The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-08-30
A FEW REAL ESTATE REFLECTIONS.

~ sign of great wire letters on top Of the ten. story
C%ampbell building The letters compose this title Inc
Putnam Co" The name was a mage one IN the Doom
days around 1910 The huge wire letters were prominent
in the DAYTIME a, night dazzling electric bulbs caused eS-
from the thousands who rode OF walked through
the business district and read the big sign.
Those were merry days also they were dangerous days
Oklahoma plunged into real estate SPECULATION, almost TOOK
the count. then recovered, investors recupcfated some OF
their losses, and a sober community came ont ot the ava
lanchc.
In those DAYS Oklahoma City was real estate crazy
Fine farms all around town passed into the hands OF real
estate dealers, who promptly plated the land ana sofa
lots on any old terms. a dollar down and a dollar a year,
or some similar program.
Some Of the more serious Of the real estate men, those
who had broad views and who had witnessed the rise and
fall OF Wichita, pleaded Tor a cessation OF the plating OF
farm lands They argued that the area Of city lots was
ample for a city OF 100000 people. that Oklahoma CITY
could not reach such a population for fifty years, and that
taxation would break the town before outlying lots could be
brought into use tor homes.
And the same conservative realty dealers appealed to
newspaper managcmcnts to refuse advertisements ct new
additions until Oklahoma City had come to her senses
But the reply was to the effect that even II one newspaper
declined boom ads, that others would accept, and that the
craze was in the air, not to be stopped by a human agency,
but must run its course until halted by natural causes.
Wichita in her palmiest Of boom days of the eighties
probably set the pace 81 the world IN real estate Spc'lia
ton. And Oklahoma City was a right good second wien
tia went broke, recovered and is among the finest ct sub
stantial western cities since the people OF that community
came 10 a realization that prosperity is bSildcd on farm
development, and manufactures instead of IN the trading
OF town lots
In the busy local days around 1910 investors OF this
city. including probably the majority OF the population,
bought town lots with no intention Of making more than
the frs, payment. the idea having been to sell at a profit
before the second payment and the taxes became due.
or course. there came a day of settlement. But Okla
hora City fortunately didn't get over the preciplce as
Wichita did. The fine farms around this city that went
into blueprints as town lots eventually found their way
back into fine farms. To-day those farms arc yielding
food products 10 feed hungry nations
Looking back on the situation when our people lost
their heads in town lot investments, today gives one a
feeling of stability in realty values. Probably this city has
more than doubled in population since those wild days OF
1908 and 1909, prior to the crest in 1910, when the federal
census indicated that $4,000 people lived in Oklahoma
CITY. And it is likely that lots in outlying additions OF
even toward the inside now are being sold on a bast
extremely low in proportion to those days, considering tn
tremendous gain in population.
In the liveliest Of the days of 1910 the publicity agent q
the Putnam company declared that the realty holdings q
his principals represented a value Of SlS,WNUM The
came dark days, followed by the clear financial skies, whet
values became stabilized, when speculation departed, wher
about 1900 curbstone real estate brokers found no NOR
customers at inflated values of town lots located six an'
eight and ten miles from the corner of Colonel HuckinS
hotel. 81,
1t all seems like a dream. Oklahoma City enters N
autumn of 1917 with a feeling OF confidence. Real estat