Tidal School
S of Drumright off OK 16, Drumright, OKThe Tidal School is significant because it is the best example of a "wing school" remaining in the Cushing oil field area and because it was built by the Tidewater Oil Company for the children of their workers. A "wing school" was an outlying school in the rural oil fields surrounding the oil boom towns. This type of school provided vital educational services in an era when many of the town schools could not accommodate the sudden over population of school-age children, therefore, schools were dispersed rather than consolidated. Tidewater Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, provided the funds to construct the Tidal School on their lease land where the Tidal Refinery and Camp were located, thus making it a quasi-company school. The Tidal School still plays an important role in the social and educational life of the Drumright community as a meeting place for 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers of America Chapters, and local civic organizations.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
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.