L. R. Kershaw - Historic Home

Historic Home

In 1943 he bought the former home of banker A. W. Patterson, and he continued to live there as his 5 children and many grandchildren grew up around a huge lot in the middle of town. The home had 5 bedrooms on the second floor and a large outdoor deck surrounded with rough-hewn Carthage stone quarried in Missouri. The home was built with a full basement with windows on 3 sides of the house, and had a completely finished attic. In later years, the home was equipped with an electric elevator which served passengers between the ground floor and the second floor of the home.

Built in 1906, (before Oklahoma statehood) at 1320 West Okmulgee, the former A. W. Patterson House in the City of Muskogee, Muskogee County, Oklahoma is one of the city’s most prominent homes. Located at the intersection of 14th Street and West Okmulgee, it is situated at the crest of a hill near the western edge of the downtown Muskogee neighborhood.

The home features several Richardsonian Romanesque qualities including the limestone rock coursed ashlar wall finish, the round arched entryway and round arched window surrounds, and the low-pitched red clay tile-covered hip roof with cross gables in front. The home was designed by McKibban & McKibban, an architectural firm which designed many of Muskogee's early commercial buildings. It was built with four covered porches, including the main south entry, the north side entry from the detached garage, and two interior covered porches, one which opened from a second-floor guest bedroom and the main porch one which spreads the entire width of the home on the east side, overlooking downtown Muskogee to the east. The open covered porch on the east side of the home had its own source of water supply and was large enough to accommodate a full-size hammock.

The home has a full walkout basement, with several separate rooms. The large foyer entry way inside the main entry door on the south side has dual sidelight clear lead-glass windows with beveled panes behind carved stone benches which straddle the front porch. This porch, with nearly a dozen steps up to the front door is the scene of many historical family photos and group photos for civic and social organizations within the city. Large and prominent stained glass windows were featured in this grand stately home, with the most prominent one, more than 9 feet high and more than 12 feet wide, at the midpoint stair landing visible only from the back yard and driveway on the north side of the home, away from the main street.

The residence was the home of two prominent Muskogee businessmen. A. W. Patterson was co-founder of the Bank of Muskogee in 1901 which later was renamed the Muskogee National Bank and he served as its president until 1918. Kershaw was acquainted with Patterson first as a tenant in his Iowa Building in 1904, then later as the National Bank Receiver for the Muskogee-Security National Bank, and finally as the subsequent owner of the Patterson home. Patterson was the driving force in promoting the Arkansas River as a navigable body of water and was the instrumental figure in the construction of Muskogee’s Convention Hall which was the site of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress held in 1907. Patterson lived in the home his death in 1916, and the home was occupied by his widow until her death in 1934. Kershaw purchased the home from the Patterson daughters.

Kershaw lived in the family home until his death in 1969 at the age of 88. The home remained in the Kershaw family until 1973, or four years after the death of L. R. Kershaw. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, by the National Park Service in 1984 as property #84003322.