The turret (round tower) on this Victorian mansion is beautiful! The whole house is beautiful. In the 1970s, it was rescued from demolition, and moved to the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. In 2008, Harris Moving Company moved it to their property in Nicoma Park. They had plans to remodel it and live in it, but the house still remains vacant and now, quite weather-worn.
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The house was given to the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in 1979. In 1991, volunteers with the Daughters of the American Revolution, completed renovations, and open it to the public for tours.
I remember seeing the house during trips to the Oklahoma State Fair when I was a college student. I think it was yellow back then. I have no idea why the house left the fairgrounds. It’s really sad. Honestly, it looks like the grand ol’ mansion is just waiting for a tornado to ends it lonely lifeless life on this patch of prairie.
The house was originally purchased as a kit from Sears and Roebuck around the turn of the century. Andrew Goodholm, a former Oklahoma City Councilman owned the house. He lived in with his wife and six kids from 1901 to 1918.
At one time, the Oklahoma State Fair applied to have the house placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here is an excerpt from the application:
The Goodholm House is significant because it is an example of Queen Anne architecture in Oklahoma ity. It is the only structure in the area which displays Queen Anne styling including the round turret with conical roof. While there are examples of Queen Anne in the city’s Historic District^ none utilize the turret. The structure is one of a half-dozen homes which will survive commercial development and urban renewal, which makes the Goodholm House an important cultural resource for the study of Oklahoma City’s near northeast quadrant.
Organizers wanted to preserve the house to illustrate an example of life in Oklahoma City at the turn of the century.
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