Johnson Home
400 Country Club Rd., Ardmore, OKThe Roy M. Johnson Home is both historically and architecturally significant because: (1) its historic association with Roy M. Johnson, co-founder of the Crystal Oil Company, the first such operation to purchase leases and drill wells in the Healdton Oil Field, one of Oklahoma's richest petroleum discoveries, and (2) it is the best remaining example of Richardsonian Romanesque vocabulary as applied to a dwelling in Ardmore.
In 1907, the year of Oklahoma statehood, Johnson moved from Texas to Ardmore where he started a weekly newspaper, the Ardmore Statesman. During the next eight years, he promoted the potential of petroleum in the Ardmore vicinity. Finally in 1915, he and two fellow Ardmore businessmen (Galt and Franklin) formed a development company which drilled the first well in the Healdton Oil Field, which dominated the petroleum industry of Oklahoma for the next decade. Following the discovery of oil in 1915, Johnson had accumulated sufficient wealth to build a mansion in the Country Club section of Ardmore. From 1915 until his death in 1960, Johnson and his family resided in the nominated property. His most productive years were in the 1920s and 1930s when he served as treasurer of the Crystal Oil Company, County Commissioner of Carter County, a member of the first Oklahoma Highway Commission, financed the first skyscraper in Ardmore (Simpson Building), director of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, and director of the Ardmore National Bank. He was also known for his philanthropic activities having donated land for both the Ardmore Memorial and Ardmore Adventist Hospitals.
The Johnson Home features a simplified Richardsonian Romanesque vocabulary. Noteworthy elements include the rock-faced coursed ashlar wall finish giving the dwelling an overall sense of heaviness and rough texture, arched openings in front and rear, stone voussoirs and keys, numerous casement windows, and short columns. Additional decorative elements consist of lunette-type windows, balustraded deck and front patio, French-type doors with sidelights, and Spanish red tile roof Johnson's most significant contributions to the historical development of city of Ardmore and state of Oklahoma were made while residing in the nominated property. The home is currently owned by the Otey Johnson Estate (Otey was one of Roy's children) thereby continuing its historic association with the Roy Johnson family.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.