Holiday Home Tour Mesta Park December 6

These walls could talk.

Jim and Lawanda Pickens launched into a massive renovation on the third story of their home at 801 NW 17 — a job that required tearing out a wall or two.

When they did, they discovered a box of letters hidden behind the

plaster.

Their walls not only talked, they told a story — one side of a love story, at least — from a century ago.

The letters are undeniably love letters, dating from November and December 1915 — handwritten on stationery from the Skirvin and other hotels in downtown Oklahoma City and around the state.

The Pickenses will share what they know of the mystery and the renovation of their Swiss Chalet-style/Craftsman home during the Mesta Park Holiday Home Tour next weekend.  A candlelight tour will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and an afternoon tour from 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 6.

Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for ages 6 to 17 at www.MestaPark.org or from select retail outlets. Children 5 and younger admitted free. Adult tickets will cost $15 at the door of any home on tour day.

The Pickens home is one of five, plus a refreshment stop, open to tour in the historic neighborhood. Mesta Park mostly is bordered by Western Avenue, Walker Avenue, NW 16 and NW 22, extending east to Robinson Avenue along NW 22.

Unrequited love

Jim Pickens bought the house in 1996, but it was after he and Lawanda were married that renovations began, leading to the discovery of long-lost love, the box of letters hidden inside a third-floor wall.

A yard-long ribbon was tied around it, possibly used by the letters' recipient to raise and lower the box into the crevice where it was hidden and apparently forgotten.

"I know you are doing the best you know how to do. Dear, aren't you?" a lovelorn man wrote in one letter on Skirvin stationery. "Darling, you just go ahead and if I never get to be with you, I will forgive you for I will know you did the best you could, and I could never be angry at you for that."

In another note, the man wrote, "Well, Dear, it isn't long till my train, and I must go. But, sweet heart, I will write you ..."

Lawanda Pickens said she hopes to preserve the fragile letters and make them available for public viewing — very carefully.

Revamped top to bottom

Visitors on the home tour will see how in 2014 and 2015 the couple re-imagined the kitchen — taking it from a dire, constricted box to gleaming, open and contemporary masterpiece — and the third floor, formerly an open expanse used as a ballroom, transforming it into a cozy lair of a master suite.

The ground floor features original oak trim woodwork and floors.  Stained-glass windows, also original, are preserved as inserts in picture windows surrounding the living and dining rooms.

A stained-glass clerestory window frames a piano in an anteroom that connects the dining room and kitchen.

The kitchen transformation, completed this year by Robert J. Stoops Construction, added granite perimeter counter tops and a soapstone-topped center island.

Custom cabinetry has been fitted with knobs, pulls and other hardware from the original kitchen, all intended, Lawanda said, "to keep the Craftsman style while bringing the house up to modern standards."

A reclaimed-wood floor, its planks laid diagonally, completes the new kitchen's charming character.

The second story is built in four-square fashion, with guest bedrooms, an office and a media room surrounding the central landing, with new Brazilian walnut floors throughout.

Up another flight of stairs the Pickenses have crafted a master suite retreat under the eaves, using the unusual spaces shaped by the roof contours to build in large closets, a nook for their four-poster bed, a bathroom lit by skylights cut into the shower ceiling, and a small kitchen/coffee bar.

Other tour stops

Other stops on the tour are:

•Taylor Morris, 613 NW 21.

•Greg and Robin McAlister, 921 NW 16.

•Kyle and Courtney Coffee, 916 NW 16.

•Andrew and Jennifer Bowman, 704 NW 18.

In addition, Chris and Jordan Gray will have a refreshment porch at 929 NW 17, with coffee and cookies for ticket holders.

All homes will be adorned with floral arrangements and greenery for the tour, and neighborhood residents will be caroling from home to home.

Food trucks will line the street at NW 21 and Dewey during the tour, including Klemm's Smoke Haus, Let's Do Greek, Mim's Bakery and Nosh, Murphy's Cookshack, Sweets and Eats Café and Lalo's I Love My Taco Chop & Grill.

Nearly 1,500 people attend the event each year, said Sarah Jordan, tour chairman.  Jordan said funds raised will be used to enhance the neighborhood's park, street lights and medians.

Transportation will be available for attendees who would like assistance making the complete tour.

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Source: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/business/2015/11/27/mesta-park-holiday-home-tour-in-oklahoma-city-to-include-five-houses/60707479007/

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