Finding a company you can trust with the restoration of your wood windows is not an easy task in the residential market.  Finding a company that has the experience to understand how to navigate the requirements by the National Parks and Services, local Historic Preservation Departments, State Historic Departments and knowing how to submit the right permits, documentation and certificates limits that list even more.  

Standing just south of the main gate of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, the Warden’s House has watched over the prison grounds for more than a century. Built in 1911 by convict labor following plans created by famed architect P.H. Weathers, the house was constructed as the official residence for the penitentiary’s warden and his family.

The home is designed in the Mission/Spanish Revival style with Renaissance influences, and its most distinctive architectural feature is a row of seven arches that adorn the front of the house — a nod to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 Gothic novel “The House of the Seven Gables.” Inside, the sprawling residence includes an upstairs, an attic, and a basement, features often associated with the many ghost stories that have grown up around the house over the decades.

Over the years, the Warden’s House was home to numerous OSP wardens and their families, including former Warden Dan Reynolds, who served as warden of the maximum-security prison from 1991-94 and previously as interim warden for about seven months in 1991. Reynolds went on to author several books about OSP, including the extensive “History of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary,” published in 2017. The house sits directly across from the prison’s chalk-white walls, which were the scene of destructive riots in 1973 and 1985.

Today the historic residence is uninhabited, but it remains a well-known local landmark — as much for its architectural and historical significance as for the legends and reported “spooky” experiences that former residents have shared over the years.

Did You Know:

• Year Built: 1911, constructed using convict labor from plans by architect P.H. Weathers
• Historic Registry Listing: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP Reference No. 05000615) on June 17, 2005; the listing includes two contributing buildings on 1.9 acres
• Architectural Style: Mission/Spanish Revival with Renaissance influences
• Also Known As: Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden’s House
• Notable Feature: Seven decorative arches across the front facade, referencing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables”
• Related History: Served as the residence for OSP wardens, including Dan Reynolds (warden 1991–94); located directly across from the prison, which experienced major riots in 1973 and 1985; the house has long been associated with local ghost stories and legends among former residents

Work Performed:

• Full Restor on all Wood Window Sashes
• ReSash Wood Window Reproductions
• Weatherization on Lower Sashes
• Half Mechanicals

Housed in the town’s former Texas & Pacific Railway depot at 101 N. East Street, the Atlanta Historical Museum tells the story of Atlanta, Texas — a Cass County community founded in 1872 and named for Atlanta, Georgia, the former home of many of its early settlers. The town site itself was platted during construction of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, and the railroad’s old depot now houses the museum.

Inside, exhibits trace the development of commerce in Atlanta between 1850 and 1950, including a diorama depicting the Texas and Pacific Railway as it would have appeared between 1890 and 1910, along with railroad and depot equipment and displays on the region’s lumber, farming, and cotton industries. The museum puts children front and center in its exhibits, weaving a young person’s perspective into stories of railroads, farming, military history, and aviation.

The museum’s centerpiece is its tribute to Atlanta’s most famous native daughter, pioneering aviator Bessie Coleman. Born in Atlanta, Texas, on January 26, 1892, Coleman became the first African-American and Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license. Visitors can sit in a scale model of the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane she flew, and in September 2024 the museum unveiled an expanded permanent exhibit, “Brave Bessie: Soaring Above Barriers,” honoring her life and achievements. Rehabilitation of the depot building was a lynchpin project in the revitalization of Atlanta’s downtown commercial district, part of nearly $3 million the city invested in infrastructure improvements including streetscape enhancements and burying utility lines. Today the building also serves as home to the Atlanta Area Chamber of Commerce and a visitor welcome center. 

Did You Know:

• Year Built: 1910
• Historic Registry Listing: Official Texas Historical Marker (Texas Historical Commission, erected 2002, Marker #12597) commemorating Bessie Coleman, located on site at 101 N. East Street
• Registry Listing (Non Historic): Texas Historical Commission – Forest Trail Region
• Location: 101 N. East Street, Atlanta, Texas (Cass County)
• Original Use: Texas & Pacific Railway passenger depot
• Notable Feature: Diorama of the T&P Railway as it appeared 1890–1910, plus railroad and depot equipment
• Related Historic Fact: Birthplace of Bessie Coleman (1892–1926), the first African-American and Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license; the museum’s “Brave Bessie: Soaring Above Barriers” exhibit (opened 2024) includes a scale model of her Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane
• Community Founded: 1872, named for Atlanta, Georgia, by early settlers who had come from there

Work Performed:

• Full Restor on all Wood Window Sashes
• Reveal Wood Storm Windows
• Weatherization on Lower Sashes
• Half Mechanicals

Tucked into a corner of the Murray State College campus in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, Chickasaw Hall stands as one of the oldest and most storied buildings at the college — and one of the last physical reminders of the school’s origins as an institution built specifically to educate Chickasaw and Choctaw students.

Murray State College opened in 1908 as the Murray State School of Agriculture, with an early student body made up primarily of Chickasaw and Choctaw boys. For its first decade, the growing school had no on-campus housing, forcing students into boarding houses and rented rooms around Tishomingo. That changed in March 1917, when U.S. Congressman William H. Murray introduced a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to credit $50,000 (roughly $600,000 today) to the Chickasaw Nation to construct two dormitories on campus. Built between 1917 and 1919 to house 130 students, the two dorms were originally known simply as the East and West boys’ dormitories.

In 1937, the State of Oklahoma moved to purchase the dormitories from the Chickasaw Nation; the sale was finalized in 1939, and the buildings were renamed James Hicks Hall and Bessie Poe Hall in honor of two deceased students. James Hicks Hall was lost to fire in 1957, but Bessie Poe Hall lived on — serving over the decades as a girls’ dormitory and later an athletic dormitory before closing in 1972. The building is architecturally notable as a simplified Queen Anne structure with design details unique to Oklahoma, including half-timbering embedded in pebble stucco on the fourth floor, brick banisters leading to a second-floor porch, distinctive “eyebrow” windows, and a skylight lighting the interior stairwell.

Bessie Poe Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 11, 1981, making it one of seven National Register-listed sites in Johnston County. In 2018, the building was renamed Chickasaw Hall to restore its historical connection to the college’s Chickasaw roots. Groundbreaking on its current restoration and adaptive reuse — into a 14-room boutique hotel — took place in September 2023, funded through a partnership between the Chickasaw Nation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and Murray State College.

Quick Facts

• Year Built: 1917–1919 (constructed as one of two dormitories on the Murray State School of Agriculture campus)
• Historic Registry Listing: National Register of Historic Places, listed September 11, 1981 (as Bessie Poe Hall) — one of seven NRHP-listed sites in Johnston County, Oklahoma
• Original Names: West Boys’ Dormitory, later Bessie Poe Hall; renamed Chickasaw Hall in 2018
• Architectural Style: Simplified Queen Anne, with half-timber and pebble stucco detailing, brick banisters, eyebrow windows, and a stairwell skylight
• Related Historic Facts: Built with $50,000 in federal funds credited to the Chickasaw Nation (authorized by an act of Congress in 1917) specifically to house Chickasaw and Choctaw students; ownership passed from the Chickasaw Nation to the State of Oklahoma in 1939; served as both a boys’ and girls’ dormitory over its history before closing in 1972
• Current Project: Being restored and converted into “The 1919 Hotel at Historic Chickasaw Hall,” a 14-room boutique hotel, with groundbreaking in September 2023

Work Performed:

• Full Restor on all Wood Window Sashes
• ReSash Wood Window Reproductions
• Full Mechanicals