Harwelden Mansion
2210 S Main Street
Tulsa OK 74114
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Ceremony Space
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Reception Space
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Outdoor Space
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Allows Catering
On a rolling hill just south of downtown and north of The Gathering Place is one of Tulsa’s most distinguished and finest examples of English Tudor-Collegiate Gothic architecture. Built in 1923 by wealthy oilman, Earl Harwell and his wife Mary, the four-story 15,000-square-foot mansion, carriage house and gardens occupy a full city block. The Harwells spared no expense as they used the finest craftsmen and superior materials that were available in the world to achieve the exceptional quality desired. Designed by the Kansas City architectural firm, Wight and Wight; Long Construction, also of Kansas City, constructed the mansion. Long was also the builder of the world-famous Philbrook Museum Villa 4 years later.
The mansion’s name “Harwelden” is a Welsh word meaning “place from which the Harwells came” and will forever honor the founding couple that was one of the early settlers of Tulsa when it changed from a small frontier town to a boomtown with the discovery of oil in 1901 at Red Fork, a small community across from Harwelden Mansion and the Arkansas River.
The Harwells were substantial donors to The University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Boys Home (founder) and The First Presbyterian Church. During construction, when Mr. Harwell was touring the site, a passerby asked him who was building such a large house. Harwell replied, with his dry sense of humor, “Oh, some old fool with more money than sense.”