NICOMA PARK, OK - 120 years. That's how long this cabin has slowly settled into the sand on NE 23rd Street. An original Land Run house sitting so quietly behind the Blackjacks that no one ever really took notice except for one former resident Terry Kieth.
"We were just renters. We lived here twice," recalls Kieth. "This part of the house here was the original structure and we understand that even the next piece, which must have been the kitchen was part of the original structure built in 1889."
Terry lived in this house as a teenager. He took some old home movies of the place and slept on the side porch in warmer months. "It just had a twin size bed in it and that was it," he says. "But in the winter time I got to move into the dining room. It was a little drafty."
When his sister graduated from high school the knew a little history but it took a lot of digging for Terry to unearth what makes this Land Run house even more special. "It was in a little bit better shape when we lived here."
From old articles and sale bills Kieth learned about the Knott family who moved in around 1902. They added on to the cabin. Mr. Knott was Oklahoma's first IRS tax collector, a job he might have recieved from his old college friend William Howard Taft. Kieth doesn't know whether he visited as President but whenever Taft was in the area he stopped in and stayed here. "And their wives were friends as well. They corresponded back and forth."
Mrs. Knott got the privelage of naming Nicoma Park. That's her likeness in front of the old mantle on a post card she sent out. The house was a rental until just a few months ago, until the property sold to a local church and the trees cleared away. Tha cabin sits a little more exposed than it used to, uncovered enough for Terry Kieth ot worry about its future. "It's our understanding that they are going to try to move it and save it," says Kieth.
After quietly witnessing so much history this Nicoma Park cabin now faces a date with movers, a new place to settle.
In Nicoma Park Galen Culver Newschannel 4.
"We were just renters. We lived here twice," recalls Kieth. "This part of the house here was the original structure and we understand that even the next piece, which must have been the kitchen was part of the original structure built in 1889."
Terry lived in this house as a teenager. He took some old home movies of the place and slept on the side porch in warmer months. "It just had a twin size bed in it and that was it," he says. "But in the winter time I got to move into the dining room. It was a little drafty."
When his sister graduated from high school the knew a little history but it took a lot of digging for Terry to unearth what makes this Land Run house even more special. "It was in a little bit better shape when we lived here."
From old articles and sale bills Kieth learned about the Knott family who moved in around 1902. They added on to the cabin. Mr. Knott was Oklahoma's first IRS tax collector, a job he might have recieved from his old college friend William Howard Taft. Kieth doesn't know whether he visited as President but whenever Taft was in the area he stopped in and stayed here. "And their wives were friends as well. They corresponded back and forth."
Mrs. Knott got the privelage of naming Nicoma Park. That's her likeness in front of the old mantle on a post card she sent out. The house was a rental until just a few months ago, until the property sold to a local church and the trees cleared away. Tha cabin sits a little more exposed than it used to, uncovered enough for Terry Kieth ot worry about its future. "It's our understanding that they are going to try to move it and save it," says Kieth.
After quietly witnessing so much history this Nicoma Park cabin now faces a date with movers, a new place to settle.
In Nicoma Park Galen Culver Newschannel 4.
