Legacy preserved
Heritage Hills Historic Homes Tour set for Oct. 13-14
When a job transfer brought them from Boston to Oklahoma City 40 years ago, the real estate agent steered Renate and Chuck Wiggin toward Quail Creek and other newer neighborhoods. “The homes were beautiful,” Renate Wiggin said. “But the trees” — she sliced a hand about waist level — “they were like this. I asked, ‘Don’t you have any neighborhoods with trees?’ ”
So the agent reluctantly ushered them to older neighborhoods with bigger trees, places that were timeworn. This included Heritage Hills, where Wiggin said he took one look at the treelined streets and exclaimed, “Now we’re talking!”
Still, Wiggin said the neighborhood was “not good” when they bought their first home on NW 16. Houses around them were in various states of disrepair at the time, and one burned to the ground.
But Heritage Hills was on its way back thanks to preservation efforts launched in the 1960s.
They now live at 301 NW 18, which is a stop on this year’s Heritage Hills Historic Homes Tour.
The self-guided tour will be from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 13-14. Advance tickets, available through Oct. 12, are $15. Tickets are $20 on tour days.
They can be purchased at heritagehills.org/homestour
or at participating vendors listed on the website. All proceeds benefit renovations at the Overholser Carriage House.
Heritage Hills sits on a narrow slice of real estate from NW 14 north to NW 23, and from Broadway Avenue west to Robinson Avenue. The neighborhood’s history stretches to 1903, when businessman Henry Overholser and his family moved into a mansion on what was a remote hilltop.
Three early neighborhoods took root, drawing a wide variety of the city’s newly wealthy families, all from different backgrounds, all eager to show off their success in the homes built in what was then an isolated neighborhood.
The result is a wideranging collection of architectural styles, ranging from wide-porched bungalows to sprawling manors.
The area fell into disrepair a few decades later as city growth pushed into the area and families began moving out of downtown. Preservation efforts launched in the 1960s, however, have restored it to its former glory. The original three neighborhoods pulled together in 1969 to form Heritage Hills, Oklahoma City’s first historic preservation district.
A plaque by the door of the Wiggin home shows the modified Englishstyle manor was built in 1923, but Wiggin said she and her husband are only the third family to own it.
John A. Brown, head of the eponymous department store chain based in Oklahoma City, hired the architect who designed a friend’s house in California. The result was an almost exact replica of the California home, right down to St. George the Dragon Slayer above the front door.
Joseph Beard, founder of Beard Oil, bought the house in 1930, and it remained in the family until the Wiggin family bought it 1990.
“We’d always been intrigued by this home,” Renata Wiggin said. “It was on the home tour while we were still living on (NW) 16th Street, and that gave us a chance to look inside. We love the architecture.”
They’ve carefully preserved the character of the house over the years, putting in new landscaping, driveway and curbs. When they rebuilt a low brick fence east of the house, they incorporated a pair of gargoyles rescued from the Mercantile Building. That fivestory building, which once stood on N Hudson Avenue, was demolished in 1976 to make way for a shopping mall that never came to be.
Inside, curved walls and plenty of windows make the most of natural light, something Wiggin appreciates even after decades in Oklahoma.
“Boston is not a bluesky city,” she said, “but Oklahoma City is. I like letting all this Oklahoma sunshine into the house. That’s what I love about this house: the trees and the light.”
ABOUT THE TOUR
Homes on the tour are: Autumn and Rob Abernathy, 431 NW 17; Janel and James Bozarth, 215 NW 20; Maureen and James Watson, 322 NW 15; Renate and Chuck Wiggin, 301 NW 18; and Kathy and John Michael Williams, 710 NW 14.
Parking will be available at St Luke’s Methodist Church, 222 NW 15, and a trolley will run from there throughout tour hours with stops at each home. Accommodations will be available for seniors and those with disabilities.
The tour also will include a central meeting tent on the Overholser Mansion lawn, with Classen School of Advanced Studies guitar students providing music; a variety of food trucks; a gardening consultation table; and an opportunity to purchase the new Heritage Hills Cookbook at the tour gift table.
A separate event, “An Evening in Casablanca,” will be Oct. 12. Attendees will be able to stroll through the tour homes beginning at 5 p.m. and then gather at 6:30 p.m. for cocktails and a Moroccan dinner at the Hale Mansion, 1521 N Hudson Ave.
Tickets for the main tour and full evening — cocktails, dinner and entertainment — are $150 per person. Tickets for the main tour and cocktails only are $50 per person. Cocktail attire is recommended for the evening. Tickets also can be purchased at heritagehills.org/homestour.