Warr Acres?

[SteelClip49]

Bethany is known for its Main Street, has 2 colleges and is a very nice, quaint city surrounded by Oklahoma City. Yukon is known for Garth Brooks, the Czech Festival and is a thriving city surrounded by OKC. The Village has its quirks. Nichols Hills has some upper class shopping areas, nice restaurants and of course the very nice upper echelon of living. Valley Brook has its strip joints. Forest Park is also known for its upper schelon of living. Britton (although now OKC) has some historical significance.

My question is...what is Warr Acres all about? What is really there besides Phil, Esq.? I have lived in Yukon for most of my life and have been down 66 for many years going from Yukon to OKC to Bethany back into OKC and I have always wondered what is there really to Warr Acres?

[BudSooner]

Big O Tires?
Hertz? wait, scratch that.
Homeland, scratch that too.
Walmart? scratch that also.


They did have a pretty good sub sammich store by my sis on nw63rd&MacArthur.

I got it, the lowest taxes in the area.....I forgot about that.

[BudSooner]

Valley Brook, dude...I don't know how many times I was baited by my buddies to head over there.

Glad I didn't, they later told me the fuzz likes to look for out of place license plates and target them for anything to get money.

[SteelClip49]

I never have been to VB and never will.

Regarding Warr Acres...they do indeed have the lowest tax rates around and they have monstrous signs letting people know about it.

[silverwheels]

President Reagan called it "A City Set On a Hill", so it must be awesome.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

When I was growing up in Warr Acres, I believe the sign read: "Welcome to Warr Acres - 10,000 wonderful people and 8 or 10 old grouches."

It was a bedroom community for the post-world war baby boomer families with most of the houses built in the 50s and 60s.

Warr Acres = Putnam City school system, so many thought of it as a white-flight escape from OKC "court-ordered bussing" schools.

Also, for the longest time, you couldn't buy tobacco or beer in Nazarene-controlled Bethany ... had to go next door to Warr Acres.

[Okla-homey]

Ever hear how Warr Acres was named?

Interesting story. After the battle of New Orleans, Jean Lafitte's pirates who fought in the battle were given land grants by the grateful US government in recognition of their service. One pirate in particular, "Bootjack Bill" McTavish decided to take his war acreage in what would someday be central Oklahoma.

Years later, after one of the land runs, a Boomer tried to stake a claim on Bootjack's land. Bootjack Bill was now long dead, but his son and heir shot the Boomer as he shouted, Stay off my pirate pappy's warrrrrr acres you filthy land lubber!

[SteelClip49]

Homey, you need to teach American History or something. Your stuff is amazingly interesting. From Habeas Corpus to Bull Run...you know it all.

[TUSooner]

Ever hear how Warr Acres was named?

Interesting story. After the battle of New Orleans, Jean Lafitte's pirates who fought in the battle were given land grants by the grateful US government in recognition of their service. One pirate in particular, "Bootjack Bill" McTavish decided to take his war acreage in what would someday be central Oklahoma.

Years later, after one of the land runs, a Boomer tried to stake a claim on Bootjack's land. Bootjack Bill was now long dead, but his son and heir shot the Boomer as he shouted, Stay off my pirate pappy's warrrrrr acres you filthy land lubber!

Alas, that good ol' story just ain't true. (Did I miss a winky, ye olde leg puller?)

Warr Acres was named for the man named Warr who developed it. My brother used to deliver mail to one of the Warr heirs who lived around 58th and Mac. So he knows. In the 40's, my grandpa lived in a couple of different house on 56th, including one at 5913 with a huge yard and garden and another one at 6001 that he built. We think he might have had a house on 58th too, but we can't remember. When I was a preschooler, going to Warr Acres meant good times at Grandpa's house. We were cruising over there yesterday with my dad (after breakfast at Moe's) and that's when my brother showed me Mr. Warr's house.

http://www.thenorthwestchamber.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=NWChamber&Category_Code=OurArea-WarrAcres

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=16184

[Viking Kitten]

That's not I heard the story, Homey. It's a little known fact that famed Russian Novelist Leo Tolstoy visited the American South toward the end of the Civil War. He shed a tear over the brutality of the fighting. His travels brought him to Oklahoma Territory, where he made camp in Central Oklahoma. Inspired by the Natives who lived in peace and harmony with nature, he began writing a new book he called "War: What is it Good For?", although his thick Russian accent made it sound to the locals like he was saying "Warrr."

He went back to Russia, and his publisher convinced him to change the name of the book to "War and Peace." After Tolstoy became famous, an sundry merchant who stocked the book remembered Tolstoy's visit, and simply called the spot where Tolstoy slept "Warr Acres."

[TUSooner]

That whooshing sound you just heard was this thread passing swiftly over my head. :O

[sitzpinkler]

Bethany is very nice?

Bethany ****ing sucks.

[frankensooner]

The Incredible Pizza in Tulsa is better than the one in Warr Acres, thus, Tulsa > Warr Acres.

[Okla-homey]

Homey, you need to teach American History or something. Your stuff is amazingly interesting. From Habeas Corpus to Bull Run...you know it all.

I most humbly admit, my hero Cliff Craven knew it all. He and I used to meet up in the this Boston bar...

[Viking Kitten]

Yeah, I think the operative word there was "bull" run.

[Okla-homey]

Yeah, I think the operative word there was "bull" run.

and its "Manassas." Only reb scum call it "Bull Run.";)

[SteelClip49]

Sitz....Bethany sucks if you never leave there...like most Nazarenes who attend Bethany High and go to SNU and live the rest of their days there.

I remember back in the day when Bethany was a hotbed for Beanie Babies. They still have Clarks Bakery and other neat shops where you can get stuff.

Okla-homey, I think you are more of a modern marvel than Timmuh Tebow.

