Hooper Brothers Coffee Building

Originally Posted at Random Dafydd

This is one of my favorite historical buildings in Tulsa, in part because I can find it, and most people don't know that it exists. It took me the better part of an hour to find it the first time though. It is in downtown, being within the inner dispersal loop, but just barely.

The building was built in 1924 and was active in the coffee business until 1961. The railroad tracks run right behind the building. Coffee beans were unloaded directly into the building, where they were roasted and ground. The coffee making machinery is long gong. In 1978, when the building was added to National Register of Historic Places, it still had the last working hydraulic elevator in Tulsa. The architect and builder are unknown. It is a rare survival of a 1920s commercial building.

The view above is the from the southwest. Below the view from the northwest.



The sign reading "Hooper Bros Coffee" on the front of the building is raised brickwork.



As can be seen above, the south facade has rectangular windows. There are panels with raised decorative brickwork between the windows of the two stories.



The windows on the west facade have low arches.



The west facade had a painted sign that is still faintly visible.



The north facade also had a painted sign that can only be seen in the lessened wearing of the bricks.



The corners of the building do not meet squarely, causing them to have a jagged appearance. The corner below in an "interior" corner. It is on the south facade, along the west edge of the, now boarded over, main doorway. I assume it represents an extension of an interior wall that was not built at a right angle to the south exterior wall. The southwest corner of the building has a similar appearance.



The Beryl Ford Collection at the Tulsa Library did not have any vintage images of this building online. They did have an image of the 1940 Hooper Brothers Coffee calendar.



Thanks to my brother for the photography of the building and to the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society for the calendar image.