Forgotten Tulsa: Bates Elementary School
While Googling for Regent Preparatory School of Oklahoma, I came across a webpage about Bates Elementary School, the public school that originally occupied the building on 72nd East Avenue, north of 51st Street. The school wasn't named after Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote "America the Beautiful," or any of the Bates Stapler Bateses:
According to my mother's memory, John Bates was a boy who had died in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, his mother purchased a parcel of land which she then donated to the Tulsa Public Schools with the stipulation that a school would be erected on the land in the child's name.
As far as I know, that John Bates is not a relative of mine.
The school opened in 1973. Its predecessor was Phoebe Hearst Elementary, a collection of prefab buildings built in 1966 in the Regency Park neighborhood, on the land that is now Aaronson Park.
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Very Nifty!
You sir, are quite skilled with a shovel.
Wow. I had completely forgotten about Bates Elementary as well. I do remember, now, a big assembly we had at Salk Elementary to welcome the Bates students to our school, as theirs was closing at the end of the school year. That was in the spring of 1983.
So Bates Elementary was only in operation for 10 years? Tulsa Public Schools started overbuilding to accommodate the Baby Boomers in the late '60s, right about the time the first Baby Busters entered kindergarten. If the school board of the time had been paying attention to birth rates, schools like Bates Elementary and Mason High School would never have been built. The positive side of overbuilding: Private schools have had an easier time finding facilities.
Michael, how about starting a Forgotten Tulsa site?...
www.forgotten-ny.com
That's a great idea, Kevin, and your Forgotten NY is certainly an inspiration -- and a lot to live up to. The closest thing Tulsa has to that right now is a great site called Tulsa TV Memories, which has branched beyond local television to cover a lot of local pop culture. Most of the material on that site has been contributed via the guestbook, then organized by topic.