[bluedogok]

Here's the story.....


Oklahoma Historical Society: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture - Warr Acres (http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA025.html)

One of the Oklahoma City area's numerous urban islands, the incorporated town of Warr Acres was created in 1948 in western Oklahoma County. In this area, well outside Oklahoma City's and Bethany's corporate limits, developers began to create residential areas there. In 1909 Israel M. Putnam, real estate developer and member of the first state legislature, had purchased land west of Oklahoma City in Council Grove Township. On a 160-acre tract about eight miles west of downtown, he sold lots in Putnam, later Putnam City. More significantly, he attempted unsuccessfully to engineer the relocation of the state capital from Guthrie to his Oklahoma County property. Putnam City grew but never incorporated. Warr Acres housing addition was created nearby in 1937 by Clyde B. Warr, an Oklahoma City real estate promoter since the 1920s. He followed with War Acres Second Addition. In the area's early years an interurban railway provided quick access to jobs in Oklahoma City, and a bus line launched in 1946 by Warr provided similar service. Transportation promoted growth that accelerated in the post-World War II era.

By the 1940s many housing developments had been planted in the western part of Oklahoma County. The impetus for incorporation came in January 1948 when Bethany's city council voted to annex Ferguson Park, Smythe Place, and part of Warr Acres. Therefore, in February residents of eight other additions, including Putnam City, joined the three in petitioning to incorporate. The county commission allowed it. Of the approximately 2,000 area residents, 857 voted for the merger (40 voted against). Bethany filed suit, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the Warr Acres incorporation. The name Warr Acres remained, because the community had earlier been given that postal designation.

In its first formal decade Warr Acres continued its rapid expansion. The 1950 census reported 2,378 residents, and the 1960 census, 7,135. As single-family and apartment residences multiplied, city services could not keep up. In September 1952 some dissatisfied residents petitioned Oklahoma City for annexation. The movement fizzled, reappeared in 1954, and died again. In the 1960s and 1970s shopping districts emerged at the intersections of MacArthur Avenue with Thirty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Sixty-third streets and Northwest Expressway. In future years Warr Acres annexed adjacent residential developments that were not in Oklahoma City or Bethany, and by 1979 the town comprised more than three square miles.

In 1980 Warr Acres was a substantial "bedroom" community with a population of 9,940. Service-related businesses predominated, numbering approximately 250. The city's annual budget supported police and fire departments and various other services, including a sewage treatment system shared since 1950 with Bethany. The YMCA's Camp Don Shelley and the YWCA's Camp Ione provided outdoor activities for boys and girls of the Oklahoma City area from 1963 and 2003, respectively. Newspapers included the Putnam City-Northwest News, continued as the Northwest Quill in the 1980s.

At the end of the twentieth century Warr Acres retained a small-town atmosphere. It is generally bounded by Wilshire Boulevard on the north, Mueller Avenue on the west, Thirty-third Street on the south, and Meridian Avenue on the east. State Highway 3 (Northwest Expressway) and U.S. Highway 66 (Northwest Thirty-ninth Street Expressway) pass through the community. Nearby Wiley Post Airport provides private air transportation. The Putnam City School District serves some parts of Oklahoma City and almost all of Warr Acres, although some residents live in the Oklahoma City School District. In 1990 the population stood at 9,286 and in 2000 at 9,735. Citizens maintained a home rule charter with mayor-council form of government.

SEE ALSO: SETTLEMENT PATTERNS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Oklahoma—Warr Acres History," Vertical File, Warr Acres Public Library, Warr Acres, Oklahoma. Profiles of America, Vol. 2 (2d ed.; Millerton, N.Y.: Grey House Publishing, 2003). Marilyn Staton, "Warr Acres Officials Say Super Service Makes Suburb Special," Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 28 September 1979. "Warr Acres," Vertical File," Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

Dianna Everett

© Oklahoma Historical Society

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Warr Acres was named for the man named Warr who developed it. My brother used to deliver mail to one of the Warr heirs who lived around 58th and Mac. So he knows. ]

I vividly recall the two Warr homes - the older is on the SW corner of 58th and Mac and the newer is on the NW corner. Two $300,000 homes surrounded by $80,000 homes. Outside of Nichols Hills, they were my childhood notion of rich.

[SteelClip49]

In reading that excerpt there.... I always wondered what was up with Putnam City. I mean, it's not an actual city...just a district area or what not. There is a Putnam somewhere in Oklahoma but Putnam City I guess never was considered an actual township....just an addition like Warr Acres yet Warr Acres became a town. PC never was incorporated yet the name remained to throw people off like me and others..."Where is Putnam City on the map?" "There are 3 high schools in this Putnam City but there is no Putnam CITY."

Anyways, thanks for the info Blue.

[Phil]

That's a good little historical blurb. However, I am as sure as I can be that nobody in Warr Acres lives in the Oklahoma City School District.

[stoopified]

Here's the story.....

I always wondered why there was a Putnam City school system and no Putnam City.Now I know why.

[bluedogok]

That's a good little historical blurb. However, I am as sure as I can be that nobody in Warr Acres lives in the Oklahoma City School District.
Yeah, the closest to it is the shared boundary on some parts of Portland between 39th & 50th, which is still a mile away. I was a PC West grad so I grew up in that area of the city.

http://www.putnamcityschools.org/Portals/0/images/Boundaries08.jpg

BTW - Good luck Phil.

[SteelClip49]

What's up with that white space in the middle that crosses 39th? Unless that is just for Bethany High school.

[Phil]

Yep, that's the Bethany district.

[SteelClip49]

The whole school district thingy is weird. The whole Mustang and Western Heights school districts are weird and for some odd reason, people living in the Wheatland area or just south of Wheatland are considered in the Moore school district.