The return of the cupola

Since 2011, Broken Arrowans have come to recognize the red brick building on the corner at 200 S. Main Street as one of the Rose District's most popular restaurants, the Main Street Tavern.

Many, however, may not realize the intricate part the building itself played in shaping Broken Arrow's rich history.

Constructed in 1904, this was the area's first significant two-story brick building, established two years after the city was incorporated. It first served as an Opera House, featuring a grand cupola at its peak.

Now, private funding is restoring the historic edifice to its architectural roots by returning a red brick cupola to the iconic structure.

The cupola was produced in Kentucky and traveled two days to Broken Arrow. The project will be completed in two parts on two separate days, weather permitting.

According to Brent Brassfield, the City of Broken Arrow's Business Retention and Development Coordinator, the structural steel will be placed on Thursday, June 19, and the brick cupola installation is planned for Thursday, July 24, weather permitting.

"Placing the steel will take four to six hours with a similar timeline for the placement of the cupola," Brassfield said.

On Thursday, Main Street will be closed at the intersection at West Commercial Street and south to Dallas Street for part of the day so that a crane can install the steel structure. Although West Commercial Street will remain open, the parking spaces on the north side of the Main Street Tavern will be blocked with barricades. Pedestrian sidewalk traffic around the Main Street Tavern will be completely restricted and the barricades will be in place by midnight Wednesday. When the cupola is installed on July 24, the barricades will be in place once again.

Cupolas date back to the 8th Century and are decorative roof embellishments often serving as the most ornate part of a structure. They set apart a facility and distinguish it from other rooflines.

"The building had dual purposes, but it was originally a location for traveling, performing artists," said historian, author, and former Broken Arrow Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Clarence Oliver. "It was also a location where all the major banquets and large meetings in the community were held."

Oliver said the Opera House was originally a much larger facility than today's restaurant and its current loft area.

"That's only half the building; the Opera House was double-wide what is now with the loft area and the present-day restaurant and offices," Oliver said.

The Opera House hosted Broken Arrow High School's first two graduations in 1908 and 1909. It also briefly served as a gym for the school's girls' basketball team.

And when Broken Arrow's vocational agricultural college was established in 1909 and had yet to build a campus, the Haskell State School of Agriculture also held classes at the Opera House.

A women's suffrage march was held on Main Street in 1914. Oliver describes a photograph of women in white dresses marching to bring a vote to the community, to the state, and nationwide, which would authorize the women's right to vote in the elections.

"It was a march down Main Street. The women were marching north from the south end of Main Street, and the Opera House is in the background," he said.

The ground floor originally housed the First State Bank, which was the first bank in Broken Arrow. When the bank fell into hard times and closed a few years later, in 1922, the bottom floor became a Quigg Drugstore, then a Ross Drugstore. Both drug stores had a large table seating area and a soda fountain.

"They had restaurant services and sandwiches, and it was a place to get breaks and have meals, and it still is," Oliver said. "So, it's unusual that it has maintained its use pretty much the same as it was back in that era."

Oliver remembers when the cupola was initially removed from the facility and has been calling for its return for more than 50 years.

"Well, as a historian, I was concerned when it was removed in the mid-sixties," Oliver said. "The owner was remodeling the building and was concerned about the roof and the possibility of leaks in his remodeled drug store."

Through the advice of his construction consultants, he determined that the cupola was a heavy piece of material that added weight to the top of the building, and they did not have enough structural support at that time.

"To maintain the cupola, it was going to be a tremendously expensive project that the owner hadn't planned on," Oliver said. "So, the easiest way to deal with it was just to take the cupola off, and that is what was done."

By removing the cupola, the building had a good flat roof that required minimal maintenance.

"Now, in the new design of the cupola that will be in place, the steel superstructure that will bear all of the weight will be installed; that was planned into the design," Oliver said. "It will be very steady and closely resemble the original design of the cupola that was in place."

Oliver has been bringing attention to the need to bring back the cupola for nearly 50 years.

"I've been preaching that proposal every time I would do history tours for Leadership Broken Arrow (LBA), The Museum Broken Arrow, or individual bus tours," Oliver said. "I've been talking about the original Opera House, the cupola, and how it looks bare without it."

Oliver even wrote opinion pieces for the Broken Arrow Ledger and the Broken Arrow Scout when he was employed as a journalist, editor, and managing editor of both newspapers.

"I wrote editorials to bring back the cupola, so it's been a long-time project," he said. "I recruited some other people who supported the plan, and a committee came together, and they've been raising funds to make it happen. It's been a dream of mine for at least 50 years."