Snap, Crackle--Crash; Blast Jars Memories, Too

              BANG! POW! . . . WHUMP!—Down went the old Tulsa Building %. Loan Association Bu -^ as seen from a|op +he McFarlin Building.
-Tribune Photos
Explosives, Prayer Drop B&L Building
Snap, Crackle-Crash
BY TONY SOLOW
Downtown Tulsa sounded like
a Chinese New Year celebration for a brief moment Sunday
as the old Tulsa Building &
Loan Association Building on
Fourth Street was "dropped" in
• he first use of controlled explosives for demolition in city
history.
A staccato series of explosions ripped the supports from
the nine-story structure and it
fell into a one-story pile of rubble right, where the building
stood only seconds before.
THE BUILDING was located
between Main Street and Boston Avenue. The adjacent 15-
story Hunt Building on the southeast corner of Fourth and Main
will be dropped in similar fashion, pending City Commission
approval.
Mayor LaFortuns was "impressed" by the instant demolition technique, and hinted today
that the Hunt Building project
would not draw stiff opposition.
"I would not want to commit
to that approval until our people
report to us," he said.
(City Engineer Paul Gulley
and Protective Inspections Di
rector Jess Colbert were.at the
scene Sunday, and are studying
effects of the blasting. Window
damage at the Mayo Building at
Fifth and Main Streets, possibly
from a piece of flying debris,
was the only incident reported
today.)
"BUT IT WOULD say that,
were we to condition our action
on the Hunt Building on what
we saw Sunday, it would appear
to  be  favorable,"   the   mayor
said. i«arfrim^E
"I was really impressed with
the preciseness of the whole effort," he added, echoing the
views of several Tulsans who
were on hand Sunday. 'I
couldn't believe they could drop
that building within the confines
of the front line of the building
and the alley.
"It was a very remarkable
demonstration."
The Hunt and Tulsa Building
& Loan Buildings are the largest of several structures to be
cleared to make way for a $20
million 40-story tower planned
by First National Bank.
THE SEIDENBACH, Haver
and   Merrill   Lynch   buildings
ejh
have*! Jready been razed by con-,
ventioaal methods, and the Or-
pheum Building demolition is
underlay.
Laffortune said tiie Sunday
application of controlled explosives "very dramatically
pointed up the aspect of safely,
the primary benefit" over conventional wrecking, so far as
the ciy is concerned.
"The secondary benefit is that
it clears the property instantly
and enables a new structure to
get. <j< the tax rolls that much
quicker. I expect they (First
National) saved six months by
doing it this way," he said.
Tiiv." demolition Sunday—delayed nearly two hours from
tiie oiginal 7 a.m. "zero hour**
?eeai/sg- workman accidentally"'
puMerr wires from electric d?-
tonato} relays—was designed by
explores expert Jack Loizeaux
of Baltimore.
LOIEEAUX WAS, for the most
part, pleased with his feat of
destruction as he inspected the
rubble minutes after the 13
charges he had placed in the
buiiduig brought it tumbling to
■the ground.
It bad only taken eight sec-
See BLAST, page  6B
Blast Jars Memories. Too
*  *  *
•   *   *
*  *   •
Dramatic Moments on Fourth Street Recalled
By ERNIE KEEN
A part of me died with the blast which demolished a downtown building Sunday morning.
It brought a feeling of sadness to see the pile
of mortar, stone and dirt and rubble which was
all that remained of the old Tulsa Building and
Loan Association Building.
During the early 1930s, my father, the late Carl
Keen, was building superintendent there.
Many a time when I was a youth, I would come
downtown to check out a book at a lending library
then operated by the nearby Palace Clothiers at
Fourth and Main Streets. Invariably, after selecting my books, I'd pay a visit to my father's
office (Room 312) in the old Tulsa Building and
Loan Association Building.
IT WAS IN HIS office that I first saw a typewriter—and took a few tentative pecks on it when
his back was turned.
In those depression days, people who had jobs
had to do a lot of things—and I recall my father
doubled "as a stationary engineer at the building.
time I accompanied him to the base
ment engine and boiler room and watched him
tinkering with the intricate mechanisms.
I recall one incident which brought my father
some mention in daily newspapers—and an incident which, at my young age, naturally brought
me a bit of pride.
As nearly as I recall, an office on the top
floor of the building had been robbed. The victims called my father's office as soon as the bandit had left.
MY FATHER responded quickly by locking a
gate on the stairway between the first and second
floors, so the bandit couldn't leave the building
without using the elevator.
Dad ran outside with a little .32 automatic in
his hand. He saw the bandit climbing out on a
marquee which hung out at the second floor level,
over the sidewalk. Dad ordered the man to put
his hands up as soon as he dropped—but when
the man landed he started running.
Dad fired one shot from the .32— and the gun
jammed; The man got away, but to the best of
my memory, he was later taken into custody and
found to be wounded—from my dad's shot, I guess.