One of the things that comes up fairly frequently in my research has been the Woods Building (103 N. Greenwood). If you’ve seen riot pictures of the ruins of Greenwood, you have likely seen the Woods building. I suspect that, because of it’s location as the 1st building on the Northeast Corner of Greenwood and Archer, it was the most commonly photographed set of ruins after the riot. It was built around 1916, and took a few years for the tenants to populate it.
The Woods Building is described in the 1921 Tulsa City Directory and Parrish’s Events of the Tulsa Disaster as having been a 2 story brick building, 70×80 feet, and worth $15,000. It housed:
101 Earl Real Estate Co.
101 1/2 Oklahoma Sun office, Theo. Baughman.
103 Bayers and Anderson, Tailors
103 1/2 R. T. Bridgewater, Physician
103 1/2 T. R. Gentry, Real Estate
103 1/2 Wesley Jones, Physician
103 1/2 James M. Key, Physician
103 1/2 Mrs. Mary E. J. Parrish, School.
103 1/2 2 Apartments
Looking at the photos of the riot:
“Greenwood burning” 1989.008.5.40. McFarlin Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The University of Tulsa. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking up Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. The Woods Building on the right has not yet burned. It appears that the next building north along the street is currently burning. Shadows indicate that this may be as early as 9 am.
According to Redfearn’s brief in the insurance case, by 8.00 he had returned to Greenwood. Although he says they are the ‘west’ side of the street, he identifies the Woods Building, and the Phillips building as being on fire, and Cherry’s ‘place’ and maybe one other on the west side were on fire. Neither the Dixie Theater nor the Redwing Hotel were on fire at that time. (Testimony of William Redfearn, Redfearn v. American Central Insurance Co.) As you can see in the picture, while the smoke from the west side of the building is too thick to see far up the street, the Woods building has pretty clearnly not been burned yet.
“Tulsa Race Riot” 1989.008.5.52. McFarlin Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The University of Tulsa. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking at the Woods building at Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. A crowd mills around the building while it is being looted. Based on the shadows, this picture was taken after the preceding, but not much. The next building to the north has collapsed. A point of interest, one of the windows on the south side of the building, second floor, was the location of Mary Parrish’s apartment as well as her place of business, based on her description of the events of the riot.
Redfearn’s testimony stated that between 8 & 9 a.m. he returned to Greenwood, and saw the fire almost entirely of the west side of Greenwood and about half of the east side between Archer and Cameron were on fire. He left before the Redwing was totally destroyed by fire. He originally claimed to have seen people break open the front doors of buildings on Greenwood (testimony given to the Fire Marshal on 3 June — later repudiated (Testimony of William Redfearn, Redfearn v. American Central Insurance Co.))
“Tulsa Race Riot” 1989.008.5.W21. McFarlin Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The University of Tulsa. Photographer unknown. A photograph looking up Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. past the ruins of the Woods building. The Greenwood wall has collapsed, exposing the stairwell wall between 101 and 103 N. Greenwood, but the I-beam runninf from the corner over the door areas is still in place. This can be seen in several of these images. From the shadows, this looks like mid-day, but of what day? The Woods building is still smoking, so it may be the 1st, but not later than the 2nd.
“Tulsa Race Riot. June 1, 1921” A2416, The Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking up Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. This photo was probably taken in the same time frame as the preceeding.
“Tulsa Race Riot” 1989.008.5.41. McFarlin Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The University of Tulsa. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking up Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. The south wall of the Woods Building still stands, and the electrical lines to the pole next to the Woods Building are still standing.
“Tulsa Race Riot” 1989.008.5.W14. McFarlin Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The University of Tulsa. Photographer unknown. A photograph looking up Greenwood Ave. from Archer St. past the ruins of the Woods building. The south wall of the Woods Building still stands, but the electrical lines lines are starting to collapse. The looted safe is sitting on the curb shows up in a number of the images. It may have belonged to Dr. Bridgewater.
“Tulsa Race Riot. June 1, 1921” A2415, The Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking at the ruins of the Woods Building. The entire south wall has collapsed and been removed. Based on the lack of debris, this photo was taken weeks or months after the riot.
“Tulsa Race Riot. June 1, 1921” A2425, The Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society. Photographer unknown. Photographic original unknown. A photographic reproduction of a photo taken looking at Greenwood and Archer. This image is frequently flagged as being of pre-riot Greenwood, however the Botkin Building, built on the site of the Woods Building in 1922 is a three story structure.
“Botkin Building, 2012” Photographer: Marc Carlson.
The Botkin Building as it appears today.
The Tulsa Race Massacre 