one of the four or five men whose life and work have had the greatest effect on Oklahoma City.’
And it all began with the little blue house at 624 NW 19.
If you would like to contact Mary Phillips about The Archivist, email her at gapnmary@gmail.com