Like the heart in the human body, the railroad was the engine that provided the lifeblood of early economic development. From 1889 to 1904, four railroad companies laid ribbons of steel that connected the land-locked prairie community to the rest of the world. First was the Santa Fe that built north and south almost two years before the land run. Then came the Rock Island, the Frisco, and the Katy.

Each of these railroad companies focused their freight operations east of the Santa Fe tracks in what is now Bricktown. Outbound over those docks passed the wealth of the new territory. The most important cash crop by far was cotton, shipped to world markets over the steel rails to Galveston and points beyond. Other commodities putting dollars in farmers' pockets included cattle, horses, mules, as well as wheat, fruit, corn, and produce. After 1928 and the discovery of the Oklahoma City Field, oil was added to the list of exports.

Inbound over the rails of commerce came manufactured goods such as machinery, hardware, farm implements, and automobiles, especially after 1915 when Henry Ford opened his assembly plant in Oklahoma City. With money in their pockets, consumers across the state demanded new products ranging from radios to Sears' ready-to-assemble homes. Each new shipment crossed the loading docks in Bricktown. On top of all this was the flow of passenger traffic, carrying residents to and from home and travelling salesmen to and from nearby hotels such as the Huckins and Skirvin.

To handle this ebb and flow of commerce, three generations of unique brick buildings were constructed east of the Santa Fe tracks in Bricktown.

The first structures appeared between 1898 and 1903, such as the Sherman Ironworks Foundry, that were typically one or two stories tall with arched windows and embellished door ways. The next generation, constructed between 1903 and 1911, were usually multi-storied with less ornamentation and fewer arches. The third wave of construction, from 1911 to 1930, was marked by even taller buildings with rows of rectangular windows and large graphics signs. The common thread holding all together was the use of red brick.

While the engine of economic growth gained momentum, another chapter of Oklahoma City history was unfolding in the same part of town. That was the story of the African-American community.

From 1889 to the 1930s Bricktown was a battleground for social justice and the birthplace of cultural diversity in Oklahoma City.

It began when some of the first 200 African-Americans attracted by the land run settled in Sandtown, located along the north bank of the river east of the Santa Fe tracks. From there, the black community grew northward as jobs were created and new waves of immigrants arrived looking for a piece of the promised land. By 1910 there were more than 7,000 black people in Oklahoma City, most living on the near east side.

Despite racism and Jim Crow laws passed by the first State Legislature to separate the races in public places, the black community prospered alongside their white neighbors during the prolonged era of economic expansion. With growing families and newfound buying power, African-Americans built houses on vacant lots east along the north bank of the river or purchased older housing stock along the tracks on the north side of Bricktown. By 1915 the all-black residential community ringed the commercial district of brick buildings and stretched from the river on the south to First Street on the north and as far east as the 1000 block on Third Street.

Faced with this expansion of black families into formerly white neighborhoods, the Oklahoma City Council passed a segregation ordinance that would in effect prevent blacks from buying or moving into houses north of Second Street. Even after the United States Supreme Court declared that ordinance unconstitutional in 1916, de facto segregation kept the wall intact, making Second Street a symbolic battleline in the fight against racial injustice.

In 1915 a loud voice was raised in this battle when Roscoe Dunjee founded the first black newspaper in Oklahoma City, the "Black Dispatch." From his offices in Bricktown at 228 E. First, Dunjee and his allies organized the first local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, challenged legal barriers in the courts, and attacked the "Bloody Fangs of Jim Crow" in the halls of power. The efforts bore fruit, first with cracks in the wall, then with a growing volume of victories however small. Year after year, under constant attack, the walls of segregation would crumble, a fight started in the neighborhoods of Bricktown.

Even after the walls of housing segregation began falling, the Bricktown area remained a crossroads for the free expression of diversity in Oklahoma. Along the northern border grew Deep Deuce, the commercial district of the black community where businessmen and women offered a wide variety of goods and services ranging from picture shows to some of the region's most prominent blues and jazz clubs. Also prospering in this crossroads of diversity was a new generation of churches, such as Calvary Baptist, which rose to praise God and provide a strong framework for the moral life of Oklahoma City.

At the heart of these cultural crossroads was Douglass High School. Founded in 1891, the all-black school moved to a two-story frame building in the 400 block of East California in 1899, followed by a move into the old Webster School in 1903. From this new home at the northwest corner of California and Walnut (where the baseball park is located today), Douglass High School became one of the leading educational institutions in the region.

Among the outstanding list of leaders at the institution were Dr. Inman Page, who first gained distinction as president of Langston University, J. A. Brazelton, founder of the Oklahoma Association of Negro Teachers, and Dr. Frederick Moon, a nationally prominent educator and civil rights advocate from the l930s to the 1960s. Sharing the stage of leadership was Mrs. Zelia Breaux, who nurtured the musical careers of young people including Charlie Christian, called the "world's greatest jazz guitarist," and Mr. Five by Five, Jimmy Rushing, called the "world's greatest blues singer." Douglass High remained in the Bricktown Building until 1934 when it moved farther east and north.

The move of Douglass High School from the neighborhood served as a symbolic transition for the Bricktown area that would span five decades of decline. First, the Great Depression brought a sudden halt to new construction and delayed needed repairs to older buildings. Then came World War II and the investment of new resources in the war effort, followed by post-war suburban sprawl and the development of new industrial parks away from the old commercial centers and closer to cheap land and the growing trucking industry. By 1980 the crossroads of commerce and cultural diversity had become a graveyard of abandoned and under utilized buildings.

Fortunately, history proves that adversity oftentimes creates new opportunities, and Bricktown was ripe for a new beginning. The raw materials were there - cheap buildings, vacant lots for parking, tax credits for restoration projects, and a consumer society that was looking for something new, something more distinctive than bland suburban shopping malls and faceless movie theaters. The only thing missing was vision, leadership, and a plan to make Bricktown the crossroads of renewal.

Efforts at urban revitalization in the 1960s and 1970s largely ignored the area while commercial developers tended to stick with more cautious projects. One man who bucked that trend was Neal Horton, a developer who saw new opportunities for the historic area. He created a plan, attracted partners, and coined the name "Bricktown" to give the old commercial district an identity. Unfortunately, the oil and banking crash of 1982 kept Horton from realizing his dreams.

Like good soldiers on the battlefield, others picked up the flag and charged on. Investors such as Jim Brewer saw bargains and were willing to invest their time and energy. Companies such as Spaghetti Warehouse moved in and pointed the way to others. And then Mayor Ron Norick and an army of leaders hatched the MAPS program that would add new attractions to Bricktown and tie it all together with a festive canal and riverwalk. Like the mythical Phoenix, the old commercial and cultural crossroads would cast off its troubled past and emerge once again as a vital part of Oklahoma City's life.