70 Years Ago: An Art Deco High School Built in the Year of "The Wizard of Oz" - 1939

"It wasn't Gothic. It wasn't Roman. It wasn't Spanish. It wasn't this, that, or the other damn thing. It was just something that was an expression of our time." - Joseph Koberling, one of the designers of Will Rogers High School in Tulsa. 

I can't imagine if my high school looked like Will Rogers High School. How inspiring that must have been! It would have been like going to school in Radio City Music Hall. I wonder if kids who go to school there today or who went there in more recent years understand how special that school is. 

The schools I went to while growing up were either brand new or new-ish, with the exception of one. I don't know what to call the architecture of those schools. Maybe 70's / 80's cement school box modern. There were some cool modern concepts about them, but they definitely weren't visually stimulating. Well, except for the bright orange and yellow corrugated cardboard borders on the walls and the laminated Scholastic Book Club posters. 

I can't imagine seeing 70's or 80's hair walking down the hallways at an art deco school. But, I can easily imagine Dorothy and the Tinman skipping down those halls. 

1939 was visually a very good year. The Wizard of Oz was released, an art deco high school was built in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the 1939 New York World's Fair took place; it was an art deco dream year. The 1930's went out with a bang, which was a good thing, because art deco faded from popularity in the 1940's. 1939 seemed like art deco's grand finale. 

Thank you to tulfilms for this video on YouTube. I found myself pressing pause a few times just to stare at some of those beautiful shots.