RetroMetroOKC

We are all eagerly awaiting the opening of the First National Center hotel and apartments! Travel back in time when 120 N Robinson Avenue was home to the city's largest bank, a radio station, favorite retailers and some big name tenants.

First National Center - Retro Metro OKC First National Center IntroPhotos Videos Documents Unique Facts: 445.86 feet (135.9 meters) ground to roof. 493.11 feet (150.3 meters) ground to spire. Background: By 1930, Oklahoma City had experienced two periods of remarkable downtown vertical development, the early 1910s and the 1920s. 1910 prod...

We are needing to update our email list. If you want to be notified about upcoming visits at historic places, website projects and other items of interest, please email me at [email protected] so I can ensure we keep our list current. Thanks - Steve.

I have sad news to share with you. One of our founding members, Doug Loudenback, died last week.
He had been ailing for quite some time. But Doug wasn't one to dwell on that. My friendship with him goes back almost 20 years to when he was assembling a website that morphed into a display of his love of city history. I spent many an afternoon on the porch of his home in Heritage Hills, where he would smoke his ci**rs, enjoy a drink and exchange thoughts about our past, present and future. He was one of the original handful of people who met to put together this group.

I've been visiting with his family, and they asked me to share this info on his services:

10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, St. John's Episcopal Church, 5401 N Brookline, Oklahoma City.
I'm also told the service will be live streamed for those of us who are limited due to the pandemic. I will share that link as well when I get it.

Let's just all agree, this pandemic sucks. It interrupted a lot of plans I had for a fun 2020 as the website was rebuilt and launched. In July I was working on a tour of First National only to scrap that the newest surge.

That said, I'm hoping all of you still believe in our mission - to share our history in a way that both educates and entertains. Hopefully all of you have seen the website since it relaunched. Marc and I are due for some training soon to start doing some more uploads. Our priority at the moment will be moving Doug's history postings to our site (he gave his blessing prior to his passing and I have gone back to the family to get their blessing, and they are eager to see this happen). This effort alone may give us some opportunity for a much-missed interaction.

In the meantime, I have a final request - and as many of you know, this is the part of my duties as president I don't enjoy - but our funds are running low. If at all possible, please consider making a donation to the group? We're needing to pay for web hosting and updates to prevent the sort of hacks that took us down three years ago.

If you want to mail a check, you can mail it to Retro Metro OKC C/O of Marc Weinmeister,1913 Chaparral Lane, Edmond, OK 73013.
You can also donate online: https://www.retrometrookc.org/about-us/donate/

Donate | Retro Metro OKC
www.retrometrookc.org

We are a 501c3 non-profit and all donations are tax deductible.

Thanks - Steve Lackmeyer, president, Retro Metro OKC

Education Through Preservation Retro Metro OKC is dedicated to educating the community and its visitors about local history by collecting, preserving, displaying and interpreting materials reflecting the heritage of Oklahoma City.

We are live!

Welcome to Retro Metro OKC 2.0 | Retro Metro OKC It’s a tribute to the website’s original creator, Justin Tyler Moore, that we were able to cruise along for so long with a site that first debuted in 2010. The site reflected its founders, a group of people with assorted backgrounds but a shared interest in making our city’s history more acces...

Coming soon....

Coming soon.... a completely new website with new features and collections.

We had a great time tonight learning about the early days of Frontier City, the Prarie Lady concert hall, the revival of the Zoo Amphitheater and John Dunning's own amazing story. His Trolley Stop Records is one of those must see places for anyone who is interested in music or history. The shop is in the old Penn Theater as shown in the shot taken tonight if a recently discovered Oklahoma Historical Society photo.

We have spent the past year fundraising to rebuild our website and we are thrilled to announce that task is complete and we are hoping to relaunch an all new Retro Metro OKC in 2019.

Streetcars return downtown today after they last ran 70 years ago. Retro Metro OKC has several rare color films of the original streetcars ... enjoy this ride back to our past as we journey into our future!

Railroad Video - REC Aug 11, 2010 - Part 1 The Oklahoma Railway Co. operated from 1903 to 1947 and during its heyday it was the chief means of transportation for residents throughout central Oklahoma....

Hey everybody, I’m needing some RSVPs on who is likely to show up for our party Tuesday night and who will be bringing any drinks or snacks.
This will be a great fun night with a talk by Chip Fudge about the history of racing in OKC, and a chance to check out his vintage race car collection.
Also, with fundraising done for a rebuild of our website, time to dream! We will be meeting at The Garage on Tuesday, December 11th (tomorrow) at 6:00 p.m., and please bring an hor d'oeuvre, dessert, or drinks to the gathering.
Please email me at [email protected]
- Steve

We are thrilled to announce that Retro Metro OKC has completed its fundraising to start a complete overhaul of its website and online collections! We are hoping work will start in January.

To celebrate, let’s have an amazing holiday get-together at one of the coolest places we’ve yet to explore – The Garage at 800 W Sheridan along Film Row. Wait? You’ve not heard about the Garage? The Garage is home to an amazing collective of vintage sports cars and the owner, Chip Fudge, will be joining us to share a history on racing.

It’s a topic he knows well.

Please join us at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, December 11th and bring an hor d'oeuvre, dessert, or drinks. RSVP to [email protected].

Another historic gem about to be brought back to life:

Accounting firm set to bring life to historic Midtown church - The last empty, endangered historic church in downtown Oklahoma City is set to be redeveloped into offices and a residence following its recent sale to a local accounting firm.