Many aspects of American history have been lost to time, invention, and technology. Yet, discerning historians know that some sites must be preserved in order to provide each generation an opportunity to look back and realize the fortitude involved in establishing the United States.
Harn Homestead is one of those protected educational hamlets—surrounded by mostly modern downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It’s within sight and walking distance of the 1917-built, classically columned, domed Capitol. Turn off of a main road to the Capitol, park in a pastoral lot, and enter through a gate to experience a 10-acre, western settlement and farm.
Claimed during the Great Land Run of 1889, where the surrounding area of the now 700,000-strong city was just flat plains and tumbleweeds, Harn Homestead was established by William Fremont Harn (1859–1944). The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, memorialized in downtown Oklahoma City with the Centennial Land Run Monument sculptures, meant western undeveloped lands could be won by lottery or claimed by first-come-first-served pioneers. To make things official, the lands had to be officially purchased from the U.S. General Land Office.
A native of Ohio, Harn was a career journalist and attorney who became a special land commissioner for the General Land Office. In 1891, he was assigned by Secretary of the Interior John Noble, under President Benjamin Harrison, to settle land run disputes involving pioneers in Oklahoma Territory. Initially, William left his wife, Alice, in Mansfield, Ohio, to fulfill what he thought was a temporary appointment. However, he became enamored with the wild frontier and purchased 160 acres.
Built from 1903–1904, the two-story, Victorian, Queen Anne style house with wide front porch and half-octagon shape parlor was a complete departure from the rough-hewn log homes, clapboard shacks, or even sod-style houses common on the frontier.
The Harn Homestead’s Legacy
Because of William’s knowledge of frontier land and property matters, he became instrumental in the development of early Oklahoma City proper, especially neighborhoods around the Harn homestead.After the death of the Harns, she in 1931 and he in 1944, the property passed to the couple’s niece, Florence Wilson, who lived in the home until her death in 1967. At this time, the frontier homestead was deeded to the City of Oklahoma to become a private living history museum.
On the National Register of Historical Places, Harn Homestead is open daily and is free to visitors, who can walk the grounds independently or pay $7 for a tour; visitors can meander what remains of the 10-acre site complete with the maintained Harn home, a replica of their unique, three-story stone and wood barn, their original tornado and food cellar, and other frontier-era buildings that were moved to the site for preservation and historical education purposes.
Leave the vehicle parked in the Harn Homestead parking lot and walk two blocks to view Oklahoma’s impressive Capitol grounds, encompassing 40 acres that Harn sold to the state for its construction.
