Fulton House, 14 Stiles Circle, Oklahoma City

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS OKLA,55-OKLA,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Fulton Home is significant because it possesses unique elements of late vernacular Queen Anne residential housing. Although this is not a rare type of housing in Oklahoma City, the use of brick veneer on a Queen Anne vernacular house, together with the bay windows on the front facade make this structure unusual. In May of this building was declared eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the State Historic Preservation Office.

Historical Information

Date of Erection: Circa Architect: Unknown Historical Narrative: Maywood Addition, located only a few blocks from the downtown business district of Oklahoma City, was platted in only three years after the land run that opened the territory to non-Indian settlement. One unusual feature in the addition was a diagonal street which terminated in a European-style circle with a park in the middle and lots around the perimiter. As late as these lots around Stiles Circle were still undeveloped. Sometime in or Dr. James S. Fulton began work on a house at 14 Stiles Circle. Within the year every lot around Stiles Park was developed, Fulton, a well known physician, and his wife, Nancy, remained in the house until February of Fulton House (14 Stiles Circle) HABS No.

OK-48 (Page 2) when they sold it for to Jesse Mayfield. Mayfield in turn sold the house in September of the same year to Harry L. and Marie Dodd for Dodd was a traveling salesman. The house was occupied by a number of families thereafter, some of whom were not the owners. Beginning in the home became a multi-family dwelling at times, perhaps reflecting the declining stature of the neighborhood. Occupants generally were middle class workers, but for two years from to it was home to a physician who used it as a doctor's office. After World War II the area around the house became a predominantly black neighborhood in a segregated city. The house, used as a multi-family dwelling, was in large part neglected and abused. By the it was an altered reflection of the home built by Dr.

Fulton in Biographical Information Dr. James S. Fulton James Samuel Fulton was born in Montgomery County, Arkansas, in He was the son of an Alabama native and Confederate veteran. Fulton eventually left the farm and attended the University of Arkansas, where he completed the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He practised in Hot Springs, Arkansas, becoming a specialist in blood and skin diseases. In December of during a phenomenal economic boom, he moved to Oklahoma City. At the time of his death in he had four children. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION 1. Architectural Merit and Interest: The Fulton Home is architecturally significant as an unusual expression of late vernacular Queen Anne housing.

Important features include the brick veneer on this type of housing and the bay windows on the front facade. 2. Condition of Building: The home is in an advanced state of deterioration, both structurally and cosmetically. It is to be demolished. 3. Summary Description: Despite its relatively late construction date, the two-story Fulton Home is distinguished by several elements of vernacular Queen Anne design. The exterior is accentuated by vertical lines, especially the bay windows on the first and second floors, the gabled dormer above the bay windows, the hipped roof, the narrow, visually fragmented front facade, and the narrow brick columns around the front entry.

Adding to the Queen Anne look is the assymetrical arrangement of the facade, with the entryway to one side and behind the visually dominant bay extension. The other three sides of the house are comparatively plain, the flat surfaces broken only by standard double-hung windows Fulton House (14 Stiles Circle) HABS No. OK-48 (Page 3) Detailed Description of Exterior Foundation: Reinforced concrete 2. Wall Construction: Wood framed walls with brick veneer. The brick work is distinguished only by the use of a lighter stone for window sills and horizontal striping. 3* Porches: A small porch is located in front of the main entry. 4. Openings, Doorways, Windows: The main entry is located on the northwest corner of the house under a small porch covering.

Another door is located on the rear of the dwelling. The existing door is covered with plywood. Most of the windows are double-hung wooden sashes, and all are in poor condition. The only unusual windows are the bays in the front, with two narrow windows on either side of a wider window, and the windows in the old dining room on the southeast elevation, with two shallow, fixed windows flanked by two taller, narrower windows. It appears that the two dormers also had fixed windows. 5. Roof: The hip roof, originally covered with wooden shingles, is broken by two dormers, one a large gabled dormer on the front elevation, the other a hipped dormer on the southeast elevation. Detailed Description of Interior: 1.

Floor Plans: The entrance, offset to the northwest, leads to the living area on the right, a hallway and kitchen straight ahead, and the stairway to the second floor to the left. Behind the small living area and connected by a large arched opening is a dining room. Doors from the dining room lead to the kitchen on the back of the house and a hallway which leads to a downstairs bedroom and bathroom. The upstairs floor is broken into three bedrooms, a landing, and a bathroom. 2. Wall and Ceiling Finish: Framed walls and ceilings were covered with lathe and plaster. 3. Doors and Windows: Window sashes are pine; standard mill doors have been painted. ^' Floors: Original floors appear to have been covered with hard wood, probably oak.

Plywood covers most of the floors now, and much of the flooring has been removed totally. 5. Trim: The wooden trim work that survives is relatively plain with several coats of paint. Fulton House (14 Stiles circle) HABS No. OK-48 (Page 4) Site and Surroundings: 1, Orientation and General Setting: The Fulton Home faces the old Stiles Park Circle, so it is not on a true north-south, east-west axis. The front elevation faces due southwest toward the downtown business district along Harrison Avenue. Originally, the houses around the park faced each other, a rare configuration for Oklahoma City with its generally rigid grid pattern of housing additions. Today, urban renewal has cleared all surrounding houses, leaving only two residential homes and one church building on the circle.

Sources of Project Information As part of an urban renewal project, the neighborhood surrounding the Fulton Home was surveyed by Entourage, Inc., of San Antonio, Texas, in The published document was "Harrison-Walnut Historic Survey Report, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, A History." Copies are deposited in the Oklahoma Historic Preservation Office, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Another, more limited survey was conducted in by city consultant, Sandra Stratton, who partially completed a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the Fulton Home,

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS OKLA,55-OKLA,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Warranty Deed and Mortgage Deed Records, Oklahoma County Courthouse, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Directories, Metropolitan Library, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Directories, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Joseph Thoburn and Muriel Wright, "James Samuel Fulton, Oklahoma -A History of the State and Its People, 4 vols. (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, , Vol. Ill, pp. Bob L. Blackburn, Heart of the Promised Land: An Illustrated History of Oklahoma County (Los Angeles: Windsor Publications, Jim Edwards and Hall Ottoway, The Vanished Splendor: Postcard Views of Historic Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City: Abalache Books, Prepared by: Bob L. Blackburn, Historical Consultant 126 Oklahoma City, OK September,