History
The complex was built in 1973 by C.W. Cameron, founder of American Fidelity. For the next twenty years it was a landmark due to four neon pigs, one on each face, belonging to Sooner Federal Savings and Loan. The tower of 50 Penn Place was once headquarters to Penn Square Bank, which failed in 1982. It was also formerly home to the flagship store of the Orbach's chain of local clothing stores (which closed in 1990). Although not currently anchored by a major retailer, 50 Penn Place has upscale shops and restaurants, a brewpub, independent bookstore, the 50 Penn Place Art Gallery, and various office tenants including LexisNexis. In recent years, the retail portion of the complex has lost the majority of its tenants to other shopping venues, such as nearby Penn Square Mall, and is no longer seen by locals as a shopping destination. However, several upscale tenants still remain, and former retail space is being leased to other tenants, such as ITT Technical Institute.
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“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)