What to See in Tulsa - Top Sights and Attractions

Arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Designed to accommodate arena football, hockey, basketball, concerts, and similar events, the facility was built at a cost of $178 million in public funds and $18 million in privately funded upgrades. Ground was broken on August 31, 2005 and a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on August 30, 2008.

Designed by César Pelli, the architect of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, the BOK Center is the flagship project of Tulsa County's Vision 2025 long-range development initiative. Local firm, Matrix Architects Engineers Planners, Inc, is the architect and engineer of record. The arena is managed and operated by SMG and named for the Bank of Oklahoma, which purchased naming rights for $11 million. The only current permanent tenant is the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. The BOK Center was the former home of the Tulsa Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association and the Tulsa Talons of the Arena Football League.^[2]

Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America. The museum is named for Thomas Gilcrease, an oil man and avid art collector, who began the collection. He deeded the collection, as well as the building and property, to the City of Tulsa in 1958. Since July 1, 2008, Gilcrease Museum has been managed by a public-private partnership of the City of Tulsa and the University of Tulsa. The Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum was added in 2014 at a cost of $14 million to provide a secure archival area where researchers can access any of the more than 100,000 books, documents, maps and unpublished materials that have been acquired by the museum.^[4]

Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Woodward Park is a 45-acre public park, botanical garden, and arboretum located between 21st Street and 24th Street east of South Peoria Avenue and west of South Rockford Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the Midwestern United States. The park, named for Helen Woodward, the original property owner, was established in 1929, after a lengthy court suit over ownership.

The park was designed to provide its visitors experience with a variety of horticultural subjects. It contains a number of specialty gardens, including those featuring spring flowers, tropical plants and cacti, the Tulsa Rose Garden, the Tulsa Garden Center, and the Tulsa Arboretum. The park is particularly known for its azaleas, as well as tulips, irises, dogwoods, and redbuds. The Rose Garden (established 1935) features over 9,000 roses of over 250 varieties.

The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 2014 as Woodward Park and Gardens Historic District. Its areas of significance are listed as Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Education/Recreation.^[8]

Cathedral in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Cathedral of the Holy Family is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It is the mother church of the Diocese of Tulsa and is the seat of the bishop. It is located at 810 South Boulder Avenue in the city of Tulsa in the state of Oklahoma. The parish chose architect J.P. Curtin of the Tulsa firm Curtin, Winkler, and Macdonald to design the church. Curtin was chosen over architect William P. Ginther of Akron, Ohio, who built many Roman Catholic churches throughout the Midwest. Ginther designed an alternate plan for the church trustees who had concerns about Curtin's design. All that remains of Ginther's work is a set of blueprints.

Construction on the current structure began May 23, 1912 and Mass dedicating the church was on April 1, 1914. It was the tallest building in Tulsa until the Mayo Hotel was built in 1923. The Cathedral is also the site of the Holy Family Cathedral School, an educational institution for students from pre-school to eighth grade.

The Diocese of Tulsa was established in 1973. Buildings at this site were listed on the National Register of Historic Places February 11, 1982. The NRIS number is 82003704.^[9]

Theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Tulsa Performing Arts Center, or Tulsa PAC, is a performing arts venue in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It houses four main theatres, a studio space, an art gallery and a sizeable reception hall. Its largest theater is the 2,365-seat Chapman Music Hall. The Center regularly hosts events by 14 local performance groups. Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Symphony, and Celebrity Attractions are among the Tulsa PAC's major clients. Tulsa Town Hall, Chamber Music Tulsa, Theatre Tulsa, American Theatre Company, Theatre Pops, Playhouse Tulsa, Theatre North, and the PAC Trust also fill the PAC calendar.

Numerous headliners such as Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, Steve Martin and Anthony Bourdain have appeared at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The complex was built with a combination of public and private funds and opened in 1977. The building is home to a permanent collection of 76 works of art.

The Tulsa Performing Arts Center launched a regional ticketing company, run by the Tulsa PAC, in 2006. MyTicketOffice.com handles the ticketing for 12 performance arts venues in Oklahoma and Texas.^[10]

Arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mabee Center is an 11,300-seat multi-purpose arena, located on the campus of Oral Roberts University, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. The building opened in 1972 and was designed by architect Frank Wallace, who designed most of the buildings on the ORU campus. It carries the name of Tulsa oilman John Mabee, whose foundation donated $1 million toward its construction.

An adjacent building, smaller but similar in shape, is known as "Baby Mabee" and houses a television production studio.

Mabee Center opened in 1972 and has hosted the NAIA national men's basketball championship (1994–1998), five NCAA men's first-round or regional tournaments (1974, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1985) and the Midwestern City Conference (now Horizon League) men's basketball conference tournaments (1982, 1985).

It is home to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's and women's basketball teams. It was Eastern Oklahoma's largest arena until the BOK Center was built.

