The Tulsa Club Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton

Bruce Goff was 23 years old in 1927 and working as a draftsman in the Tulsa firm of Rush, Endacott & Rush when he was given the design responsibility for the Tulsa Club building. He was already known as an exceptional draftsman with original architectural ideas, and the Tulsa Club commission was his first major independent design assignment. He would later go on to study under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Wisconsin, design buildings across the central United States, and end his career as chairman of the architecture school at the University of Oklahoma — but the Tulsa Club is one of the most fully-realized buildings of his early career.

Goff's design synthesized multiple influences: the Art Deco movement that was sweeping American commercial architecture in the mid-1920s, the Mayan and Aztec stylistic motifs popular in 1920s Hollywood movie palaces, and the Native American patterning that Goff would later more explicitly explore in his Oklahoma work. The result is a building that is unmistakably Art Deco but does not look like any other Art Deco building — the proportions are more vertical, the surface ornament is more dense, and the polychrome tile work is more elaborate than the contemporaneous Chrysler Building or any other major American Art Deco landmark.

The building's primary client was the Tulsa Club, a private men's social organization founded in 1903 by Tulsa's oil-boom business elite. The club commissioned the building specifically to be Tulsa's leading private social space and committed essentially unlimited budget to the construction. The original 1927 budget was approximately $1.5 million — about $25 million in today's dollars — for an 11-story tower with a basement bowling alley, ground-floor billiard hall, second-floor ballroom, dining rooms, library, members' lounges, and 60 small bedroom suites for traveling members.

From 1927 through 1994, the Tulsa Club was downtown Tulsa's most prestigious private social organization. Membership was limited to roughly 800 of the city's most prominent oil executives, attorneys, bankers, and physicians — and was famously difficult to acquire. The club's grand ballroom hosted Tulsa's most important society weddings, charity galas, and political fundraisers for nearly seven decades; the second-floor dining rooms were the standard lunch venue for downtown business deal-making; and the upper-floor bedroom suites housed visiting executives, federal judges, and the occasional traveling celebrity.

The club operated continuously through the Great Depression, both World Wars, and the postwar decades. By the 1970s, however, membership was declining as Tulsa's commercial center moved south and as private business clubs across the United States began struggling to recruit younger members who preferred more casual professional networking. The club consolidated operations through the 1980s, ultimately closing its doors in 1994 as the membership base aged out and the building's deferred maintenance reached crisis level.

Through the 1990s and 2000s the closed building sat largely vacant. Multiple potential redevelopments were proposed and abandoned — a downtown residential conversion, an office building, a smaller boutique hotel — but the building's elaborate interior detailing made any modern adaptation expensive and difficult. By the early 2010s the building was on the city's at-risk historic landmarks list.

The current restoration was led by Tulsa-based Promise Hotels and Ross Group, who purchased the building in 2014 and committed to a complete restoration as a Hilton-branded boutique hotel. The renovation took five years and cost approximately $42 million, with substantial state and federal historic-preservation tax credits offsetting roughly 30% of the project cost. The work was led by Tulsa preservation architect Beatrice Doerring and brought in specialty contractors from across the United States for the most delicate restoration work.

The exterior terra cotta — which had suffered significant water damage from decades of unrepaired roof leaks — was cleaned, repaired, and selectively replaced with custom-fired replacement tiles that matched the originals. The lobby marble floor was lifted, cleaned, and reinstalled. The original ballroom chandeliers were rebuilt by their original New York manufacturer (which is still in business). The grand staircase plasterwork was re-cast from the original molds. New mechanical systems — HVAC, plumbing, fire suppression — were installed entirely within previously hidden chases so that no visible historic detail was compromised.

The hotel opened on June 3, 2019 as the Tulsa Club Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton — the Curio brand being Hilton's collection of independently-styled boutique hotels that don't carry standard Hilton branding. The restoration has won multiple national historic-preservation awards and is widely cited alongside the Mayo restoration as one of the most successful historic-hotel renovations in the United States.

The Tulsa Club has 96 guest rooms across the 11-story tower, divided across king and queen standard rooms (350 to 425 square feet), junior suites (500 to 600 square feet), and a small number of executive suites including the Goff Suite (the top-floor signature suite with the largest floor plan and city views in three directions). Rooms are modern hotel construction with crisp white linens, hardwood-look flooring, period-appropriate but contemporary furnishings, and large windows facing downtown Tulsa.

The rooms preserve the building's high ceilings and large windows, but the bathrooms and electrical systems are entirely new. Closets are smaller than modern boutique hotel standards because the original 1927 room plans had limited closet space; the hotel has compensated with built-in armoires and shelving. Free Wi-Fi, in-room safes, Keurig coffee makers, and 55-inch flat-screen TVs are standard. The hotel is pet-friendly with a $75 fee per stay.

Standard king and queen rooms typically run $200 to $275 per night depending on season and weekend rates. The Goff Suite and the executive corner suites run $400 to $650. The hotel does not have a swimming pool — the historic building does not accommodate one — but the fitness center on the second floor is well-equipped. Valet parking is $30 per night.

The hotel's signature restaurant is The Chamber, occupying the ground-floor space that was originally the Tulsa Club's main dining room. Chamber serves contemporary American cuisine with strong cocktail and wine programs, in a dining room that preserves the original 1927 wood paneling, brass detailing, and crystal chandeliers. Dinner is served Tuesday through Saturday with reservations recommended; brunch on weekends is one of the more atmospheric in downtown Tulsa. Expect $75 to $120 per person for dinner with wine.

The rooftop terrace bar on the 11th floor — accessible by elevator without requiring a room key — is one of the best places to drink in downtown Tulsa. The terrace has clear views of downtown including the Mayo Hotel directly across 5th Street, the BOK Center, the Blue Dome District, and on clear days the broader Arkansas River valley. Cocktails run $14 to $20 and the bar menu includes light appetizers and small plates. Open seasonally (spring through fall, weather permitting) plus year-round indoor lounge for cooler weather.

Both Chamber and the rooftop bar are open to the public, not just hotel guests — which makes the Tulsa Club a destination dining and drinking spot regardless of whether you stay there. The combination of the Chamber's preserved 1927 dining room and the rooftop view is one of the best pre-show options for the Tulsa Performing Arts Center one block away.

The Tulsa Club is at 115 East 5th Street at the corner of Cincinnati Avenue — the same intersection that anchors much of historic downtown Tulsa. The Mayo Hotel is two blocks west, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center is one block north, the BOK Center is four blocks west, and the Blue Dome District is four blocks east. The Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza, Cain's Ballroom, and the Tulsa Arts District are all within a 10 to 15 minute walk or a five-minute drive.

For Art Deco architectural enthusiasts, the Tulsa Club is one of three core downtown stops alongside the Philtower (across the street, 1928) and the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (six blocks south, 1929). The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture's official Saturday-morning Art Deco walking tour starts directly across the street from the Tulsa Club and includes the building as one of its primary stops; the tour itself is included with a Tulsa Club hotel stay through the hotel's concierge program.

Booking note: the Tulsa Club is bookable through Hilton's standard channels (Hilton.com, the Hilton app, third-party booking sites) and accepts Hilton Honors points. Members can use points or cash plus points combinations. The Curio Collection branding means it is reasonably easy to book even though the property is genuinely independent in design and experience.