Vanishing Spaces

It is a building with a glorious past, a place that’s left an indelible mark on the lives of thousands. It has stood for more than a hundred years, a familiar landmark, its graceful architecture spanning a city block. The future of the building itself may be dim, but its legacy will live on through our memories and mementos. These photographs are intended to help keep those memories fresh and accessible, to help jog a reminiscence of our formative years at Okmulgee High School.

Click on the gallery below to scroll through black and white film photos shot in February, 2026. Below the gallery, see historic photos of the high school and more.

Below, the original high school in a 1910 photo, and a 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the building’s location on the same city block which would house the existing high school in a few short years.

Below, an artist’s rendering of the new high school, completed in 1916. From the 1916 Gusher yearbook.

The 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the location of the building, “from plans.” The 1919 postcard on the right shows the completed academic high school.

Thanks to Julie Monigold Roberds, we have a copy of the 1916 Gusher yearbook from her grandfather. This appears to have been the first annual published by Okmulgee High School. An alumni list it contains indicates the first O.H.S. graduates completed high school in 1906. Below are a few images from the yearbook.

Peruse additional pages from the yearbook by clicking on the link below.

The western section of the building, a vocational high school, opened January 31, 1921. The Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1920 shows the building plans. Note the academic high school was labeled “Washington Irving High School” on the map.

By 1938, as this postcard depicts, the high school had reached its present form, with the four-story addition joining the original academic high school with the later vocational high school.

Fun on the stage in the Speech and Drama Room with LuVona Copeland and Julie Monigold Roberds during the film shoot, February 2, 2026.