Cherokee Avenue walking tour continues

This article continues a historical home tour column focusing on Cherokee Avenue in Bartlesville, led by Kay Little of “Little History Adventures” and Betty Keim, education coordinator of the Bartlesville History Museum. The tour highlights several historically significant residences and the prominent individuals associated with them. The tour begins with the Pemberton Home at 1220 S. Cherokee Ave., built in 1912 for H.W. and Rilla Johnstone Pemberton. Rilla was the daughter of William and Lillie Johnstone, who resided nearby. This white stucco villa was later owned by John Irwin, a banker, farmer, and oilman, and subsequently inherited by his daughter, Ima Irwin. Ima's husband, Don Tyler, Vice President of Dewey Portland Cement Company, added the second story to the house. H.W. Pemberton, a gas company employee and real estate developer, was instrumental in developing the Cherokee area, then known as Pemberton Heights. Frank Phillips' home was noted as the first built in the area. Next on the tour is the Reynolds Home at 1200 S. Cherokee Ave., an 8,800-square-foot English Tudor built in 1927 for inventor and philanthropist W. D. Reynolds. This residence was a hub for social gatherings. Following the Reynolds' divorce, Armais Artunoff, founder of REDA Pump Company, purchased the home in 1939. Frank Phillips encouraged Artunoff, a Russian immigrant and strong Christian, to establish his own company. Artunoff's innovation, the electrical submersible pump, was designed to extract large volumes of liquid from oil wells. Initially named Bart Manufacturing Company, it later became REDA Pump, an acronym for Russian Electrical Dynamo of Artunoff. Artunoff became a U.S. citizen in 1928 and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. The tour then covers the John Phillips Home at 1110 S. Cherokee, constructed in 1925 for Frank Phillips' son, John Phillips, and his wife, Mildred. This house is situated directly across from the elder Frank Phillips' residence. John Phillips, known for gambling, reportedly lost the house in a wager. Frank Phillips intervened by buying the house back from the gambler, prohibiting him from returning to Bartlesville, and placing the property in a trust under the Phillips Foundation for his grandson to prevent future losses by John. John and Mildred later divorced, with Mildred and the children remaining in the home before she remarried and moved to Tulsa. John Phillips was the sole biological child of Frank and Jane Phillips. Finally, the Lyall Home at 1108 S. Cherokee Ave. is introduced, a white-painted wood-sided house built in 1917 for D. T. Lyall, owner of a hardware store on Third Street. In 1921, Thomas F. Gorman, a clerk for Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, acquired the property. Don Freiday, who owned Rexall Drug Stores, bought the two-story home in 1938. The walking tour concluded prematurely due to heavy rains that subsequently caused flooding in Bartlesville. Information about future Cherokee Avenue tours is available through the Examiner-Enterprise and the Bartlesville Area History Museum website. #CherokeeAvenue #BartlesvilleHistory #HistoricHomes #HomeTour #OklahomaHistory #ArchitecturalHistory #LocalHistory #FrankPhillips #REDACompany #CherokeeAvenue #BartlesvilleHistory #HistoricHomes #HomeTour #OklahomaHistory #ArchitecturalHistory #LocalHistory #FrankPhillips #REDACompany