A soundboard recording made at the venue of Elvis Presley's first tour show of 1974, from March 1, was recently released as part of the Follow That Dream release, "Elvis - Sold Out!".^[11]

Apartment building in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1899, the Vinita Electric Light, Ice and Power Company, which was headquartered in the Indian Territory town of Vinita obtained a charter to provide electric power to that community. In 1913, the company consolidated with similar independent companies in Tulsa, Guthrie, Coalgate, Lehigh and Atoka to form a new company, named Public Service Company of Oklahoma. The founder and first president of PSO was Frederick William "Fred" Insull, who moved the company's headquarters to Tulsa in 1916.

The Public Service Co. of Oklahoma Building, originally completed in 1929, was the headquarters of the electric service utility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSC). It was known by that name until its owner (then known as PSO) was acquired by Central & Southwest Corporation (CSC), a major utility holding company, when the building was renamed as the PSO Building. CSC was later acquired by a larger holding company, American Electric Power Company, which retained PSO as an operating company serving customers in the state of Oklahoma. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRIS #84003443) on April 10, 1984. It was added as a Contributing Property to the Oil Capital Historic District in 2010.

PSO vacated this building and sold it to a California real estate investor in 2005. PSO then moved its personnel to the former Central High School building in downtown Tulsa, moves which were completed in 2007. The investor, Maurice Kanbar held the building until 2012, when he sold it, as part of a package, to Stuart Price, one of his associates. The new owner decided to repurpose the building from corporate offices to luxury apartments, and spent several years thoroughly renovating the interior. He also renamed the building Art Deco Lofts and Apartments. Apartment buyers began moving into the building in mid 2016.^[16]

The Gillette-Tyrrell Building is a building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was begun in 1929 by two Tulsa oilmen, J. M. Gillette and H. C. Tyrrell. They initially planned to construct a three-story office building at 432 S. Boulder Avenue, topped by a ten-story hotel, but these plans were canceled during the Great Depression and they stopped construction at the third floor. In 1931, they sold it to the Knights of Pythias, who decided to complete it as an office building and renamed it the Pythian Building.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 21, 1982 (NRIS #82003703). The application lists its architecture as a mix of the Art Deco styles: Modern and Zig Zag. It is also listed as a contributing property on the NRHP Application for the Oil Capital Historic District (NRIS #10001013).^[19]

Presbyterian church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa was organized in 1885 in Creek Nation, Indian Territory, before statehood. It originally met in the store owned by brothers James M. Hall and Harry C. Hall, and was served by itinerant, circuit-riding ministers.

Its first building was wooden, built in 1899. The first permanent minister, Reverend Charles William Kerr and his wife arrived in Tulsa in 1900. Kerr served at this church for more than 40 years. Under his leadership, two more church buildings were constructed, each of stone.

As Tulsa developed as a major city after the early 20th-century oil boom here, this church's congregation grew to become in 1948 the second-largest Presbyterian congregation in the country. FPC is part of the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (UPCUSA).

During the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Rev. Kerr offered church spaces as refuge to African Americans, mostly women and children fleeing the violence and widespread destruction of whites attacking their Greenwood District. The 1926 church is considered a contributing structure to the city's Oil Capital Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.^[21]

Bridge in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 11th Street Bridge was completed in December 1915 to carry vehicles across the Arkansas River at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Used from 1916 to 1972, it was also a part of U.S. Route 66. Functionally, it has been replaced by the I-244 bridges across the Arkansas. At present, the bridge is in poor structural condition and unsafe even for pedestrians. In 2008, the gates were locked to exclude all visitors.

This bridge was added on December 13, 1996, to the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C. Its NRIS number is 96001488. It was named the "Cyrus Avery Route 66 Memorial Bridge" in 2004.

Although the bridge still stands, it is considered unsafe for use and has been closed to vehicles since 1980 and to pedestrians since 2008.^[22]

The Creek Council Oak Tree is a historic landmark which represents the founding of the modern city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States by the Lochapoka Tribal Town of the Creek Nation.

The Creeks had been forced to leave their homeland in the southeastern United States and travel to land across the Mississippi River, where the U.S. Government had granted them land in what was then known as Indian Territory. In 1836, after their arrival, the Lochapokas chose an oak tree on top of a hill that overlooked the Arkansas River as the site of their council ground. They lit a new ceremonial fire, using coals they had carried on their journey, established a busk ground, where all council business would be conducted. These grounds were also a gathering place for tribal ceremonies, feasts and games. The site continued to be used for these events until 1896. The Creeks still hold an annual celebration of their arrival at this site on October 20.^[28]

University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State University–Tulsa, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, is the newest institution of the Oklahoma State University System. It was previously the University Center at Tulsa until it became OSU-Tulsa on January 1, 1999. OSU-Tulsa is unique in the fact that it is not recognized as its own entity, but rather an extension of the main Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma. OSU-Tulsa works in conjunction with the main OSU campus and Tulsa Community College to provide Freshman and Sophomore level courses, enabling students to complete a four-year undergraduate course of study. Pamela Martin Fry was named the institution's third president and first female president in 2019.^[30]