The Intriguing Mystery of History

Old houses fascinate me. If they could talk, what stories they would tell of the people who have lived within their walls, of the good times and bad, of historic changes they’ve witnessed. Old houses are a part of history and I like to dig out the mysteries within them.

For a time, quite a number of years ago,  I had the dream job of writing about historic houses and events important to my hometown of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This was an “on the side” job. My main occupation was teaching. I loved delving into the past and met many interesting people and learned fascinating facts along the way. Thanks to The Tahlequah Daily Press for my story about the house that sits atop Bluff Avenue, published February 16, 1986. This blog is only fragments of the story. It was actually quite long.

High atop Bluff Avenue, the house of Robert and Audrey Pullen gazes serenely at Tahlequah sprawling below it. At the foot of the hill, Delaware Street runs westward like an unfurled ribbon while the spire of the Methodist Church points heavenward through winter trees.

The white colonial house with its welcoming porch and four graceful columns would have been as much at home in the previous century as in this one. Each of the ten rooms is spacious and high-ceilinged, from the 15 x 30 foot living room to the three bedrooms upstairs.

The Pullens own Gallery Antiques at 201 South Muskogee, and their large home furnishes a perfect setting for lovely pieces made in past generations. The living room, done in shades of blue, has among its many antiques a Chinese teakwood center table that came from Audrey’s grandfather’s house. In the next room, there is a Queen Anne dining room suite with cane-backed chairs and an unusual light fixture: a wire bird cage. 

The house’s only existing fireplace of the three original ones is in the center den. It is from this den that a wide stairway rises to the upper floor. 

Audrey takes special pleasure in the acre of ground that surrounds the house. “In addition to the five black walnut trees, there are eight pines that we planted plus two magnolias,” she said. “There are wild cherry and mulberry and we are adding hybrid poplars.”

“I have been told that the way people used to go to town from here was to drive north by the college,” she said. “There was no street directly to town as there is now.”

House on Bluff Avenue

Despite changes in the town that has grown up around it, the house remains unchanged, gazing down at Tahlequah with a serenity and beauty that is timeless.

 

 

Comments

  1. I love old house and architecture. I love to take pictures of old houses and buildings. There is just a mystery and story behind each one. Love the post

    • Thanks for your comment, Deb. Yes, I love old houses and imagining what might be the story behind those walls. I really enjoyed writing about old houses in the Tahlequah area and got to know quite a bit of local history that way.

  2. Linda Beaverson says

    Blanche, who originally built this house and what year was it built? I believe it may have been Greg James but not sure.

    • Blanche Manos says

      Linda, I hesitate to say with a certainty because all I know is what I’ve been told. Do you remember Nell and Woody Woodard who lived on Allen Road? I talked to her about the house too. She knew and loved the place because she and her husband and their daughters lived there from 1939-1944. The Pullens bought it from Leo and Ruby Bode. Past owners included Gregg James, J. F. and Nell Woodard, S. D. Dowdy and J. I. Coursey. The first owner of the house at its present location was the county attorney in Tahlequah in 1908.

  3. Beautiful house and beautiful description, Aunt Blanche! I’d love to tour it and imagine stories of long ago. By the way, the new director of the Covenant Heights Camp up the road from our church was at our church recently. He and his family recently moved here from “near Tulsa”. He went to school at Northeastern and has wonderful things to say about it and Tahlequah. He was so excited when I told them about you, Grandma & Grandpa’s house, and my memories of Tahlequah. It was so fun talking to him. Small world, right?

  4. Rhonda G. Couch says

    Blanche, I so enjoyed your story and have to agree with you that old houses do hold a lot of untold history. I’ve always said, “If only these walls could talk” or “To have been a fly on the wall”. Thanks so much for sharing with YMBFTI!!

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