I ran across St. Antony Antiochian Orthodox Church one morning about a week ago on my morning bike ride. The small church is located at the corner of 6th and Columbia in Tulsa, just off the University of Tulsa campus. What caught my eye was the beautiful icon portraits of the Four Evangelists on the outside of the building.

St. Antony was founded in 1934 by members from St. George Church in Wichita. In 1976, the Old Cedar Club building was donated to the (up until then) itinerant congregation. It was subsequently remodeled, and the icons were added in the late nineties by Janet Jamie from Oklahoma City. Father George Eber (who is quite the prolific tweeter) has served the parish since 1981.

St. Antony supports the Righteous Joseph of Egypt Prison Ministry, a project of the Orthodox Christian Churches of Oklahoma administered by St. Antony. The church also runs the St. Euphrosynos Kitchen, providing a lunch to the community every Thursday.

 

Saturday, I attended an Earth Day festival at Garden Deva Sculpture here in Tulsa with Arianna. We attended under the auspices of her employer, Tulsa Hub (which is really cool, you should check it out.)

While there, I noticed an old (and seemingly abandoned) church across the street. I crossed and took the pictures seen here with my phone. They are the first in a series of posts featuring photography of the many beautiful churches here in Tulsa, and beyond.

But in doing a little research about the old church to share here, I found it has quite a magical history. Originally built as the First Evangelical United Brethren Church, at some point it was repurposed as a recording studio. In the early 70s, during the heydey of the Tulsa music scene, rock star and Tulsa native Leon Russell bought the building. During his five year stint as owner, the place became the center of music in Tulsa, attracting world-famous musicians such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Peter Tosh and George Harrison to record there.

Since the 70s, it has been used on and off as a studio, at times sitting empty and unused. Five years ago there was a plan to revitalize the building and reopen it, but it doesn’t seem much came of it. The building’s Facebook page has posts from last fall about plans to renovate, but nothing new has been posted since October.

You never know what you’ll find wandering about. I feel this is an auspicious start to this series. I hope you enjoy.