Conservatory, Tulsa Garden Center (Woodward Park)

The estate around the conservatory is a product of Tulsa's oil boom. In 1919 the local architect Nobel B. Fleming designed an Italian Renaissance-style villa there for David Travis, whose business salvaged oil-field equipment; completed in 1921, the 21-room house came with cottages, barns, two working greenhouses, a solarium and a swimming pool. In 1923 the property was bought by J. Arthur Hull, who added a sunken garden and the conservatory: it was in 1924 that Lina Jane Hull, a keen grower of flowers and especially of lilies, had it built.

In 1934 George and Geraldine Snedden acquired the estate and had the interior renovated by the decorator Louis Perry; they were its last residents. Sold in 1950 to W. G. Skelly, who never lived there, the property went to the City of Tulsa in 1954 and became the headquarters of the Tulsa Garden Center, founded in 1950 by the Tulsa Garden Club and the Tulsa Council of Garden Clubs. It lies within the Woodward Park historic district, added to the National Register of Historic Places on 11 March 2014.

A century of use had left the conservatory in need of repair, and from 2022 the Tulsa Garden Center ran a privately funded restoration, supported in particular by the Hardesty Family Foundation. Closed for about a year, the conservatory reopened at the end of June 2024, and a gala, Glasshouse Gold, marked its centenary on 29 June.

The conservatory was designed by R. N. Black for the Lord & Burnham Company, whose line of greenhouses has been manufactured continuously since 1849. The Tulsa Garden Center notes that the firm's greenhouses of that era were made of cypress wood with iron or steel, aluminium becoming competitive only in 1955; the wood rot removed during the restoration confirms that the frame is at least partly timber.

The glass building is distinguished by its porticos and by fleur-de-lis finials, both restored. An interior fountain, an exterior fountain and a statue complete the setting. The entrance looks onto the sunken garden laid out by the Hulls, reached by steps that were repaired during the works, which also corrected the garden's drainage. A shade cloth covers the roof; worn out, it was replaced by the Tulsa Parks Department, and the building was brightened and whitened. None of the sources consulted gives the conservatory's dimensions or floor area.

Its first owner, Lina Jane Hull, grew many flowers, above all her favourite lilies. Today the conservatory holds a varied collection of houseplants, cacti and orchids, along with other specimens.

Before the reopening, three local groups helped the Tulsa Garden Center draw up a complete inventory and assessment of the collection: the Tulsa Orchid Society, the Tulsa Cacti and Succulent Society and the Tulsa Houseplant Club. The conservatory thus showcases the work of these societies, in a house that serves as a resource centre and meeting place for horticultural and environmental organisations. Around it, the park adds other collections: the municipal rose garden, created in 1935, has about 5,000 rose plants of 250 varieties, and the arboretum gathers 270 species native to Oklahoma on some 3 acres.

The conservatory belongs to the grounds of the Tulsa Garden Center villa at 2435 South Peoria Avenue, in Woodward Park, a 45-acre park opened in 1929. Half an hour is enough for the conservatory and the sunken garden; allow one to two hours to take in as well the rock gardens laid out in 1930 and planted with azaleas in the 1960s and 1970s, the municipal rose garden, the arboretum and the 1.5-acre Linnaeus Teaching Garden, a demonstration garden dedicated in 2006.

The visit is at its best when the azaleas and roses are in bloom. The Tulsa Historical Society occupies the neighbouring building.