Philcade Building
Waite Phillips’s retail complement to the Philtower next door: a low-rise Art Déco arcade of zigzag terracotta and polished stone that connected oil-era Tulsa’s commerce at street level.
At a glance
Completed in 1931, the Philcade Building occupies the south portion of Waite Phillips’s downtown block, providing retail arcade space directly adjacent to the soaring Philtower. Where the tower reaches for verticality, the Philcade extends the same Art Déco ornamental vocabulary horizontally — its two street facades carrying zigzag terracotta friezes, geometric pilasters, and recessed spandrel panels in the characteristic polychrome palette of the Tulsa Art Déco Historic District. An underground tunnel once connected the building to the Philtower lobby, creating a miniature enclosed commercial district within a single block.
Key facts
- Architect: Leon B. Senter / Smith, Senter & Smith
- Commissioner: Waite Phillips
- Completed: 1931
- Style: Art Déco
- Cladding: Terracotta, brick, polished limestone
- NRHP: 1986 (individual; NR 86002196)
- Address: 511 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, OK 74103
History
The Philcade was Waite Phillips’s second commission on the block, designed by the a different firm (Smith, Senter & Smith, architect Leon B. Senter) from the one that produced the Philtower (Keen & Simpson / Delk) three years earlier. The Depression did not halt Tulsa’s oil economy immediately, and Phillips moved forward with the project as a retail and office annex to the tower: smaller tenants, ground-floor shops, and a covered arcade that would keep foot traffic moving between Boston Avenue and the surrounding streets regardless of Oklahoma weather.
Construction was completed in 1931, during the same period that Tulsa’s Art Déco building boom began to slow under the widening impact of the Depression. The Philcade thus marks something of a stylistic terminus: it is among the last buildings of the city’s first-generation Déco wave, completed just before the Streamline Moderne aesthetic began to displace the richer ornamental vocabulary of the late 1920s. Phillips sold the building, along with the Philtower, in 1941.
Both buildings were listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 (Ref# 86002196), recognising the integrity of Delk’s original design and the exceptional concentration of 1920s–1930s commercial architecture in the four-block area.
What you see
The Philcade’s most distinctive feature is its continuous terracotta frieze at cornice level, where a dense zigzag pattern — the chevron motif that became the shorthand signature of 1920s–1930s American commercial Art Déco — runs along both street facades. Below, the ground floor is articulated with recessed display windows between limestone pilasters, each capped with a geometric capital that echoes the ornamental system of the Philtower crown.
The interior corridor, though altered over decades of retail turnover, retains its original terrazzo floors and plasterwork ceiling. The tunnel’s proportions — relatively narrow, with natural light filtering through the storefronts — give it the atmosphere of a 1930s covered market. The junction corridor connecting to the Philtower lobby is particularly fine, with bronze-framed doorways and original tile dados that survive from the 1931 fit-out.
Practical information
- Address: 511 S. Boston Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74103
- GPS: 36.151496, -95.988662
- Access: Ground-floor arcade open during retail hours
- Time needed: 20 minutes as part of the Boston Avenue Déco walk
- Combined visit: Directly adjacent to Philtower; 2-minute walk to Mid-Continent Tower
Getting there
The Philcade Building is directly south of the Philtower at 511 S. Boston Avenue. Both buildings share a city block between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Downtown Tulsa parking garages are within one block. The building is a 3-minute walk from the BOK Center arena. Tulsa International Airport is 8 miles northeast, approximately 20 minutes by car.
Nearby
- Philtower (1928) — directly adjacent, same block and architect
- Mid-Continent Tower — one block north
- Boston Avenue Methodist Church (1929) — National Historic Landmark, 10 min walk south
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q18156803 — GPS, year
- Wikipedia EN — Philcade Building
- National Register of Historic Places — Tulsa Art Déco Historic District (2007)
- Tulsa Preservation Commission — Philcade Building documentation
- Oklahoma Historical Society — Waite Phillips and downtown Tulsa development
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