Letter from Tulsa

I recently came across a familiar name in one of my favorite magazines, Atomic Ranch. The following letter from Steve Novick, president of the Ranch Acres Neighborhood Association, appeared in the Summer 2009 issue. While Atomic Ranch might sound like a salad dressing, it's actually a quarterly rag published in Portland, Oregon and features Mid Century homes with an emphasis on affordable restorations and DIY projects.

I first wrote to AR in 2005 to challenge you to highlight
more traditional ranch homes and to sing the praises
of the Ranch Acres and Lortondale neighborhoods in Tulsa.
Your magazine has succeeded in meeting my challenge.
Meanwhile, the landscaping, the homes and the Ranch
Acres neighborhood have all matured since that writing.

Of special note is the December 2007 designation of
the Ranch Acres Historic District in the National Register
of Historic Places. This designation was the culmination
of a two-plus–year effort that was, in part, inspired by
your magazine. The District contains more than 300
ranch-style homes reflecting a variety of styles, including
colonial, California contemporary, neo-classical and
traditional.

In October 2008, the National Trust for Historic
Preservation held its annual conference in Tulsa and
Preserving the Recent Past was one of the focal points.
Several tours of the Ranch Acres and Lortondale neighborhoods
took place, and we were honored to have
our home included in one of the tours. I have attached
a recent photo of our “club room” for you guys to see.
You should feature Ranch Acres in a future issue.


Thanks for keeping AR alive.

Steven Novick
Tulsa, Okla.

I think it's great our neighbors to the northwest are receiving national attention.

Jackie and I were lucky enough to attend that conference last October, and participate in the tour of modern homes Steve mentioned (see Notes from the National Preservation Conference on our blog). It was inspiring to see people from across the country expressing their appreciation for Tulsa's "recent past" neighborhoods like Ranch Acres, Lortondale, Wedgwood, Sungate, and our own own square mile, here in Patrick Henry.

It looks like more and more people appreciate our style of homes.