Volume 12 , Issue 27

Cherokee Strip Antique Mall - Perry OK

Roy of Perry says, "My main business is called the Cherokee Strip Antique Mall and was started (as a mall) in 1993 which was the 100th anniversary of the Cherokee Strip Land Run (September 16th, 1893).

"I have other small businesses within it and my son has recently joined me in their operation. My Stereo Center was begun in 1972 when I bought out one of the founders of Communications Equipment Sales and Stereo Center. It had begun in another location (here in Perry, Oklahoma) the previous year, 1971.

"Eventually (after about 10 years) I acquired the rest of the business, having purchased it from the other two partners, and in the meantime I had added the T-Shirt Connection as a sideline for my (then) wife.

"After moving into a larger building and creating the antique mall (with a business partner who owned the building), I added Picture This to print computerized digital photos on the T-Shirts and onto coffee cups and mugs (and just about anything else you could think of).

"I still have all of the equipment and have added some more but have not used it in more than 5 years. My son is planning on helping to resurrect that portion of the business in addition to working with me in the Stereo Center. I still repair some electronic components and still have ALL these businesses listed in the Perry phone directory and in the mall.

"We have 5 buildings that are located on 10 city lots (in what was formerly a lumber yard) across from the local Chevrolet, Buick. Pontiac, GMC dealer which sits on the property that was the original "Hell's Half Acre". It was called that in 1893.

"One week after the land run, there were located (on that property) 110 saloons plus numerous tent hotels, bawdy houses, gambling establishments, etc. Anything to grab a dollar or two from the folks waiting in line to register their claims, and the land office was in a corner of that same property (until they moved it to the government acre just south of the post office on the courthouse square, about a year later).

"Our business is also located next door, east of the Exchange Bank of Perry, which is just a block east of the courthouse square. We are a block west of the BNSF (formerly Santa Fe Railroad) depot where over 110 trains per day travel through town on the 5 tracks there (3 were for the Santa Fe and 2 were for the Frisco line).

"The Frisco tracks come in from the east (Pawnee towards Springfield and St. Louis) and goes west through Enid towards New Mexico. The Santa Fe tracks are between the crossroads at Newton, Kansas and the cross-roads at Ft. Worth, Texas and the dispatchers at Ft. Worth control our trains (through radio repeaters) from there."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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