A Tall Task
After 40-plus years of vacancy , the 121-year-old , three-story brick
PRESERVING DOWNTOWN ’ S LYTTON BUILDING-MASONIC HALL
building at 907-909 South Main Street is about to enter a new era thanks to an investment by Stillwater native Cory Williams and his success in getting the Lytton Building-Masonic Hall listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the summer of 2021 .
12 |
It wasn ’ t the first attempt to get the building registered to qualify for state and federal funding . “ It had been denied a few different times and so we were pretty excited to get it done and registered . Now it ’ s onward and upward to the more expensive part of the registration process , where you start preparing actual plans , presenting them and revising them ,” Williams said .
In 1983 , the Lytton Building- Masonic Hall and three other downtown buildings , The Hoke Building at 121 West 7th Avenue , the Selph Building at 117 west 7th Avenue and the Walker Building at 117 West 7th Avenue , were nominated for consideration to the registry . However , the owner objected and removed the property from consideration .
The Selph , Hoke , and Walker buildings were added to the registry and are some of the best examples of historic preservation
in Stillwater . These historic buildings stay occupied with commerce and receive sufficient maintenance to last far into the future .
In 1986 , new owners subsequently sought to nominate the Lytton building to be preserved . However , the owners never completed the registration process for reasons unknown . An odd omission from the National Register ’ s “ everything ” spreadsheet , called the Keeper , which includes nominations approved , rejected or pulled for any reason . The Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office ’ s files also did not document why the nomination never proceeded to the federal level .
Williams knew he needed a professional to help push his nomination attempt over the top . So he hired Architectural Historian Cindy Savage , who documented and researched every building detail and history .
“ I knew that this building had been rejected and I had one more shot to get it right and so we found Cindy , who ’ s been in that space for a long time and she came through and took hundreds of
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE