Photo Map Project Gives Glimpse into Downtown's Past

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- There's a lot of buzz about the future of downtown Oklahoma City, but one woman doesn't want people to forget about its past. Her new work, called the Hillerman Map Project, gives a never-before-seen look into the early days of downtown.

Rachel Mosman spends a lot of time in her office looking toward the past. Her walls are like an open photo album, each image a glimpse into what used to be downtown Oklahoma City. A lot has changed since then, and Mosman wants to do something about it.

"I want to encourage preservation," said Rachel Mosman, the Associate Photographic Archivist at the Oklahoma History Center.

That's why Mosman has spent the past three years working on the Hillerman Map Project.

"It's an interactive map of downtown Oklahoma City pre-urban renewal," said Mosman,

The site features unique black and white photographs of buildings and street views from the Barny Hillerman photo collection; some of them dating back to 1919.

"There are 750,000 images in the collection and I've scanned about 40,000 so far," the photographic archivist said.

Once scanned, the photos are uploaded to the site, and the user can click on almost any downtown location and for each photo, there's a story. For example, the Skirvin Hotel was originally planned to be just six stories tall.

Mosman said the project is the easiest way to take a trip down memory lane.

"We've had about 20 people who've come on and commented and said 'My grandfather help build that building' or 'I used to shop at that store,' so it's a really neat community dialogue," Mosman said.

Even if you don't have connects to the city's past, it's still fascinating to look and see what's no longer here. A lot of the buildings that once made up the Oklahoma City skyline no longer exist. Many of the older buildings have been replaced by today's top attractions.

In 1952, the Biltmore Hotel stood tall at the corner of Grand and Harvey, but today, it's the Myriad Gardens.

"If people can see these images and get excited about what their city used to look like, and our heritage in that regard, I think that preservation efforts might kick that up some you know," said Mosman.

See the historic photos from the Hillerman collections and learn about the history of downtown Oklahoma City.