Mahoney-Clark House

Significance of the Mahoney-Clark House lies in its rather unusual design and in the fact that its ownership remained for nearly three quarters of a century in a single prominent pioneer family. Only within the past few months has the house been transferred, with an endowment, to the Lawton Heritage Association by the grandson of the builder as a memorial to his parents and his grandmother.

Johanna (Mrs. John C.) Mahoney had this impressive buff brick house built in 1909, just eight years after the town of Lawton was laid out. She died in 1911 and the following year her daughter Loretta and husband, Philip Henry Clark, moved into the house. Both the Mahoney and Clark families were Galena, Ill., natives. Clark was an attorney. In 1907 he and Loretta came to Lawton, where he practiced law until his death in 1945. Mrs. Clark died in 1963. The Clarks invested in real estate and, with access to reasonably priced loan money from Illinois contacts, made it possible for many other Lawton pioneer families to buy and build homes. Their only child, Edward Clark, is also an attorney, having graduated from the Harvard School of Law in 1929. He has also been active over the years in oil, real estate, and agriculture.

The Mahoney-Clark House is a "stacked flat" - a vertical duplex, 80 to speak - two identical floors with a basement and a large attic. The exterior is an adaptation of the Spanish Colonial. Although in a rather dilapidated condition after many years of neglect, it retains its original lighting and plumbing fixtures, marble fireplaces, and built-in china closets. The exterior is virtually unchanged from its 1909 appearance.