French-Parks House
a.k.a. French House
209 W. Keetoowah St., Tahlequah, OKThe French-Parks House is architecturally and historically significant because it is representative of the style and type of homes built during the primary period of Tahlequah's development as the Cherokee National capital because it associated with persons important in the Cherokee Nation.
The house was built as a wedding present by John Thompson, a prominent merchant and Tahlequah's second mayor, for his daughter Jane Anna in 1880. Both Robert French and his wife Jane Anna were mixed-blood Cherokees. He was born in the Cherokee Nation in 1848 and was self educated. During the Civil War he had been a dispatch bearer for Confederate General D.H. Cooper. Following that time he worked as a cowboy and deputy Marshall. In 1879 He had been elected High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation and was appointed Constable in 1891.
Thompson's nephew, J.T. Parks, the first Cherokee County judge, bought the house from the Frenchs in 1910. The Park family held ownership until just prior to World War II.
Most of the homes that were built during the period that the French/Parks house was built were owned by the towns professional class. They are large, brick or frame houses of a Victorian style. That they were here, an area only shortly-settled by individuals forced to move to the area, who had then been further devastated by the Civil War, exemplifies the persistent character of the house owners.
The French/Parks House, possesses scale and appointments that make it one of the best examples of the Victorian influence in Tahlequah. Features of this large, brick house are a high pitched roof, marble quoins, five bay windows and five fireplaces. The interior retains it main original historic features in its wood doors, floors, wainscotting and stairways.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
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.