Edward H. and Edna Cooke were the first to construct a home on the south side of the street. Built in 1904, it is modeled after the home of Philadelphia publisher Edward Bok.

A native Texan, Edward Cooke moved to Oklahoma City in 1893 to assume control of a failed bank. As president of the State National Bank, he expanded into various ventures including the street car line that was built to Heritage Hills in 1902.

The exterior is classic early Tudor style with its steeply pitched roof, close timbered gables, bay windows and five chimneys. There are 117 windows, many with diamond panes. The roof is red tile with red trim around the leaded front doorway. Typically, the interior was Victorian, with 15 rooms and a large ballroom on the third floor.

In 1919, when Hugh Johnson purchased his bank, Cooke sold the home and furnishings for $50,000 to Mr. and Mrs. W. Frank Wilson. Wilson, a leading attorney in town, remained until 1946. The home changed hands several times through the next two decades, never getting the major upkeep it needed, until it was purchased by the Standard Life and Insurance company. In 1964 Standard Life had plans to demolish the home for additional parking, but its destruction was averted through the efforts of Captain Charles C. Coley and the Classen-Winans Neighborhood Association. Instead, the company converted the home to apartments. For most of the next 10 years, the Ecumenical Institute used the home for offices and rooms.

In 1978, following several years of litigation to bring the home into compliance with the Historic Preservation Code, the home was leased to the Women’s Committee of the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra, who used it as the Decorator’s Show House. The refurbished home was purchased by Jerry and Jeanette Gilbert. Jerry, a real estate broker and an Oklahoma City councilman, was one of the founding members of Historical Preservation, Inc. The Gilberts installed a new kitchen, started a gradual remodeling, and halted the most serious structural problems. In 1989 it was purchased by Dr. and Mrs. Harvey who featured the home on the 1992 Home Tour. Kirk and Danna Humphreys lived in the home years later and shared it on the 2008 Home Tour.

The entrance hall at this home is of immense size. It features leaded and beveled side lights on the front entrance and heavy exposed beams on the ceiling. The walls are rough finished plaster and are treated with sponged paint and stenciling. The double return stairwell culminates in a horseshoe gallery and features elaborately decorated balustrades and newel posts. Richly-carved urns with classical acanthus leaf motifs sit on top of the newel posts. Arcaded panels crowned by an entablature form the dado around the room.

The focal point of this very impressive room is the magnificent stained-glass window at the top of the first landing. This piece, a representation of peacocks, measures six feet by nine feet. Although the craftsman is unknown, the style of this window is certainly typical of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s work in the same period. The light on the ceiling is made of bronze and opaque glass and is from the Arts and Crafts period of design. The hall tree is from the Hale’s mansion.

To the left of the large entry hall is the living room with unusually tall wainscot and bookcases of quarter-sawn oak. Frescoed seams line the room above the wainscot, and oak beams crisscross the ceiling. A fireplace with seating nook anchors the west wall of the room.

The walls of the living room, dining room and smoking room are covered above the dado in canvas which is decorated in various themes. The dining room, for example, features a d’ella robia motif, the smoking room, and the living room a lotus blossom decoration. Leaded and beveled glass vitrines and exterior windows complete the downstairs.

Proceeding to the third floor, one notices and oddly placed window in the stairwell. This window opens into what was originally the nursery. It was designed so that the nanny could go upstairs to her quarters and occasionally look into the nursery to observe her young charges.

Current owners Doug and Sandy Beall continue in the upkeep of this magnificent home.