Ardmore Historic Commercial District

The Ardmore Historic Commercial District is an important example of the impact of raileads on settlement patterns in Oklahoma. The town developed as commercial center with businesses extending east and west along Main Street from the railroad depot, the hub of its existence. The prosperity and commercial vitality resulting from the railroad is visually reflected in the architecture of the midwestern commercial buildings. The impressive, six block district of red brick with late Victorian Romanesque detailing in a variety of one to three story structures is reflective of Ardmore's historic and continued role as the major commercial center for south-central Oklahoma since 1887.

The town was established in 1887 as a railroad station when the tracks were laid for the Santa Fe Railway, which was the first railroad through the central part of the Indian Territory, connecting Texas with Kansas, and replacing the cattle trails and wagon roads with faster, more efficient transportation for the cattle and cotton going to eastern markets. Prior to statehood in 1907, Ardmore became the largest inland cotton center in the United States, shipping an average of 25,000 bales of cotton anally by rail, helping insure the commercial viability of the town. In 1890, the importance of Ardmore expanded further when the first federal district court inside Indian Territory was established in Ardmore. After statehood, the town's role as a governmental center continued when it became the county seat of Carter County. The discovery of the Healdton Oil Field nearby in 1911 led to an economic boom for the town as a railhead for much of oil and gas from the field.

In 1895, following a fire that destroyed 131 businesses in Ardmore, the town had rebuilt, widening Main Street and replacing wooden structures with the more fire resistant, substantial, one to three story, brick and stone buildings that still form the core of the central business district. On September 27, 1915, cashinghead gas leaking from a tank car sitting near the depot exploded, killing fifty people, injuring hundreds more, and damaging many of the buildings in the central business district. When the damage was assessed, much of the district east of the tracks had been destroyed, but most of the businesses west of the depot survived. As a result, by 1918 the central business district had shifted west of the tracks, (the nominated area) and the dominant appearance of the extant business district along Main Street had been established.

The character and prosperity of the present district west of the tracks was well established between 1895 and 1924 with the Victorian Romanesque, Late Victorian, and Plains Commercial structures of red brick and sandstone. Boundaries have been chosen using these criteria: visual cohesiveness, historical integrity, architectural characteristics, and contiguous association. The buildings of the business district form a cohesive visual unit extending west for six blocks along Main Street from the railroad yard to C Street. Beyond the boundaries of the nomination, newer construction, open spaces, and residential structures predominate.

The buildings nominated in the district have had few structural alterations and are in good condition. Included within the district are several significant historic structures: (1) The Hardy Von Keller Sanitarium, the first hospital in the region that was housed on the second floor of a building that also served as a drug store, saloon and gambling hall; (2) The Little Building that housed the first offices of the Independent Petroleum Producers of American.